{"id":167723,"date":"2026-04-16T17:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/167723\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T17:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:27:07","slug":"peco-rate-hikes-utility-withdraws-proposal-after-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/167723\/","title":{"rendered":"PECO rate hikes: Utility withdraws proposal after backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This story is part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/whyy-news-climate-desk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WHYY News Climate Desk<\/a>, bringing you news and solutions for our changing region.\n<\/p>\n<p>From the Poconos to the Jersey Shore to the mouth of the Delaware Bay, what do you want to know about climate change? What would you like us to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Get in touch<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>Under pressure from Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/peco-bill-potential-increase-starting-2027\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PECO has withdrawn its recent rate hike proposal filed <\/a>with the state Public Utility Commission.\n<\/p>\n<p>The Governor\u2019s office said in a statement the move resulted from negotiations with the company and called it a \u201cmajor win for the people of Pennsylvania,\u201d adding that it \u201cwill prevent unreasonable price increases for 1.7 million Pennsylvanians.\u201d\n  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cPECO\u2019s proposed rate case would have increased Pennsylvanians\u2019 utility bills, but I demanded that their CEO put customers first and withdraw their rate hike request,\u201d Shapiro said in a statement. \u201cPECO listened, and I appreciate that the company is willing to prioritize affordability at a time when Pennsylvanians are worried about rising costs. This withdrawal is the right step for consumers \u2013 and we\u2019re going to keep fighting to make sure utility companies are focused on keeping costs down while maintaining safe and reliable service.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>PECO pointed to affordability issues for its ratepayers as the reason for the unprecedented withdrawal.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile our filing with the PUC would have provided needed improvements in safe and reliable energy delivery, we recognize that Pennsylvanians are struggling with basic necessities like gas, food, and energy and have decided to withdraw our proposal,\u201d David Vahos, PECO president and CEO said in a statement. \u201cWe look forward to working with stakeholders across the region to find long-term solutions to high energy costs and to make needed investments at another time.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>PECO electricity customers in Philadelphia and its suburbs had been facing potential rate hikes of 12.5% beginning in 2027, while the company\u2019s suburban natural gas customers were looking at an additional increase of 11.4%.\n<\/p>\n<p>The company filed two requests to raise rates with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission on March 31. The proposal would have increased a typical electricity customer\u2019s bill by $20.08 a month and a typical gas user\u2019s by $14.52 a month. Some residents faced a combined $35 monthly rate hike.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is part of the WHYY News Climate Desk, bringing you news and solutions for our changing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,5206],"class_list":["post-167723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-whyy-news-climate-desk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}