A monthly exit fee that customers of alternative energy providers like Marin Clean Energy pay Pacific Gas and Electric Company to recoup money lost from historical contracts will double in the new year, following a 4-1 vote by the California Public Utilities Commission last Thursday. The price hike is projected to make it more expensive to purchase energy from M.C.E. than from PG&E for the first time in the alternative-energy program’s five-year history. Critics of the increase blasted PG&E during the public comment period at last week’s meeting, calling the proposal a means to undercut clean-energy providers and decrease their ability to compete in the marketplace. “Doubling the fee will make [providers] like Marin Clean Energy less competitive with PG&E for the first time in several years,” said Mary Morgan,  member of Mainstreet Moms. “The end result will be to decrease the development of renewable energy.” The average M.C.E. customer’s monthly charge for opting out is expected to jump from just under $7 a month to around $13. Last year, PG&E raked in $19 million for the exit fee, which is charged alike to regular and low-income customers. Per state law, PG&E is allowed to charge the exit fee to customers who drop its service for M.C.E. or other Community Choice Aggregation, or C.C.A., providers—of which M.C.E. was the first in California—so the utility can make up revenue lost from energy contracts it entered into prior to a customer’s decision to drop service. On Thursday, a majority of the commissioners agreed that they were “stuck” with making an unpopular decision, but that current record-low gas and electricity prices would have been reflected in future PG&E rate increases anyway, even without the fee doubling. “If we defer the increase of the [fee], we make C.C.A.s look artificially attractive,” Commissioner Mike Florio said. “It becomes almost a bait-and-switch situation. A workshop to evaluate PG&E’s calculations is scheduled tentatively for Feb. 16.