Millions of California households are receiving automatic credits on their electricity bills this August and September, providing an average of $75 in relief as summer heat drives up electricity use, Governor Gavin Newsom announced during Climate Week NYC.
For the first time, eligible residential electric customers of PG&E, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric are receiving the credit during the hottest, highest-bill months of the year. The credits require no application and will put a total of $886 million back in the pockets of California electric customers this year.
"At a time when Donald Trump's policies are making life more expensive for Americans at the grocery store, gas pump, and virtually everywhere else, California is making polluters pay and delivering that money back to millions of households when summer utility bills are at their highest," Newsom said. "These credits are real relief to families across the Golden State."
The California Climate Credit comes from the state's Cap-and-Invest Program, managed by the California Air Resources Board. Companies that emit large amounts of climate pollution must purchase allowances for their emissions, and some of those funds are returned directly to residential customers as a credit on their utility bills. Californians do not need to do anything to receive their credit because it appears automatically on their bill.
The California Public Utilities Commission moved the timing of the electric Climate Credit from its traditional spring and fall schedule to August and September, while smaller electric utilities continue on a separate schedule. The change follows legislation Newsom signed last year with the Legislature that is expected to generate $10 billion for electric-bill Climate Credits through 2030.
In addition to electric bill refunds, the Cap-and-Invest program has generated $37 billion in climate investments, supporting more than 143,000 jobs and cutting millions of tons of carbon emissions. Since the program began 12 years ago, over $21 billion in funding has been awarded, with nearly $15 billion already going to more than 600,000 completed or in-progress projects.
Since Newsom took office in 2019, California has added more than 37,000 megawatts of utility-scale clean and renewable energy, while battery storage has grown from fewer than 700 MW to more than 21,000 MW. The state aims to get all of its electricity from clean sources by 2045.