California Climate Credit
Every spring and fall, millions of California residents receive credits on their electric and natural gas bills identified as the “California Climate Credit.” The California Climate Credit is part of California’s efforts to fight climate change.
Usually, these credits are distributed twice a year, in April and October. Most residents receive a natural gas credit in April, and electric credits in April and October. For 2023, the Commission has accelerated the distribution of the residential spring electric and natural gas California Climate Credits. The climate credit provides ratepayers with their share of the benefits of California’s Cap-and-Trade Program. Accelerating the California Climate Credit will help mitigate large and unexpected bill increases resulting from higher natural gas prices this winter season.
Residential customers of all California investor-owned electric and natural gas utilities should start receiving California Climate Credits on bills as early as February and into March. The timing of your credit may vary as the Commission ordered the utilities to distribute the 2023 spring electric and natural gas California Climate Credits as soon as possible to their customers and each utility faces different billing and logistical constraints. If you don’t receive your electric and natural gas California Climate Credits by April, contact your utility. Electric customers will see another credit in October 2023.
2023 Residential California Climate Credit Schedules – Electric & Natural Gas
2023 Electric California Climate Credit Schedule
| February or March | April | May | June | July | Aug | Sept | Oct | |
| PG&E | $38.39 | $38.39 | ||||||
| SCE | $71.00 | $71.00 | ||||||
| SDG&E | $60.70 | $60.70 | ||||||
| Bear Valley | $33.16 | $33.16 | ||||||
| Liberty* | $29.49 | $29.49 | ||||||
| Pacific Power* |
$132.85 | $132.85 |
*As the 2023 amount is unapproved as of 2/2/23, Liberty Utilities, and Pacific Power will continue to distribute the 2022 approved California Climate Credit amount shown here until a new amount is approved by the Commission.
Residential Natural Gas California Climate Credit
In 2023, the 2023 Natural Gas California Climate Credit will be distributed in February or March instead of April.
|
2018‡ |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
Total Value Received Per Household 2018-2023 |
|
|
PG&E |
$30 |
$25 |
$27 |
$25 | $48 | $52.78 |
$208 |
|
SDG&E |
* |
$34 |
$21 |
$18 | $43 | $43.40 |
$162 |
|
Southwest Gas |
$22 |
$25 |
$27 |
$28 | $49 | $56.35 |
$207 |
|
SoCalGas |
* |
$50 |
$26 |
$22 | $44 | $50.77 |
$194 |
Prior-Year rounded to the nearest dollar.
*These utilities issued the 2018 credit with the 2019 credit in April 2019.
‡The 2018 PG&E and SoCalGas credits also include any 2015-2017 allowance proceeds that exceeded compliance costs over the same period. Since Southwest Gas and SDG&E did not have net proceeds exceed net compliance costs for this period, these utilities had no net proceeds to roll forward into 2018. PG&E's 2018 credit reflected proceeds accrued over the 2015-2018 period. As SoCalGas postponed the return of the 2018 credit until 2019, SoCalGas's 2019 credit was composed of proceeds accrued over the 2015-2019 period.
Past Electric California Climate Credits
Values rounded to the nearest dollar; total column at right may not equal sum of values due to rounding.
Total column at right includes both annual credits, twice the sum of individual credit values in row.
|
|
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
Total Value Received Per Household 2014-2022 |
|
PG&E |
$30 |
$25 |
$28 |
$17 |
$39 |
$28 |
$36 | $17 | $39 |
$520 |
|
SCE |
$40 |
$29 |
$38 |
$31 |
$36 |
$33 |
$37 | $29 | $59 |
$664 |
|
SDG&E |
$36 |
$30* |
$17 |
$30 |
$34 |
$31 |
$32 | $35 | $64 |
$606 |
|
Liberty Utilities |
$42 |
$35 |
$27 |
$23 |
$29 |
$46 |
$34 | $30 | $29* |
$588 |
|
Pacific Power |
$194 |
$141 |
$143 |
$107 |
$127 |
$160 |
$167* | $97 | $133 |
$2,679 |
| Bear Valley** | $47 | $94 |
*April and October credit amounts differed.
**Not distributed until 2022.