You will catch a break on your San Diego Gas & Electric bill next month, as $81.38 will be automatically deducted from residential electric bills. Customers with natural gas hookups will also see $54.21 knocked off their statements during the April billing cycle.
You will catch a break on your Southern California Edison bill next month, as $56 will be automatically deducted from residential electric bills. Customers with natural gas hookups from Southern California Gas will also see $86.60 knocked off their statements during the April billing cycle.
The discounts are part of a statewide program called the California Climate Credit that takes money generated by the state’s cap and trade program that requires power plants, natural gas providers and large industries that emit greenhouse gases to buy permits on the carbon pollution they produce.
Administered by the California Public Utilities Commission, the credits are distributed among all investor-owned utilities in the state, such as SDG&E, Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison.
The credits on electricity bills are distributed twice per year — once in the spring and then in the fall. Residential electricity customers in the San Diego region will receive another $81 credit in October.
The discount on natural gas bills goes out just once a year.
The dollar amounts vary each year, depending on how much revenue the cap and trade programs generate.
Billing cycles vary for SDG&E customers, so everyone will not see the credit on their statement at the same time in April. Customers don’t need to apply to receive the credits; they appear automatically.
Customers of the two community choice energy programs in the San Diego area — San Diego Community Power and the Clean Energy Alliance — will also receive the credits.
Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a news release and took to social media, touting the cap and trade program for funding $28 billion in climate investments across California since its inception and distributing credits to utility customers since 2014.
Statewide, the average deduction among all utilities is $137.
“We’re holding polluters accountable to clean the air while also giving money back on utility bills,” Newsom said on X.
But many reacting to the governor’s post did not exactly rave about the cap and trade discount, given the fact that electricity prices in California consistently finish first or second highest in the nation.
“Haha! $137 doesn’t cover a quarter of most people’s bill during the summer. The cost of electricity is insanely high in California,” one responder posted. Another wrote, “Oh thanks for the crumbs.”