PG&E's Climate Credit Moves to Summer: $72 Off Your August and September Bills

A flat $36.18 lands on each residential electric account in August and again in September ($72.36 total) after the CPUC's April 30 decision shifted the credit from April and October to peak-usage months. Below: the apartment, median, and high-usage math, plus the Aug 13 CPUC meeting where all three PG&E items are $0 on your bill as drafted.

The credit moved to summer

For years PG&E handed out the residential electric California Climate Credit twice a year in April and October, the mild shoulder months when bills are lowest. On April 30, 2026, the CPUC voted to move it. Under Decision 26-04-036, PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E must now deliver the residential electric credit in August and September, the peak summer billing months (CPUC news, April 30, 2026). The natural gas credit shifts to February starting in 2027; the 2026 gas credit already went out in April.

PG&E made the new schedule concrete on July 20: every residential household with an active electric account gets $36.18 on its August bill and $36.18 on its September bill, $72.36 total (PG&E, July 20, 2026; CPUC Climate Credit page). The change implements Assembly Bill 1207 (2025), which extended the state's Cap-and-Invest Program through 2045 and required credits to land in high-bill months. A March 19, 2026 order (D.26-03-013) had paused the spring credit so the timing could be reconsidered.

What it does to your bill, by usage tier

The key detail: the credit is a flat $36.18 per residential electric account, not a per-kWh rate cut. Whether you run one window AC or a whole-house system, the dollar amount is identical. That makes the percentage relief biggest for the smallest bills.

Using PG&E's own published figure for a typical bundled residential customer at 500 kWh, roughly $204/month of electric (PG&E 2026 ERRA notice), and order-of-magnitude estimates for the other two tiers:

• Low-usage apartment (~250 kWh, est. ~$105/mo electric): $36.18 off August, then $36.18 off September. $105 minus $36.18 = about $69 that month. The credit is roughly 34% of one month's electric bill. Across both months: $72.36 off.
• Median home (500 kWh, ~$204/mo electric): $204 minus $36.18 = about $168. The credit is roughly 18% of one month's bill. Across both months: $72.36 off.
• High-usage home (~1,200 kWh, est. ~$450/mo electric): $450 minus $36.18 = about $414. The credit is roughly 8% of one month's bill. Across both months: $72.36 off.

The arithmetic that matters is simple: $36.18 x 2 = $72.36, the same for every account. What changes is the share. A small August bill shrinks by a third; a large one by less than a tenth.

How the Climate Credit actually works (the mechanism, once)

The Climate Credit is not a rate change, and it never touches the General Rate Case machinery that sets per-kWh prices. It is the public's share of revenue from California's greenhouse gas Cap-and-Invest Program, whose allowance auctions are run by the California Air Resources Board. The CPUC decides when and how to hand that money back to residential bills as a flat per-account credit, and PG&E simply distributes it as directed (PG&E Climate Credit page). Three consequences fall out of that structure: it does not earn PG&E a return, it does not change your rate, and it falls off the bill the moment the credit period ends. That is also why it lands as the same $36.18 at 250 kWh and at 1,200 kWh. It is a rebate, not a price.

The flat credit vs the flat charge

This is where the credit gets interesting for readers who have followed the Base Services Charge. Since March 1, PG&E bills carry a fixed daily fee of about $24/month for standard residential customers, the Base Services Charge that took effect this year (PG&E BSC page). A fixed charge is regressive: it weighs more heavily on low-usage bills because it does not shrink when you use less. A fixed credit is the mirror image. The $36.18 summer credit is progressive, worth a third of a small apartment bill but under a tenth of a high-usage one.

Stack the two over August and September and the credit wins: $72.36 of climate credit against roughly $48 of Base Services Charge across those two months (about $24 x 2). The fixed charge is still there every other month of the year, but for peak summer the fixed credit more than offsets it.

Aug 13 CPUC meeting: three PG&E items, $0 on your bill as drafted

Seventeen days out, the CPUC's August 13 voting meeting (meeting page) is shaping up around three PG&E items the reader has been tracking. As the proposed decisions now read, none of them puts a dollar on your bill. That is the headline. The details:

• Capital structure (A.24-08-004). PG&E asked to exclude about $2.6 billion in Dixie Fire, Kincade Fire, and DWR loan costs from its debt-to-equity calculation. The proposed decision denies the request and finds no rate effect (proposed decision; July 16 agenda, item 2). It was held July 2 and again July 16 and is expected back August 13 (Stoel Rives regulatory update, July 22, 2026). PG&E has argued a denial could raise financing costs about $50 million per year that "could" reach rates; the CPUC staff position is that it would not. Even on PG&E's own number, $50 million against a $16.6 billion 2027 revenue request is about 0.3%, well under a dollar a month on a typical bill even if it were passed through, which the proposed decision says it is not. Present both numbers; the CPUC's is $0.
• Short-term borrowing (A.25-10-004). PG&E asked to raise its short-term debt cap by $2 billion to $10.5 billion. The proposed decision of ALJ Ehren Seybert grants half, a $1 billion increase to a $9.5 billion cap, held as a financial reserve (proposed decision; July 16 agenda, item 6). This is financing authority, not a rate. Any costs from projects funded with the debt would face a separate reasonableness review later. $0 on your bill as drafted.
• Mosquito Fire penalty (Resolution SED-13). The draft resolution adopts the Safety and Enforcement Division's settlement with PG&E over the 2022 Mosquito Fire: $22 million in shareholder funds, $21 million to the state General Fund and up to $1 million for a third-party review of PG&E's transmission inspection program (draft Resolution SED-13; CPUC news, July 10, 2026). It is formally on the August 13 agenda for a vote. Penalties walk through a different door than cost recovery: they are paid by shareholders, not ratepayers, so $0 on your bill. This is the vote that was flagged as upcoming last month (covered here), now confirmed on the agenda with the full settlement text public.

The throughline: the August 13 meeting is the first chance for actual votes on two financing items that have been held twice, plus the wildfire penalty. Watch for whether the capital structure item is held a third time or finally voted, and whether any commissioner sponsors an alternate.

Tracking

• 2024 Wildfire cost recovery (A.24-11-009): quiet. The September 1, 2026 start date has slipped; the CPUC extended the statutory deadline to February 19, 2027 and PG&E requested no interim relief, so $0 of the $595.5 million is in rates until a final decision (covered July 20). No proposed decision yet.
• 2027 General Rate Case (A.25-05-009): quiet. Evidentiary hearings and briefs are done; PG&E's proposed schedule submits the proceeding for decision August 3. The CPUC still anticipates new rates in May 2027. The Public Advocates Office's $840/year-by-2030 forecast and PG&E's $128/year estimate remain the stakes to watch the day a proposed decision posts.
• Base Services Charge: quiet, about five months in effect. No CPUC-ordered adjustments to the tiers or discount levels this cycle.