PG&E Rate Increase 2026: The September Wildfire-Cost Hike Won't Land Sept 1

PG&E's December bill insert said it would start collecting $595.5 million in 2018-2023 wildfire and catastrophe costs on September 1. The CPUC's July 2 meeting moved the case's statutory deadline to February 2027, and no decision is coming in time. Here's what it costs a low-usage apartment, a median home, and a high-usage home when it does land.

The September 1 date is slipping

On November 21, 2024, PG&E filed its 2024 Wildfire Mitigation and Catastrophic Events application (A.24-11-009). The customer notice PG&E slipped into bills that December said the company wanted to recover $595.5 million in 2018-2023 costs, mostly wildfire-mitigation work and the Butte Community Rebuild around Paradise, and that collection would start September 1, 2026 (PG&E bill insert, Dec 2024).

That start date is not going to hold. The CPUC's July 2, 2026 voting meeting consent agenda included an order extending the statutory deadline for A.24-11-009 to February 19, 2027 (item 27, assigned to Commissioner Douglas and ALJ Fredericks) (CPUC Public Agenda 3583, July 2, 2026). The case did not appear on the July 16 agenda, and no proposed decision has issued. Under CPUC rules a proposed decision in a ratesetting case must be mailed for a 30-day public review period before a final vote, so even a proposed decision released today could not become a final order before September. The September 1, 2026 start will not happen.

The "starting September 1, 2026" line in the bill insert was always PG&E's proposed date, not a CPUC-approved one. The Commission controls the actual timing through when it votes, and a slipped deadline pushes your bill impact right along with it. The new outer limit is February 19, 2027, so this increase now lands sometime between late 2026 and early 2027, after a vote and an advice letter.

What it costs when it does land

PG&E's bill insert lays out the proposed increase in three periods. The first period, the four months from the start date through December 31, carries the biggest adder. For electric, PG&E proposes an average residential bundled rate increase of +0.238 cents per kWh. Scaling that to three usage tiers:

Low-usage apartment (250 kWh/mo): +0.238 c/kWh x 250 kWh = +$0.60/mo
Median home (500 kWh/mo): PG&E's own published figure is +$1.40/mo (the volumetric adder alone is +$1.19; the remainder reflects minimum-charge and rate-structure effects)
High-usage home (1,200 kWh/mo): +0.238 c/kWh x 1,200 kWh = +$2.86/mo

For gas, PG&E proposes +$0.033 per therm for core bundled residential customers. A typical household using about 31 therms a month would see +$0.033/therm x 31 therms = +$1.02/mo. A median combined gas-and-electric home would pay roughly +$2.40/mo in that first period.

Later periods are smaller. PG&E's bill insert puts the typical 500 kWh electric increase at +$1.67/mo in Period 2 (January through August 2027) and +$0.26/mo in Period 3 (September 2027 through 2030), as the capital portion is spread over four years (PG&E bill insert, Dec 2024).

Two caveats. These are PG&E's proposed numbers, not final. The CPUC routinely trims WMCE requests: in the 2023 WMCE it denied $363.4 million in vegetation-management costs for failing the prudent-manager standard (D.26-02-004, adopted February 5, 2026) (CPUC proposed decision, A.23-12-001). In this 2024 case the Public Advocates Office is already recommending the CPUC disallow $101.6 million of Butte Community Rebuild Aldyl-A plastic-pipe replacements as non-incremental, because that pipe-replacement program dates to 2012 and would have happened with or without the Camp Fire (Public Advocates Office testimony, A.24-11-009). The increase that actually lands may be smaller than the bill insert suggests.

How this mechanism works

PG&E does not wait to bill you for wildfire work. It records the costs in special memorandum and balancing accounts (CEMA for catastrophic events, WMBA for wildfire mitigation, and several others) as it incurs them, then files a WMCE application asking the CPUC to find the spending "just and reasonable" and authorize recovery from ratepayers through an advice letter. The CPUC's own Public Advocates Office and The Utility Reform Network contest parts of each request, and the Commission can disallow costs that fail the prudent-manager standard. This is the "cost recovery" door, where the money comes from you the ratepayer, and it is distinct from the "penalty" door covered two weeks ago, where the money comes from PG&E's shareholders. The start date in the bill insert is a request, not an order; the clock runs from the Commission's vote, which is why a slipped deadline moves your bill impact and not just a paperwork date.

Tracking

Quick updates on the storylines this feed follows:

2027 General Rate Case (A.25-05-009): quiet this week. The CPUC's September 2025 fact sheet still anticipates a decision authorizing new rates in May 2027. This remains the single biggest bill event of the year ahead (CPUC fact sheet, Sept 2025).
Base Services Charge: in effect about four and a half months. No CPUC-ordered adjustments to the $24 (standard), $12 (FERA/Affordable Housing), or $6 (CARE) tiers.
Flat-bills dispute: the 2024 WMCE slippage pushes some of the wildfire costs the Public Advocates Office stacked into its $840/year-by-2030 forecast later into 2027. The gap between that forecast and PG&E's $128/year estimate is still the real stakes of the May 2027 GRC vote.
Mosquito Fire penalty: the proposed $22 million shareholder penalty is still pending a CPUC vote; the Commission's next session after today is August 13, 2026. None of it lands on your bill; covered in full July 13 (CBS Sacramento, July 10, 2026).