PG&E goes for net-zero by 2040

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
1

June 8, 2022

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pgande-pledges-net-z…

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220608005762/en/Cli…

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The nation’s largest utility on Wednesday outlined a multi-decade plan that aims to more rapidly reduce to zero its net greenhouse gas emissions while still using natural gas to produce power.

Pacific Gas & Electric’s plan is to take as much carbon out of the air as it emits by 2040, five years earlier than the goal set by its home state of California and Southern California Edison, the state’s second-largest utility.

With 16 million customers across northern and central California, PG&E supplies more people than any other utility in the nation. Its climate goals are among the most ambitious laid out by major investor-owned utilities, partly because California already has set aggressive clean energy laws, such as requiring utilities to get 100% of electric power from non-carbon sources by 2045.

Jaak

P.S. - By 2030 PG&E will

  1. Have 70% of its electric supply comes from renewable sources
  2. Add charging stations to power 3 million electric vehicles
  3. Decrease natural gas consumption by 40%
2 Likes
2

Pacific Gas & Electric’s plan is to take as much carbon out of the air as it emits by 2040…

Interesting. Did they say how they are going to take carbon dioxide out of the air?

DB2

1 Like
3

Looks like California electricity prices will be going up even more. Californians already pay some of the highest electric rates in the country. These initiatives will guarantee even higher prices.

I took a look at the residential electric rates for California and the US overall at the EIA website. California has always had expensive electricity, but the last few years have seen prices skyrocket upward.

Residential electric rate, cents per kilowatt-hour

                     % above
Year    CA   US Avg  US avg
----  -----  -----    -----
2014  16.29  12.50    30.3%              
2015  17.02  12.67    34.3
2016  17.40  12.55    38.6
2017  18.24  12.90    41.4
2018  18.90  12.89    46.6
2019  19.22  13.04    47.4
2020  20.51  13.20    55.4
2021  22.85  13.72    66.5
2022* 25.12  13.98    79.7%
* As of March 2022

https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.ph…

Data for previous years, click on the Previous Issues button near the top
https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/index.php

For previous years, the numbers for a particular year are from the February report for the next year, which includes information through December. The final numbers might be adjusted a little by the next year, but the percent differential is usually about the same.

In 2014, California residential rates were 30% higher than the national average. The latest report shows the state is now almost 80% higher than the US average.

Here in San Diego, the prices are even higher. The local utility now charges as much as 58.8 cents/kwh, if you use electricity between the hours of 4 pm and 9 pm. Again, the national average is about 14 cents.

Scroll down to TOU-DR1 (the most common Time Of Use plan)
https://www.sdge.com/residential/pricing-plans/about-our-pri…

As a result of these sort of policies, more people are unable to pay their monthly utility bills.

https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/more-than-350k-late-o…

More than 350,000 San Diego County households were at least 30 days late on their SDG&E bills in March, the state Public Utilities Commission reports.

The 356,000 households behind on their payments represent 26.7 percent of the utility’s residential customers, an uptick from the 24.1 percent late a year earlier.

“They have to decide between pay the bills or buy food,” said Ramon Toscano, a Vista resident who is several hundred dollars behind on his electric bills.

  • Pete
5 Likes
4

waterfell writes:

Looks like California electricity prices will be going up even more. Californians already pay some of the highest electric rates in the country. These initiatives will guarantee even higher prices.

I took a look at the residential electric rates for California and the US overall at the EIA website. California has always had expensive electricity, but the last few years have seen prices skyrocket upward.

======================================================================

This is waterfell’s misguided opinion - he must hate living in California where people want to reduce CO2 emissions from electrical power generation and electrify transportation. He does not know that electricity prices will be going up. Climate change mitigation is much more important than a little higher electricity prices.

Here is what the California Public Utilities Commission says:

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.

Climate 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 2020, in order to mitigate the effects of increased residential electric bills that were likely to result due to the Governor’s March 19, 2020 stay-at-home order and provide residential customers increased opportunity to invest in energy-savings products, CPUC directed most electric utilities to advance the distribution of the October credit. In 2021, CPUC returned the distribution of the electric residential California Climate Credit to the standard twice-annual April and October schedule.

https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/climatecredit/

Californians (like me) elected people who would push the utilities to do what it takes to combat climate change. People who hate that PG&E is going net-zero by 2040 must be in the pocket of fossil fuels industry. They do not want to see elimination of fossil fuels.

Jaak