QUOTES: California for-profit utilities announce record-breaking earnings for 2025 while customers face record-high bills

Clean energy and consumer advocates call for urgent affordability reform

SACRAMENTO, CA — Sempra, the holding company that owns the Southern California Gas utility and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), reported a 3.3% increase in adjusted earnings yesterday from 2024 to 2025, totaling $3.1 billion. Though Sempra does not report directly SDG&E’s adjusted earnings, based on information available in their 2025 10-K Annual Report, its adjusted earnings are approximately $1 billion dollars.

Earlier this month, the Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) utility posted a 13.6% increase in profits from 2024 to 2025, totaling nearly $3.1 billion. Southern California Edison (SCE) saw an even more dramatic surge to $4.9 billion—more than 200% profit growth—in the same year evidence suggests its equipment sparked the devastating Eaton Fire and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved a 9% rate increase for its customers.

The bulk of SCE’s profit surge stems from charging customers for wildfires that the state investigators determined the utility itself caused. The CPUC authorized SCE to recover $3.7 billion from ratepayers for costs related to the 2018 Woolsey Fire and 2017 Thomas Fire and resulting mudslides—and according to Edison International’s 2025 SEC filing, SCE collected just over $2 billion of that from customers last year alone. Customers will continue paying for these fires into 2026 and beyond.

These record profits stand in stark contrast to the financial strain facing California households and businesses. Over the past decade, electricity rates for customers of PG&E, San Diego Gas & Electric, and SCE have increased between 76% and 101%.

The California Public Utilities Commission set utilities’ authorized return on operational facilities and investments for the next three years in December—and setting a return on equity advocates widely agree is too high, resulting in a wealth transfer from California utility customers to shareholders.

STATEMENTS:

“This year a major utility reported profits three times as high as last year’s. At the same time, millions of Californians are behind on their rising utility bills as they shoulder billions in wildfire-related costs. This is unacceptable,” said Jose Torres, Executive Director, Affordability Energy Campaign. “California’s energy system should clearly prioritize change towards an energy system that focuses on affordability, safety, reliability, and our climate and community goals.”

“The latest earnings reports make one thing painfully clear: while California families struggle with skyrocketing utility bills, investor-owned utilities are posting billions in profits. Record breaking utility shareholder profits should motivate state lawmakers to adopt legislation to promote public financing, reduce overspending on undergrounding power lines, and other strategies to reduce ratepayer costs for capital projects, and pass along the savings to residential and business customers,” said Mark Toney, Executive Director at TURN.

“While families struggle and lose their homes in utility-caused wildfires, SCE and SDG&E tout triple-digit and double-digit returns to their Wall Street investors. These corporations are acting as if they’re untouchable. It’s well past time for our leaders to follow the examples being set in other states and rein in these outrageous utility profits,” said Anthony Dang, Policy and Community Outreach Manager, Climate Action Campaign.

“As Californians are facing one of the worst affordability crises in recent history, PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E continue to make record profits,” said Julia Dowell, Senior Campaign Organizer, Sierra Club. “Working families are footing the bill for recent catastrophic wildfires while shareholders are making billions of dollars. These utilities’ unwieldy spending must be reigned in and the state must protect our communities struggling to make ends meet.”

“San Diego Gas & Electric, which once again has the highest electricity rates in the continental United States, continues to extract hundreds of million dollars from the region, leaving one-fifth of locals in debt,” said Parke Troutman, SanDiego350. “They profit both from fossil fuels and the mitigation of wildfire risk,which is made tremendously worse by fossil-fuel driven climate change.”

“We’ve seen it happen time and time again— investor-owned utilities are posting record profits while millions struggle to pay their energy bills amid rising living costs. Instead of taking responsibility, utilities will continue to find scapegoats even as unchecked utility profit-seeking remains a key driver of high costs,” said Sachu Constantine, Vote Solar’s Executive Director. “California families are already spending 60% more on their utilities compared to the rest of the United States. Decision-makers must recognize that when energy works for everyone, it provides stability— not financial strain. It’s time for monopoly utilities to stop protecting their own interests at the public’s expense.”

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