San Diego's power bill was written in Sacramento, and the state's own reports say so

San Diego Gas & Electric's average residential rate for customers who buy both power and delivery from the utility rose to 45.6 cents per kilowatt-hour in August, according to SDG&E's own rate notice. The U.S. Energy Information Administration puts the national residential average for January through August 2026 at 18.19 cents. A San Diego household pays about two and a half times the national price for the same unit of electricity.

The statewide figures are not much better. EIA's Electric Power Monthly shows California's average residential price for the first eight months of 2026 at 32.58 cents, second only to Hawaii and 79 percent above the national average. Arizona averaged 15.36 cents. Nevada averaged 13.36 cents. Those states share our desert sun and the same Western power grid. They do not share our Legislature.

In July, the Public Advocates Office at the California Public Utilities Commission reported that SDG&E's residential average rate has climbed 117 percent since 2014, while consumer prices rose 42 percent. The same report counted 253,820 SDG&E customers behind on their bills, owing an average of $501 each.

The state's own documents name the causes. The CPUC's 2025 Senate Bill 695 report to the governor and Legislature lists three main drivers of rising rates: wildfire-related costs, rooftop solar program costs and spending on distribution infrastructure. None of those is a market price. Each is a cost Sacramento decided ratepayers would carry.

Start with wildfire. The Legislature passed AB 1054 in July 2019, and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it on July 12, the day after the final Assembly vote. It created a Wildfire Fund of about $21 billion, half from utility shareholders and half from a surcharge on customer bills. The CPUC set the ratepayer share at $902.4 million a year through 2035, according to the fund's 2026 annual report. In 2025 lawmakers came back for more. SB 254, which Newsom signed on Sept. 19, 2025, created a second account of about $18 billion and extends the ratepayer surcharge from 2036 through 2045. Democrats wrote it and held the supermajorities that set its terms. The final votes were 69-0 in the Assembly and 30-2 in the Senate, and 13 Assembly Republicans voted yes, which I count as their mistake too.

Wildfire costs made up $675.7 million, or 14 percent, of SDG&E's revenue requirement in January 2026, the Public Advocates Office reported. The SB 695 report put the wildfire share of a typical SDG&E bill at $21 a month at the end of 2024.

Next is rooftop solar. The CPUC's report says net-metering programs shifted about $7 billion in 2024 onto customers without panels, $1 billion of it in SDG&E territory. That equals 12 to 19 percent of a non-solar customer's bill, depending on the utility. The commission kept the older, richer credit in place until April 2023, and the report says those legacy costs can stay in rates for 20 years.

Then the mandates. SB 100, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Sept. 10, 2018, requires 60 percent renewable power by 2030 and 100 percent zero-carbon power by 2045. It passed the Senate 25-13, with every Democrat voting yes and every Republican voting no. It passed the Assembly 44-33, with all but one Republican voting no. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office found that the state's renewable mandate raised investor-owned utility rates by almost 5 percent, and that climate-related programs funded through public purpose charges took about 4 percent of large-utility rates in 2023. The LAO added that Californians put "a notably greater share of their rates" into such programs than is typical nationally.

The newest line on the bill is a fixed charge. AB 205, a 2022 budget trailer bill Newsom signed on June 30, 2022, is the law SDG&E cites as the legal mandate for an income-graded fixed charge. It cleared the Senate 27-8, with every Democrat present voting yes and every Republican who voted saying no. SDG&E began billing the Base Services Charge in October 2025: about $24 a month for most customers, $12 for FERA households and $6 for CARE households. That is roughly $290 a year before a typical family turns on a light. SDG&E's own explanation says the lower per-kilowatt-hour price that comes with it "may or may not lead to a lower total bill."

Supply policy points the same direction. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission renewed Diablo Canyon's licenses through 2044 and 2045. The governor's office says the plant, which supplied about 10 percent of California's electricity in 2024, may only run through 2030 under state law unless the Legislature acts.

Democrats answer that the real culprits are wildfire risk and utility profits. Profits are set by the CPUC, and the governor appoints its commissioners. On Dec. 18, 2025, the commission set SDG&E's authorized return on equity at 9.93 percent for 2026 in Decision 25-12-043, on a 4-1 vote. All five commissioners on that decision were appointed by Newsom. That return is earned on rate base, and the SB 695 report found SDG&E's distribution and transmission rate base has grown about 8 percent a year since 2016, while the energy it delivered declined. The commission approved that growth. Blaming utility profits means blaming Newsom's own regulators.

The state's answer to all of this is the California Climate Credit. SDG&E residential electric customers received $49.36 in August and $49.36 in September, $98.72 for the year. By SDG&E's own figures, the credit lowers a typical $191 monthly bill to $183 when spread over 12 months. On a bill of about $2,290 a year, the state is handing back roughly 4 percent of a rate that has more than doubled since 2014.

Every charge described here traces to a statute passed in Sacramento or a decision by a commission the governor appoints. Voters in San Diego get a say on Nov. 3.