When Pacific Gas and Electric wanted to replace Merrian Borgeson's aging gas service line in Berkeley, she asked them not to—she was electrifying her home and planned to shut off the gas. The utility dug up her yard anyway, and the new pipe now sits unused, with the $20,000–$30,000 cost spread across all gas customers for decades. A new California law aims to prevent that kind of waste.
The Home Energy Choice Act (Assembly Bill 2313) requires utilities to give households scheduled for a service line replacement the option of taking a financial incentive to electrify instead of getting a new gas line. The incentive—potentially several thousand dollars—will be less than the cost of replacing the line, so the savings are shared among all gas customers. The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates PG&E's customers could save $20 million if 1,000 households each took a $17,500 incentive rather than a replacement.
Utilities San Diego Gas and Electric and SoCalGas opposed the bill, arguing that as customers leave gas, remaining ratepayers could face higher costs to maintain the system. Advocates counter that this law encourages people to leave at the exact moment when their departure saves everyone else money. California becomes the third jurisdiction to authorize this approach, after New York's Con Edison launched a similar program in 2024 and Colorado's Xcel Energy was authorized to create one in July. The California Public Utilities Commission now must set a framework, with utility programs due for approval by Jan. 1, 2028.