The award reflects the company's comprehensive outreach, education, and marketing programs of energy-efficient ENERGY STAR certified products in an effort to help southern Californians save money, conserve energy, and transition to a net-zero emissions future.
LOS ANGELES, April 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) today announced the company was recently awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2023 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for demonstrating leadership in its energy efficiency programs that incorporate ENERGY STAR as a key strategy to help increase the adoption of energy efficiency products in homes, buildings, and facilities. SoCalGas' energy efficiency programs are the largest in the United States; over the last 5 years, SoCalGas energy efficiency programs delivered almost 240 million therms in energy savings, enough natural gas usage for more than 146,000 households a year and reduced greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by over 1,260,000 metric tons, the equivalent of removing nearly 273,000 cars from the road annually. These advances have also helped save SoCalGas customers over $358 million in utility bill costs.
"As a national leader in energy efficiency programs we know that investments that save energy deliver value to our customers, help improve the environment, stimulate our economy, and help improve the quality of life in communities we serve," says Don Widjaja, vice president of customer solutions at SoCalGas. "Thanks to innovative programming, more than 90% of the ENERGY STAR smart thermostats purchased through our rebate program were able to be installed at no cost to disadvantaged community customers."
In the first 10 months of 2022, SoCalGas has helped customers save $13.5 million dollars though ENERGY STAR product rebates. The rebates have also allowed for almost 1,300,000 therms of conserved energy: the equivalent of eliminating GHG emissions from one year's worth of electricity in 1,245 homes, or over 778,000,000 smartphones charging. Through November 1st, 2022, the efforts of the SoCalGas residential rebate program resulted in over 15,500 ENERGY STAR smart thermostats and over 14,500 natural gas dryer purchases. ENERGY STAR natural gas tankless water heaters also saw over 16,700 rebate redemptions.
"As we accelerate historic efforts to address climate change, public-private partnerships will be essential to realizing the scale of our ambition," said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. "I applaud this year's ENERGY STAR award winners for working with EPA to deliver a clean energy future that saves American consumers and businesses money and creates jobs."
Winners are selected each year from a network of thousands of ENERGY STAR partners. SoCalGas has been a committed ENERGY STAR partner since the 1990s, and previously received the ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award in 2015.
Energy efficiency is also helping to advance SoCalGas' ASPIRE 2045 aim to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in our operations and delivery of energy by 2045. For more ways to lower energy cost and usage throughout the year, the SoCalGas Marketplace offers affordable energy-efficiency financing, energy efficiency rebates, and assistance programs.
For a complete list of 2023 winners and more information about ENERGY STAR's awards program, visit energystar.gov/awardwinners.
About ENERGY STAR
ENERGY STAR® is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions. Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations rely on their partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped American families and businesses avoid more than $500 billion in energy costs and achieve more than 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. More background information about ENERGY STAR's impacts can be found at www.energystar.gov/impacts.
About SoCalGas
Headquartered in Los Angeles, SoCalGas® is the largest gas distribution utility in the United States. SoCalGas delivers affordable, reliable, and increasingly renewable gas service to over 21 million consumers across 24,000 square miles of Central and Southern California. Gas delivered through the company's pipelines will continue to play a key role in California's clean energy transition—providing electric grid reliability and supporting wind and solar energy deployment.
SoCalGas' mission is to build the cleanest, safest and most innovative energy infrastructure company in America. In support of that mission, SoCalGas aspires to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in its operations and delivery of energy by 2045 and to replacing 20 percent of its traditional natural gas supply to core customers with renewable natural gas (RNG) by 2030. Renewable natural gas is made from waste created by landfills and wastewater treatment plants. SoCalGas is also committed to investing in its gas delivery infrastructure while keeping bills affordable for customers. SoCalGas is a subsidiary of Sempra (NYSE: SRE), an energy infrastructure company based in San Diego.
For more information visit socalgas.com/newsroom or connect with SoCalGas on Twitter (@SoCalGas), Instagram (@SoCalGas) and Facebook.
This press release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions with respect to the future, involve risks and uncertainties, and are not guarantees. Future results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statement. These forward-looking statements represent our estimates and assumptions only as of the date of this press release. We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
In this press release, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "believes," "expects," "intends," "anticipates," "contemplates," "plans," "estimates," "projects," "forecasts," "should," "could," "would," "will," "confident," "may," "can," "potential," "possible," "proposed," "in process," " construct," "develop," "opportunity," "initiative," "target," "outlook," "optimistic," "maintain," "continue," "progress," "advance," "goal," "aim," "commit," or similar expressions, or when we discuss our guidance, priorities, strategy, goals, vision, mission, opportunities, projections, intentions or expectations.
Factors, among others, that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statement include risks and uncertainties relating to: decisions, investigations, inquiries, regulations, issuances or revocations of permits or other authorizations, renewals of franchises, and other actions by (i) the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), U.S. Department of Energy, and other governmental and regulatory bodies and (ii) the U.S. and states, counties, cities and other jurisdictions therein in which we do business; the success of business development efforts and construction projects, including risks in (i) completing construction projects or other transactions on schedule and budget, (ii) realizing anticipated benefits from any of these efforts if completed, and (iii) obtaining the consent or approval of partners or other third parties, including governmental and regulatory bodies; litigation, arbitrations and other proceedings, and changes to laws and regulations; cybersecurity threats, including by state and state-sponsored actors, of ransomware or other attacks on our systems or the systems of third-parties with which we conduct business, including the energy grid or other energy infrastructure, all of which have become more pronounced due to recent geopolitical events, such as the war in Ukraine; our ability to borrow money on favorable terms and meet our debt service obligations, including due to (i) actions by credit rating agencies to downgrade our credit ratings or to place those ratings on negative outlook or (ii) rising interest rates and inflation; failure of our counterparties to honor their contracts and commitments; the impact on affordability of our customer rates and our cost of capital and on our ability to pass through higher costs to current and future customers due to (i) volatility in inflation, interest rates and commodity prices, and (ii) the cost of the clean energy transition in California; the impact of climate and sustainability policies, laws, rules, disclosures, and trends, including actions to reduce or eliminate reliance on natural gas, increased uncertainty in the political or regulatory environment for California natural gas distribution companies and the risk of nonrecovery for stranded assets; our ability to incorporate new technologies into our business, including those designed to support governmental and private party energy and climate goals; weather, natural disasters, pandemics, accidents, equipment failures, explosions, terrorism, information system outages or other events that disrupt our operations, damage our facilities or systems, cause the release of harmful materials, cause fires or subject us to liability for damages, fines and penalties, some of which may not be recoverable through regulatory mechanisms, may be disputed or not covered by insurers, or may impact our ability to obtain satisfactory levels of affordable insurance; the availability of natural gas and natural gas storage capacity, including disruptions caused by failures in the pipeline system or limitations on the withdrawal of natural gas from storage facilities; changes in tax and trade policies, laws and regulations, including tariffs, revisions to international trade agreements and sanctions, such as those that have been imposed and that may be imposed in the future in connection with the war in Ukraine, which may increase our costs, reduce our competitiveness, impact our ability to do business with certain counterparties, or impair our ability to resolve trade disputes; and other uncertainties, some of which are difficult to predict and beyond our control.
These risks and uncertainties are further discussed in the reports that the company has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These reports are available through the EDGAR system free-of-charge on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov, and on Sempra's website, www.sempra.com. Investors should not rely unduly on any forward-looking statements.
Sempra Infrastructure, Sempra Infrastructure Partners, Sempra Texas, Sempra Texas Utilities, Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC (Oncor) and Infraestructura Energética Nova, S.A.P.I. de C.V. (IEnova) are not the same companies as the California utilities, San Diego Gas & Electric Company or Southern California Gas Company, and Sempra Infrastructure, Sempra Infrastructure Partners, Sempra Texas, Sempra Mexico, Sempra Texas Utilities, Oncor and IEnova are not regulated by the CPUC.
SOURCE Southern California Gas Company
