PG&E Highlights Climate Change, Clean Transportation Efforts during U.S. House Committee Hearing

Today (March 17), Senior Vice President of Customer Experience Laurie Giammona represented PG&E at a congressional hearing before The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) along with business leaders from other industries.

The T&I Committee includes five Congress members from PG&E’s service area including U.S. Congressmen Mark DeSaulnier (D), John Garamendi (D), Jared Huffman (D) Doug LaMalfa (R) and Salud Carbajal (D).

Laurie Giammona represented PG&E at a congressional hearing before The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) .

The hearing focused on exploring solutions to combat climate change with an emphasis on the transportation sector. T&I Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) discussed the committee’s focus on the issue during his opening remarks at the hearing.

“Both private sector action and sound public policy are necessary to meaningfully address climate change…climate is changing rapidly. Time is not on our side. This committee intends to take bold steps to get this Congress to support significant emission reductions from the transportation sector and support for action from the business community is growing,” said Chairman DeFazio.

The focus on transportation resonates particularly in California, where the sector represents the single largest contributor to greenhouse-gas emissions at 41%.

The state aims to have 5 million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2030 as well as 250,000 charging stations, including 10,000 fast chargers. Additionally, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order in September 2020 that will prohibit the sale of new gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles after 2035.

Giammona highlighted PG&E’s efforts to support state carbon neutrality goals with clean electricity fueling California’s vehicles as a key driver.

“PG&E is proud to be a committed partner in implementing the state’s (California) vision. We provide some of the cleanest energy in the nation with 88 percent of electricity delivered from carbon-free sources,” said Giammona.

She added, “We are focused on meeting our customers’ desire to adopt clean-energy solutions including energy efficiency, rooftop solar, battery storage and electric vehicles.”

In addition to supporting California’s goals, Giammona emphasized how EVs are a good option for customers.

For a PG&E residential customer, EV charging overnight is equivalent to $1.60 per gallon of gasoline and an EV driver can save $1,200 annually in fuel and maintenance costs. Furthermore, more EVs adding demand to the grid could help to lower electricity costs for all customers by reducing the fixed costs of maintaining and operating the grid.

PG&E is helping California transition to EVs by building out charging infrastructure, educating and encouraging customers to adopt EVs, offering special EV rates, rebates and tools to customers, and preparing the electric grid for the future. Today, there are approximately 320,000 EVs on the road in the PG&E’s service area.

“We believe federal policies can complement actions at the state level and help provide benefits to all customers,” said Giammona.

Federal support could include investments and policies to accelerate deployment of charging infrastructure, encourage fleet electrification, offer customer incentives and increase federal research and development supporting EV technology innovation.

Similarly, leaders representing other industries including AECOM, FedEx Corporation, and Proterra spoke to their efforts in this space and the need for the federal government to support the transition toward electric transportation.

To watch the full hearing, visit https://transportation.house.gov/committee-activity/hearings/the-business-case-for-climate-solutions.