SoCalGas Announces $10 Million to Support Low-Income Families, Seniors and Small Restaurant Owners Impacted by Unprecedented Regional Gas Market Prices

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Feb 27, 2023, 06:50 ET

Thousands newly eligible for winter bill assistance after SoCalGas bolsters United Way's Gas Assistance Fund with historic $5 million contribution

$4 million will revive Fueling Our Communities – a collaboration with local nonprofits that has provided free meals and groceries to tens of thousands of Californians since 2020

$1 million in aid to small restaurant owners through the Restaurants Care Resilience Fund

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) today announced $10 million in shareholder funding to help customers with bill assistance and to bolster community resources for those who may be struggling financially.

The company committed $5 million in shareholder funding to the Gas Assistance Fund, a program administered by the United Way that provides income-qualified customers with one-time grants to help pay their natural gas bills. The contribution is the largest in the fund's 40-year history and will help the United Way expand access to the program to thousands of additional Southern Californians this winter.

SoCalGas also announced it will contribute $4 million from its donor advised fund to relaunch its popular Fueling Our Communities program, a collaboration with local food banks and nonprofits that has provided free meals and groceries to thousands of Californians facing food insecurity since 2020.

In addition, SoCalGas will contribute $1 million in aid from its donor advised fund to small restaurant owners through the Restaurants Care Resilience Fund, a fund that was started in 2021 to help small restaurants with improvements, upgrades, employee retention and to manage debt, losses and rising costs.

"This winter's unprecedented natural gas prices, on top of already high inflation, have been a real hardship for many Southern Californians, especially our most vulnerable, our seniors, and people facing difficult circumstances," said SoCalGas CEO, Scott Drury. "Thanks to the incredible work of the United Way, and the network of tireless, nonprofit leaders who support our work in the community, we will be able to help many more of our neighbors, families, and small businesses in cities and towns across Southern California this winter."

"These contributions will provide much-needed relief for some of our most vulnerable residents at a time when cold temperatures make it harder to turn down the heat," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger. "As we learn more about the West Coast market conditions that led to unusually high bills, proactive partnerships like this one are addressing the immediate very real needs of our community. I continue looking forward to what soon may be a return to more normal natural gas prices."

EXPANDED ACCESS TO GAS ASSISTANCE FUND

SoCalGas's latest contribution to the Gas Assistance Fund will help the United Way expand income eligibility for the program and increase the grant amount available to each qualified customer from $100 to up to $400 for the remainder of the 2023 program. Additionally, income-eligible older adults (55+) and those facing certain financial hardships may be eligible for extra grant funding.

"Over the last four decades, the Gas Assistance Fund has helped hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Californians who face difficult choices during cold months between staying warm and other basic necessities like food and medicine," said Elise Buik, president & CEO at United Way of Greater Los Angeles. "This historic contribution will help the United Way dramatically expand our reach and allow thousands of individuals, older adults, and families across our region to remain healthy and housed this winter."

FUELING OUR COMMUNITIES - 2023

The Fueling our Communities Program began in 2020 as a collaboration between SoCalGas and five regional nonprofits to provide free meals to individuals impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. During the program's first summer, SoCalGas and its partners provided more than 140,000 meals to 40,000 individuals from underserved communities across Southern California. With its latest $4 million contribution, SoCalGas aims to significantly expand the Fueling our Communities program via new and existing partnerships with food banks and nonprofits with a focus on serving families and seniors in need.

SUPPORTING SMALL BUSINESSES

The Restaurants Care Resilience Fund was started in 2021 to help small restaurants with improvements, upgrades, employee retention and to manage debt, losses and rising costs. SoCalGas has supported the fund since its inception.

"What started as a lifeline to restaurants during the pandemic has grown into a robust fund to assist small restaurants with grants to strengthen their businesses and invest in their people," said Alycia Harshfield, executive director of the California Restaurant Foundation. "SoCalGas' incredible generosity, commitment, and leadership has a lasting positive ripple effect, and we are proud to partner with them again to make such a meaningful impact."

MARKET CONDITIONS IMPROVE

After a significant drop in February from January's unprecedented natural gas commodity prices, market prices for March 2023 usage are currently forecasted to be significantly lower than February's prices. In addition, the restoration of service to an out-of-state pipeline, which has been offline for two years, is expected to increase supply capacity to the Southwest. Consistent with regulatory requirements, SoCalGas will file March core procurement prices (rates) with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) at the end of February.

The core procurement rate reflects the price SoCalGas pays for natural gas for residential and business customers. That rate changes each month. SoCalGas does not set the price for natural gas. Instead, natural gas prices are determined by national and regional markets. SoCalGas buys natural gas in those markets on behalf of residential and small business customers, and the cost of buying that gas is billed to those customers with no markup.

WHAT CAUSED PRICES TO SPIKE IN JANUARY?

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), a number of factors have contributed to higher natural gas commodity prices:

Widespread, below-normal temperatures on much of the West Coast, including Washington and Oregon;
High natural gas demand for heating by customers in areas with below normal temperatures;
Reduced natural gas supplies to the West Coast from Canada and the Rocky Mountains;
Reduced interstate pipeline capacity to the West Coast because of pipeline maintenance activities in West Texas (the out of state pipeline mentioned earlier in this news release); and
Low natural gas storage levels on the West Coast.

According to the EIA, the U.S. set a natural gas consumption daily record on Dec. 23, 2022, further exacerbating supply and demand challenges.

Several experts discussed these market conditions at a California Public Utilities Commission public hearing earlier this month. Video of that proceeding is available here.

IS ADDITIONAL HELP AVAILABLE?

In light of unprecedented market conditions, the California Public Utilities Commission voted earlier this month to accelerate the California Climate Credit. As a result, SoCalGas customers will receive a credit of $50.77 in their February or March bill, depending on their billing cycle.

In addition, SoCalGas continues to encourage customers to take advantage of programs and services that can help manage usage and save costs.

Eligible customers may sign up for a Level Pay Plan (LPP), for example, which averages their annual natural gas use and costs over 12 months. There are also financial assistance programs for eligible customers who are experiencing hardships.

SoCalGas' free Ways to Save tool may also help customers with energy savings options through a personalized savings plan that offers a household energy analysis, customized energy-efficiency recommendations, bill comparisons, and energy usage comparisons that could help save on natural gas bills. Customers can also sign up for weekly Bill Tracker Alerts to monitor natural gas consumption, take steps to reduce usage, and avoid bill surprises.

Customers can visit socalgas.com/ManageHigherBills for more information on the factors that lead to higher bills and ways we can help.

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 21.8 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 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 other factors.

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, 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; civil and criminal litigation, regulatory inquiries, investigations, arbitrations and other proceedings, including those related to the natural gas leak at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility; changes to laws and regulations; cybersecurity threats, including by state and state-sponsored actors, by ransomware or other attacks on our systems or the systems of third-parties with which we conduct business, including to 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; failure of our counterparties to honor their contracts and commitments; our ability to borrow money on favorable terms or otherwise and meet our debt service obligations, including due to (i) actions by credit rating agencies to downgrade our credit ratings or place those ratings on negative outlook and (ii) rising interest rates and inflation; the impact on our cost of capital and the affordability of customer rates due to volatility in inflation, interest rates and commodity prices and our ability to effectively hedge these risks; the impact of energy and climate policies, laws, rules and disclosures, as well as related goals and actions of companies in our industry, including actions to reduce or eliminate reliance on natural gas, any deterioration of or increased uncertainty in the political or regulatory environment for California natural gas distribution companies and the risk of nonrecovery for stranded assets; the pace of the development and adoption of new technologies in the energy sector, including those designed to support governmental and private party energy and climate goals, and our ability to efficiently incorporate them into our business; weather, natural disasters, pandemics, accidents, equipment failures, explosions, acts of 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 limitations on the withdrawal of natural gas from storage facilities; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on capital projects, regulatory approvals and the execution of our operations; 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, http://www.sec.gov, and on Sempra's website, http://www.sempra.com. Investors should not rely unduly on any forward-looking statements.

Sempra Infrastructure, Sempra Texas, Sempra Mexico, 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 Texas, Sempra Mexico, Sempra Texas Utilities, Oncor and IEnova are not regulated by the CPUC.

SOURCE Southern California Gas Company