PG&E's Clean Energy Goals Shared at Climate Week New York City

Last week, PG&E showed up strong at Climate Week NYC 2025, laying out how it is turning California’s grid into a high-performance engine for clean energy, electrification, and resilience. Carla Peterman, executive vice president, Corporate Affairs and chief sustainability officer, led PG&E’s presence at the international gathering of climate solutions.

Her message? PG&E remains committed to climate change action and accelerating progress toward a net-zero energy system. Central to the company’s approach is finding solutions that drive lower customer rates and affordability for all customers, while enabling a cleaner and more resilient energy system.

The PG&E grid is underutilized today — and that’s a massive opportunity. At 40–45% average utilization today, the company is innovating to meet rising demand — including from data centers — while reducing costs without compromising reliability. Smart upgrades + grid-enhancing technologies = more capacity, lower cost.

Peterman began the week by joining Ari Matusiak, CEO of Rewiring America, for a lively discussion on partnerships to bring building electrification to scale. 

“We are putting the customer at the center to meet our goals,” said Peterman. The conversation was also a live recording of David Roberts’ Volts podcast. Listen to the full conversation here:  Could we get hyperscalers to buy heat pumps for households? 

California Climate Leadership Forum: Smarter, Not Just Bigger

Peterman teamed up with California Transportation Secretary Toks Omishakin to talk about how PG&E is helping customers electrify their homes and vehicles with a focus on innovation, the customer experience and lowering costs. Through distributed energy resource orchestration, AI-powered grid ops, and virtual power plants, PG&E can maximize the existing grid while building for what’s next.

“There are a lot of benefits when our communities electrify — lower greenhouse gas emissions, lower costs, and added capacity on the system,” said Peterman.

The Hub Live — EVs to Scale Starts with People

The Hub Live, Climate Week NYC’s flagship program, brought together heads of government, business leaders and experts to delve deep into some of the world’s most urgent climate obstacles, policies and solutions. Peterman spoke with Dominic Phinn, head of transport at The Climate Group to discuss how best to scale the grid to meet rising electric vehicle adoption. 

Peterman made it clear: "Before anyone can participate in grid services, you need people to buy [electric] vehicles. It’s important to have the right customer experience. We all need to be all-in on getting the vehicles purchased in the first place." 

PG&E is backing the largest EV market in the U.S. with rebates, rate plans, and programs like PG&E’s Pre-Owned EV Rebate, which has already delivered more than $29 million in benefits to income-qualified customers. This program provides up to $4,000 back when income-qualified customers buy or lease a used EV. Since launching in February 2023, the program has issued more than 13,000 rebate payments and provided over $29 million in benefits. An additional $50 million in funding is still available for PG&E customers who meet income qualifications.    

Heatmap House: Grid 2.0 Starts Now

Here, Peterman was joined by Richard Donaldson (Chief Information Officer, Duke Energy) for a conversation with Matthew Zeitlin (Correspondent, Heatmap News) about what it will take to clear the hurdles standing between us and a carbon-free grid.

Electric Innovation Awards: Power for All

PG&E and Zum were honored for deploying the first vehicle-to-grid school bus fleet in the country with Oakland Unified School District. Real tech, real impact.

David Almeida, director of Clean Energy Transportation at PG&E, was featured in a video alongside Ritu Narayan, Founder and CEO at Zum about the Oakland project.

Newsweek’s Powering Ahead: Clean Energy Across the Divide

Peterman joined Nick Chaset (CEO, Octopus Energy US), Mike Richter (President, Brightcore Energy) and Jeff Young (Environmental Sustainability and Governance Editor, Newsweek) at Newsweek’s Powering Ahead conference to talk about scaling clean energy in a politically divided landscape. The takeaway: progress is possible — and happening.

PG&E Ranked #2 on U.S. Utilities Decarbonization Index

The National Public Utilities Council (NPUC) recognized PG&E’s leadership in clean energy, emissions reduction, and our path to a net-zero energy system in 2040. PG&E was named No. 2 overall on the U.S. Utilities Decarbonization Index for 2025. The annual index, compiled by the NPUC, ranks the nation’s 46 largest investor-owned utilities on their decarbonization efforts.

Read PG&E’s 2025 Corporate Sustainability Report to learn more about its progress in building a resilient energy system for California's future, today.