The CPUC cut the allowed returns for PG&E, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas starting in 2026, reducing PG&E’s maximum return on equity to 9.98 percent from 10.28 percent and modestly lowering other utilities’ returns after regulators had earlier voted to keep returns clustered near 10 percent.The commission voted 4-1, with Darcie Houck dissenting, as regulators said the tighter returns are intended to attract capital for wildfire mitigation and system upgrades while consumer advocates including CALPIRG and experts such as Mark Ellis argued the cuts do not go far enough to address affordability and could have saved customers about $6.1 billion annually if returns were closer to 6 percent.