What is the California Industry Assistance Credit (CIAC)?

The CA Industry Assistance Credit is a yearly bill credit from the State of California. It’s part of a program to fight climate change by limiting pollution from big companies. The credit helps certain industrial businesses cover some of the costs tied to greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity they use. This credit won’t be available forever, so it’s a good idea to use it now to invest in clean energy solutions. Doing so can help reduce future costs related to greenhouse gas emissions.

This program was established under the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32) to keep businesses in California from moving operations out of state to avoid pollution rules—a challenge known as emissions leakage. Emissions leakage occurs when greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions decrease within California but increase outside of California.

To address this, AB 32 directs the State to minimize leakage wherever feasible. This credit supports eligible industrial sectors—known as Emissions-Intensive and Trade-Exposed (EITE) facilities—by offsetting part of the GHG-related costs tied to their electricity purchases.

Southern California Edison (SCE) sends out the CA Industry Assistance Credit every April on behalf of the State of California. To receive your credit in April 2026, you must submit your application by September 30, 2025.

Each investor-owned utility hosts its own version of the CA Industry Assistance Credit eligibility form. Contact PG&E, SDG&E, Liberty Utilities or PacifiCorp if you have facilities in their respective service territories.

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CA Industry Assistance Credit for Industrial Business

Hosted by SCE on behalf of the California Public Utilities Commission

CA Industry Assistance Credit Eligibility

The CA Industry Assistance Credit is open to all industrial utility customers in eligible industries, including those who get electricity from community choice aggregators and other electric service providers.

Eligibility for the CA Industry Assistance Credit is based on each individual facility—not the company as a whole. A facility refers to a physical location like a factory, office campus, or headquarters that sits on connected property.

Your facility may qualify if it uses a lot of energy and competes with companies outside California. These are called Emissions-Intensive and Trade-Exposed (EITE) facilities. A facility is eligible for the CA Industry Assistance Credit if it derives most of its revenue from a product, activity or service that has an eligible, three-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code.

If your company has multiple locations across California, some may be eligible while others may not. It all depends on the type of product or service produced by each individual facility.

Eligible Industries

• Apparel Manufacturing
• Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing
• Chemical Manufacturing
• Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing
• Food Manufacturing
• Machinery Manufacturing
• Mining (except Oil and Gas)
• Nonmetallic Mineral Product Manufacturing
• Oil and Gas Extraction
• Other Food Crops Grown Under Cover
• Paper Manufacturing
• Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing
• Primary Metal Manufacturing
• Support Activities for Transportation
• Textile Mills
• Transportation Equipment Manufacturing

Eligible NAICS Codes

Your facility may qualify for the CA Industry Assistance Credit if it earns most of its revenue from a product, service, or activity that falls under one of the following first three-digit NAICS codes (North American Industry Classification System).

There’s one exception: if your facility is involved in Crop Production, it must match the full six-digit NAICS code 111419 to be eligible.

If you are not sure which NAICS Code applies to your facility, please visit https://www.census.gov/naics/.
 

NAICS Code	NAICS Code Description
111419	Other Food Crops Grown Under Cover
211	Oil and Gas Extraction
212	Mining (except Oil and Gas)
311	Food Manufacturing
312	Beverage and Tobacco Production Manufacturing
313	Textile Mills
315	Apparel Manufacturing
322	Paper Manufacturing
324	Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing
325	Chemical Manufacturing
327	Nonmetallic Mineral Product Manufacturing
331	Primary Metal Manufacturing
332	Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing
333	Machinery Manufacturing
336	Transportation Equipment Manufacturing
488	Support Activities for Transportation

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How to Get the CA Industry Assistance Credit

You must submit an application for each eligible facility. 

The application will ask you to:

• Provide basic info about the facility,
• Identify which qualifying NAICS code applies to that facility,
• Specify all the utility service accounts that belong to that facility,
• Designate one utility service account to receive the bill credit,
• Confirm your understanding that your facility may be subject to an audit to verify eligibility, and
• Declare under penalty of perjury that what you are saying is true.

Exception: You do not need to submit an application if your facility already reports to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) under its Mandatory Reporting Regulation (MRR). Customers required to report to CARB are primarily those with significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as defined under the state's MRR.

You may NOT want to submit an application for your small business facilities.

If your small business currently receives the Small Business Climate Credit—a credit that appears on your utility bill twice a year—you may already be getting it automatically for some of your service accounts.

However, if you choose to apply for the CA Industry Assistance Credit for a facility, you will stop receiving the Small Business Climate Credit for all service accounts tied to that facility. Instead, you will begin receiving the annual CA Industry Assistance Credit. To learn more, click here

Deadlines to Claim Eligibility

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