California electricity bills are among the highest in the nation and are set to continue skyrocketing, putting state and national green ambitions in the spotlight.
The state’s largest energy providers reported average monthly bills dwarfing those of other states in 2021, E&E News reported. If prices keep rising, as current projections say they will, electric vehicles will continue to be more expensive than traditional gas-powered cars. [bold, links added]
The surging prices could act as an impediment to the electric vehicle industry in the state.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order in 2021 banning new traditional gas vehicles by 2035 while President Joe Biden outlined a nationwide goal of having electric vehicles account for half of the total car sales by 2030.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has repeatedly said Americans should buy electric vehicles to avoid the fluctuating costs of gasoline.
“It’s a huge problem,” Severin Borenstein, the director of the Energy Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, told E&E News.
“Or we’re gonna mandate electrification and then there’s just going to be huge political blowback,” he added. “Mandating electrification when you’re charging people 30 or 40 cents a kilowatt-hour is going to be immensely expensive.”
Borenstein added that consumers may be discouraged to transition to electric vehicles if they hear about the high charging costs via word of mouth, according to E&E News.
The California Public Utilities Commission noted in a May 2021 industry report that it is “cheaper to fuel a conventional internal combustion engine vehicle than it is to charge an EV.”
Southern California Edison Co. (SCE), Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E), and San Diego Gas & Electric ( SDG&E) — the state’s three largest utility companies which provide more than 65% of California residents with power — said their average March bills were $149, $165, and $150 respectively, according to E&E News.
That means SCE, PG&E, and SDG&E customers paid 33 cents, 30 cents, and 38 cents per kWh respectively in March.
The average price of electricity nationwide was estimated to be 10.59 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2020, the latest federal government data showed.
The 2021 monthly bill average, meanwhile, is estimated to have been $136, $133, and $150 for SCE, PG&E, and SDG&E customers, E&E News reported.
Prices are only projected to go up from there, hitting $162, $164.50, and $221.50 per month for the three respective companies in 2030, according to state data.
Read rest at Daily Caller
The new CAFE standards which take effect in 2026 will require plug hybrids, EVs or upholstered roller skates.
Articles showing the renewable energy mandates are the cause of California’s high electric costs are rare. Most articles blame other things. You certainly won’t find one blaming action on climate change with a Google search. I found one with Duckduckgo.
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/high-cost-renewable-electricity-mandates-5987.html
It documents that not only in California, but other states with renewable energy mandates have much higher electric rates than states that don’t have such mandates. Consider this. Germany tripled their electric rate by adding 30% renewable energy to their power mix. California now generates about one third of its power from renewable energy. Its power rate is three times higher than the national average. I don’t think these numbers are a coincidence.
“Or we’re gonna mandate electrification and then there’s just going to be huge political blowback,”
Well, he got that much right anyhow…..