When Steve Hilton worked as a barefooted senior aide to David Cameron in the early 2010s, he was credited as the man who turned the Tories green. [some emphasis, links added]
Times have changed. Now, the one-time Downing Street Svengali is a would-be Republican candidate to replace Democrat Gavin Newsom as California governor in the election this November – and Britain’s climate policies make him see red.
Hilton vented his anger on X after Newsom struck a clean energy agreement this week with Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary.
“What a genius idea that is: the UK, with the highest electricity prices pretty much in the world, teaming up with California, the highest electricity prices anywhere in America apart from Hawaii,” he said in a video.
Hilton said the deal would have “a very short shelf life” – he would “rip it up” if he won the governorship on Nov 3.
“We are going to have affordable, reliable energy in California because I’m going to end this insane climate crusade,” he said.
Hilton was giving voice to a groundswell of anger and frustration in California over the state’s punishing electricity prices.
Californian households were paying 32 cents (23p) per kilowatt hour for electricity at the end of last year, according to the US Energy Information Administration. That was almost double the US national average of just under 18 cents.
The same disparity afflicts California’s industrial users of electricity: they paid 19 cents against a national average of 8.4 cents.
The average electricity price paid by a residential consumer nationwide rose 22 percent between 2020 and 2024 – but at the three biggest Californian utilities, the price increase was between 31 percent and 70 percent.
Hilton and others on the Right blame Newsom’s aggressive net-zero policies for fuelling this above-average increase in power costs.
Criticizing Labour’s decision to strike a deal with California, Donald Trump said: “Gavin is a loser. Everything he’s touched turns to garbage. His state has gone to hell, and his environmental work is a disaster.
“If they did to the UK what he did to California, this will not be a very successful venture.”
Newsom, widely seen as a potential Democratic presidential candidate, has been California’s governor since 2019.
When he came to office, the state had a target to reduce emissions to 40 percent below a 1990 benchmark by 2030. In 2022, the target was ratcheted up to 85 percent, with net zero set for 2045.
To get there, electricity providers have to ensure that an ever-increasing share of generation comes from renewable sources with a target of 90 percent for 2030.
The program has cut annual greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector by 40 percent in a decade – but the cost has been high.
Nick Chaset, the boss of British retailer Octopus Energy’s US operation, told The Telegraph last year: “California is very much net zero or nothing. It’s about trying to construct a perfect world, [which means] it becomes extremely expensive.”
Read rest at The Telegraph
