There is a battle underway to define a narrative about what is responsible for rising electricity prices. Some claim that higher electricity prices are due to President Donald Trump’s “one big fancy bill,” which restricted subsidies for “cheap” wind and solar installations. Others blame AI’s rapidly growing appetite for electricity, while some blame inflation. None of these allegations hold up under investigation.
But blame shifting, usually with the help of a complicit media, helps achieve the only thing that matters to most politicians: seizing political power.
This is clearly on display during California Democrat Gavin Newsom’s trip to Belém, Brazil, to work with the global elite at the UN’s COP30 world climate conference on November 11. Newsom, a near-declared candidate for the 2028 Democratic nomination for president, blasted the Trump administration for not attending the confab, accusing the president of “handing over the future to China,” presumably in the category of selling solar panels embedded in secret kill switches.
Newsom further said: “We are not returning to the failed policies of the past – California is fighting for a clean energy futureeven as President Trump bends the knee to his Gulf state patrons and takes a nap while the world burns.” Newsom also claimed that California is now operating its grid on “two-thirds clean energy,” with California running on 100% non-fossil energy for at least part of the day nine out of 10 days this year.
NEWSOM CLAIMS TRUMP ‘GIVES THE FUTURE TO CHINA’ AT BRAZILIAN CLIMATE CONFAB THAT BREAKS OVER
Solar microgrid in California, part of that state’s green energy push. (Photo by SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP via Getty Images)
But California now has the second-highest electricity prices in the country, behind only Hawaii, with the Golden State’s electricity prices rising the most of any state since 2010: 127%, according to a new report from Jonathan A. Lesser, Ph.D., a senior fellow at the National Center for Energy Analytics.
The truth Newsom doesn’t want Californians — or the Democratic primary voters — to know is that “green” energy is expensive energy. That’s because “60% of the time (wind and solar) work every time,” to borrow from the much-discussed comedy “Anchorman.” And it is very expensive to ensure that the power is on when wind and solar energy are not producing.
This, Lesser notes, is one of the main culprits of rising electricity costs.
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The Biden-Harris administration’s reckless push for subsidized wind and solar energy — and California’s before and since — has destabilized our electric grid and forced consumers to foot the bill for boosting unreliable “green” energy with reliable gas power and expensive batteries — the latter of limited utility.
According to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), average residential electricity rates in the US increased by approximately 63% between the first quarter of 2010 and the second quarter of 2025. But the pain is not evenly distributed. States like Massachusetts and California have not only endured the steepest increases, but now boast two of the highest rates in the country: in some cases more than 30 cents per kilowatt hour.
Critics come up with all kinds of excuses for these increases. One target is data centers, the energy-hungry hubs that power AI and cloud computing. Sure, they use a lot of power: Virginia, a data center hotspot, has seen demand rise. But Virginia’s rates? Rises below average and still below the national standard. If data centers are the bad guy, why isn’t the Old Dominion suffering like California?
TRUMP’S UN SPEECH REVEALS UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH ABOUT HUGE COSTS OF GREEN ENERGY
A recent report from the International Renewable Energy Agency touts the falling costs of renewable energy sources. But as Lesser’s analysis shows, that is a half-truth at best. Subsidies like the federal production tax credit — now $27.50 per megawatt hour — allow wind and solar operators to undercut the market with negative bids, distorting wholesale prices and squeezing out reliable baseload plants — which ultimately don’t get built.
Here’s the missing link that green proponents are ignoring: the shift in our production mix. Between 2010 and 2024, U.S. electricity capacity grew 16% to 1,325 gigawatts, outpacing the increase in retail sales by just 5%. Sounds good, right? Wrong. Available sources – coal, gas and nuclear energy, which can be increased on demand – have plummeted by 80 gigawatts. Intermittent wind and solar energy grew seven times faster to 278 gigawatts.
California Governor Gavin Newsom traveled to Brazil for the COP30 World Climate Conference, where he praised his state’s energy policies, while the Trump administration skipped the event. (Larissa Schwedes/Photo Alliance via Getty Images)
This trend accelerated in 2025, with more than 1,900 megawatts of fossil fuels being retired in July, and another 12,600 megawatts expected to be retired by the end of the year and into 2026. What will take its place? More subsidized wind, solar and expensive batteries.
TRUMP’S ENERGY PRICE PROMISE IS COMING OUT. HE HAS THE POWER TO SOLVE THE CRISIS
It’s a policy mistake. States like New Jersey and New York forced premature shutdowns of reliable power plants like the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in 2018 and Indian Point in 2021, which supplied a quarter of New York City’s needs.
Biden-era EPA rules, now being rolled back under Trump, would have closed most coal-fired power plants by 2032. Mandates for cars to have “zero emissions” by 2035 in places like California ignore reality. Where are they going to get the electricity? Wind and solar energy cannot provide inertia or reactive power, which is essential for the stability of the electricity grid.
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The consequences? Rising prices.
NEWSOM RAISES CLIMATE RECORD ABROAD, WHILE CALIFORNIA EXPOSES THE HIGHEST GAS COSTS IN AMERICA
The truth Newsom doesn’t want Californians — or the Democratic primary voters — to know is that “green” energy is expensive energy.
Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act – which is only now taking effect, so any increases in electricity prices thus far are not due to the law – flips the script. Repealing President Joe Biden’s vehicle emissions standards and crackdown on fossil fuels will prioritize affordable, dispatchable energy. Expect more nuclear facilities, streamlined pipelines and fewer subsidies to Big Green. This will not increase prices; it will stabilize them by restoring reliable supply.
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Biden’s (and Newsom’s) green zeal promised cheap energy but delivered the opposite: unaffordable, unreliable electricity that hinders economic growth. Trump’s reforms show that true energy independence means abandoning the myths and embracing what works.
Americans deserve a network that promotes prosperity, not one that bankrupts it.
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