Electricity Transmission Pylon at Dusk. (Photo: chuyuss/Shutterstock)
Californians Paying 140% More For Electricity than Other States
These are Governor Gavin Newsom’s policies – he owns it
By Katy Grimes, March 14, 2024 2:55 am
Electricity in Taft, California costs 275% more than what electricity costs in Bullhead City, Arizona. While residents of Los Angeles and San Francisco may feel comfortably smug hundreds of miles away from the Kern County city, it is rare to get a side-by-side comparison of energy bills in neighboring states.
How could this be?
In March, 2023 the California Assembly jammed SBX1-2, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Gas Tax, through an expedited hearing, pretending that was enough exposure to the public, and debated the bill and voted on it. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill.
Newsom’s Gas Tax also created a new panel of unelected bureaucrats with subpoena power, to investigate oil and gas companies, impose penalties, new costs and regulations, which would inevitably lead to gas shortages, rationing and price spikes. The bill created a new government agency to arbitrarily decide how much profit oil and gas businesses are allowed to make, disrupting California’s energy market and threatening the reliability of the state’s fuel supply,
Dave Noerr is the Mayor of Taft, and also has a home in Bullhead City, AZ. The electricity bills mentioned above are his. The Globe talked once again with Mayor Noerr about California Governor Gavin Newsom’s draconian SBX1-2, and the new agency it created to decide on oil/gas industry profits.
The Green Agenda
In addition to Gov. Newsom’s $310+ billion dollar budget and $75 million budget deficit, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association President Jon Coupal warned us last summer that the legislature is also advancing a $15 billion ‘Climate Bond’ to appear on the ballot sometime in 2024” – a Green Agenda climate tax.
The Green Agenda pushed by radical environmentalists in California is on steroids and is making food, cars, energy and homes unaffordable. The radical greenies are responsible for the no-forest management policies which ignite into California’s annual “wildfire season.” The radical greenies are responsible for the government created water shortage. The green agenda is planning to completely shut down the extraction of California’s wealth of natural resources – oil and natural gas.
And Governor Newsom is the Big Chief Greenie.
Mayor Noerr reported that in a meeting in McKittrick, CA in Kern County in 2019 after an oil seepage, Gov. Newsom said, “My bias is consistent” about the oil and gas industry. When they spoke after the meeting, Noerr asked the governor what he saw on his tour around McKittrick. Noerr said the governor answered by offering disclaimers: “I did not know that water comes out with oil extraction; I did not know there was heavy oil and light oil; I did not know heavy oil can be bagged and used…”
Noerr said Newsom is a slave to his bias, in spite of emerging facts. And “he’s a slave to his ego,” Noerr said. “He went in to the issue with his bias fully in tact.”
While Gov. Newsom was fairly conciliatory at the time, he did comment that oil and gas is our past, and renewables are the future.
Evidence of his bias is very clear when you observe Newsom’s appointees to the California Public Utilities Commission – all like-minded rabid environmentalists who equally share his bias and tow his party line. The CPUC commissioners set and accept electricity rates, and Newsom has appointed all five.
The CPUC says, “Our five Governor-appointed Commissioners, as well as our staff, are dedicated to ensuring that consumers have safe, reliable utility service at reasonable rates, protecting against fraud, and promoting the health of California’s economy.”
Noerr also addressed that Gov. Newsom bases the need for SBX1-2 on the high cost of oil and gas. But the high cost is because of Gavin Newsom and his policies, and are not in response to market drivers.
Mayor Noerr directed the Globe to the Energy Information Agency (eia.gov) and said going back to 2018, California paid 124% more for electricity than other states. In 2019, it grew to 139%; 2020 it was 131%; and in 2024 it is 140% – the cost of Californias energy and energy poverty. He said this rules out refiner margins.
Noerr showed me PG&E’s January 1, 2024 Annual Electric True-Up and said PG&E has raised energy prices 60% in the course of the last two years – and 23.8% in a single year. “That’s 10 times the CPI target for the feds to lower interest rates!” Noerr said.
As for electricity across the California/Arzona border differing by 275%, Noerr notes that Arizona isn’t exactly the lowest priced state for electricity in the U.S. He said Arizona ranks 25th – right in the middle of the pack.
The whole point of this conversation besides identifying the real culprits behind highest-in-the-nation oil and gas prices, and electricity prices, is this is where the poor, and in particular the working poor, are hit the hardest. As a percentage of their take-home income, they spend more on electricity and energy than anything else. And unaffordable energy bills can make a family homeless the moment they can’t pay the bill.
So after spending billions on housing for the 180,000 homeless drug addicted, mentally ill in the state – who still live on the streets – Noerr said the United Way identified 3 million families who can’t pay their utility bills – families driven to the edge of homelessness.
These high electricity and energy costs also drive up the costs of everything else, Noerr says – the cost to run a school, a grocery store, every mall, car dealer, doctor’s office – every business in the state is paying more for electricity, and passing the cost on to the consumers.
Gavin Newsom says oil and gas companies are “gouging” people. Yet Noerr says the governor is absolutely indifferent to the real hardships, as well as the real root causes.
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Great articles an important issue which affects every voter. There is no logical reason for highest in the nation energy prices given our natural resources. Garvey should hit this issue hard.
And yet, mindless toady California voters continue to elect the very same people responsible for these endless economic disasters. Over and over again. Oh, wait, I forgot. These politicians are saving democracy.
Do we???
Or do we get “Dominioned” every election via the rigged tabulation and Democrat “cheat-by-mail” voting schemes???
Saving “OUR” Democracy…
Whatever THAT means….must be THEIR version of “Democracy” (which is Communism mixed with Fascism)
Infuriating. On top of everything else that is infuriating.
And YES. GAVIN NEWSOM OWNS IT ALL.
Whatever it is, just pull back the curtain and there is that a-hole Gavin, smirking.
Never forget that
My SCE bill went up 14% in the last year for the exact same amount of electricity. Everything the Democrats touch turns to sh*t.
Mine goes up but their invoices congratulate me for using less than the previous year for the same time frame.
And Governor Newsom is the Big Chief WEENIE.
There – fixed it for ya….
Let’s drill into those pretty pictures shown above, to get to know these folks and their UNBIASED (sarc) backgrounds :
Alice Busching Reynolds was appointed to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) as President by Governor Gavin Newsom on Nov. 22, 2021, effective Dec. 31, 2021. She was confirmed as a CPUC Commissioner by the State Senate on August 17, 2022.
Prior to her appointment, President Reynolds served for three years as Governor Gavin Newsom’s senior advisor for energy. From 2011 to January 2019, she served in the administration of Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr., most recently as the Governor’s senior advisor for climate, the environment and energy and previously as chief counsel and deputy secretary for law enforcement at the California Environmental Protection Agency. During her time at CalEPA, she coordinated statewide multi-agency environmental enforcement actions and led the creation of the agency’s environmental justice task force and refinery safety task force. President Reynolds began her public service career in 2002, serving approximately 10 years as a deputy attorney general in the California Attorney General’s Office, where she litigated cases involving protection of public trust lands, coastal resources and public access, and other environmental issues. Prior to entering public service, President Reynolds was a lawyer in private practice in San Francisco.
President Reynolds holds a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and a juris doctor degree from Santa Clara University School of Law where she graduated magna cum laude.
Commissioner Darcie L. Houck was appointed to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) by Governor Gavin Newsom on Feb. 9, 2021. She formerly served as Chief Counsel for the California Energy Commission since 2019.
Commissioner Houck was an Administrative Law Judge at the CPUC from 2016 to 2019, a Partner at Fredericks Peebles & Morgan from 2005 to 2016, and Staff Counsel and Policy Advisor at the California Energy Commission from 2000 to 2005.
Commissioner Houck has expertise in matters concerning environmental equity, nuclear energy regulation, and safety policy. She has an extensive background representing Native American tribes throughout the country on matters involving energy, natural resources, land claims, and water rights, among others.
Commissioner Houck is a member of the California Indian Law Association, California Lawyers Association, Schwartz-Levi Inn of Court, Women Lead and the Association of Women in Water, Energy, and Environment. She earned a law degree from the University of California, where she also earned a Master of Science in community development. (Whatever the EFF THAT is….)
Commissioner John Reynolds was appointed to the CPUC by Governor Gavin Newsom on Dec. 23, 2021, and reappointedon Dec. 22, 2022.
Prior to his appointment to the CPUC, Commissioner Reynolds served as Managing Counsel at Cruise LLC since 2019. Prior to that, he held multiple positions at the CPUC, including Interim Chief of Staff to Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma in 2018, Advisor to former Commissioner Carla J. Peterman from 2015 to 2018, and Public Utilities Counsel from 2013 to 2015. Commissioner Reynolds has a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco. (Revolving door attorney-scum)
Karen Douglas was appointed to the CPUC by Governor Gavin Newsom on Dec. 22, 2022.
Commissioner Douglas was previously Senior Advisor for Energy in the Office of Governor Newsom since 2022. She was a California Energy Commission Member from 2008 to 2022. She was Director of the California Climate Initiative for the Environmental Defense Fund from 2005 to 2008. She held several positions at the Planning and Conservation League from 2001 to 2005, including Acting Executive Director and General Counsel. Commissioner Douglas earned a Juris Doctor degree from Stanford Law School and a Master of Public Policy degree in Environmental Policy from the University of Colorado Boulder. (Green-weenie Lawyer WITH a Master’s from CU Boulder, one of the most “progressive” universities in the US)
Matthew Baker was appointed to the CPUC by Governor Gavin Newsom on Feb. 16, 2024.
Commissioner Baker brings a wealth of experience to this role, having served as the Director of the Public Advocates Office since 2022 and prior to that, as Deputy Secretary for Energy at the California Natural Resources Agency from 2020 to 2022. His extensive background in the public policy and non-profit sectors equips him with a deep understanding of the complex challenges we face, particularly as we navigate the critical clean energy transition.
In his previous roles, Commissioner Baker has demonstrated a keen awareness of the delicate balance required to address the challenges posed by a changing climate. As we continue to face new and greater risks to our energy systems, Commissioner Baker’s expertise will be instrumental in guiding our efforts toward safe, reliable, and affordable solutions.
Commissioner Baker holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Pennsylvania State University.
The IMPLICIT BIAS is STRONG here, and this is a prima facie definition of a “circle jerk” of green-weenies….
So all but one of the commissioners are radical leftist lawyers from the public sector while one has a BA degree in history and was associated with a radical environmental non-profit? Why do we allow these Marxist globalist stooges to destroy California’s economy with outrageous electricity rates? Maybe beleaguered rate payers should start protesting outside these elitist commissioner’s mansions and dog them where ever they go?
Government is the enemy of the people. “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.”. ― Ronald Reagan.
Don’t forget that the power used by businesses will just be passed along to the consumers in the form of price increases of their products. Not only are you going to pay extra for your power, you are going to pay for theirs too.
Gavin Newsom, inaugurated January 7, 2019.
My PG&E Tier One rate, February 2, 2019, 21.183¢ per kWh.
My PG&E Tier One rate, February 28, 2024, 42.009¢ per kWh.
Same home, same rate plan.
Not being a liberal Democrat, I’m pretty good at math. And by my computation, in the 5 years that the Golden Boy has been governor, my basic electricity rate has increased almost exactly 100%. That’s equal to an average increase of 20% per year. And chances are between the rate increase the CPUC just approved and others that may be in the works my Tier One rate will go up another 20% before year’s end. Which means my basic rate will be five times what a friend in Boise is currently paying.
And they wonder why people are fleeing Gavin’s Utopia.
BTW, my Tier One rate in January 2014 was 13.230¢ per kWh.
this should be all over the news – but there is zero coverage of anything critical of lord newsome or the democratic party – its all PGE, you know?
The rest of the country better hope this does not spread…
California is following the Germany green model. And look at what happened to them.