CHUCK DEVORE: The predictable outcome of California’s green energy policies has arrived and it’s a disaster.

Back when I served in the California State Assembly from 2004 to 2010, California ranked seventh or eighth in the nation for electricity costs. At the time, the Democratic majority in Sacramento was pushing bill after bill mandating greater reliance on renewable energy, assuring everyone that these policies would make us look like “geniuses” when the price of fossil fuels inevitably soared.

I warned that these laws, regulations and subsidies would instead drive up electricity costs for Californians, making the grid less reliable and California’s economy less competitive.

Now, two decades later, the results are in. In 2024, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that California had the second-highest electricity prices in the nation for the second year running, behind only Hawaii. The Golden State’s misguided energy policies have steadily increased the price of electricity as green energy mandates, grid instability and regulatory burdens have taken their toll. Meanwhile, states with more balanced energy policies — natural gas, coal and nuclear power — have fared far better.

What’s worse, California’s natural advantage in AI will be lost to Texas and other low-cost energy states. California’s industrial electricity prices averaged 21.98 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2023 vs. 6.26 in Texas, a whopping 251% price premium that no electricity-hungry AI installation or server farm operator is going to pay.

Meanwhile, in Joe Biden’s backyard: Delaware Residents See Surging Electric Bills as State Pushes Green Mandates.

Delaware consumers have faced soaring electricity prices this winter—something experts and lawmakers are warning is a harbinger of more dramatic price hikes as the state implements aggressive green energy policies.

According to electric bills reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon and local news reports, electric bills have skyrocketed by hundreds of dollars and—in some cases—by as much as 350 percent in recent months.

Leigh Rieley, a Washington, D.C., resident who owns a fixer-upper house with her husband in their hometown in southeast Delaware, shared her recent electric bills with the Free Beacon. In January, Rieley and her husband saw a staggering month-over-month price hike of 359 percent.

“We were very surprised to see it go from like 90 bucks to nearly 400 and, we’re not in it—no one is using the house,” she told the Free Beacon. Rieley’s neighbors and nearby family have experienced identical price shocks, she said. Another resident, Maria Cordona, told Delaware Online that her January bill was over $1,200.

The unexpected price increases in Delaware come as the state experiences extremely low temperatures and as it continues to enforce green energy power production mandates. In 2021, the state passed rules forcing 40 percent of power production to be green by 2035 despite being one of the most fossil-fuel-dependent states in the country.

“Green” mandates can be seen as a form of tax, and as Delaware’s favorite son liked to remind voters, paying higher taxes is a patriotic act. Do it for Scranton Joe, Delaware!