California electricity prices double US average — SkimNews
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- California electricity prices are now double the U.S. average and second-highest in the country, with 80% of Californians calling lower utility bills a top legislative priority.
- California distribution costs doubled over two decades and spiked sharply after catastrophic 2019 wildfires forced massive utility fire-mitigation spending; transmission expenditures tripled over the same period, though they remain about 10% of the bill.
- GridLab and Energy Innovation convened more than 20 California power-sector experts and turned the lessons into a policy roadmap for the incoming governor, the CPUC, the state legislature, and utilities.
- CPUC "tracking accounts" ballooned from $86 million in 2018 to $2.4 billion in 2024, according to UC Berkeley's Center for Law, Energy and Environment, fragmenting cost oversight and raising barriers for ratepayer advocates.
- California grid utilization has fallen to about 48% from a peak of roughly 60%, even as electrification and rising data-center demand strain interconnection, planning, and cost allocation.
- Gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra has proposed a rate freeze plus two hours of free mid-day power when solar generation peaks — moves the authors call welcome relief but insufficient to address underlying cost drivers.
Why it matters: California consumers pay roughly twice the national average for electricity, and the authors argue the state's regulatory fragmentation — CPUC tracking accounts jumped from $86M to $2.4B between 2018 and 2024 — and post-2019 wildfire-cost spikes have turned a national clean-energy leader into a cautionary tale. Without utility-budget reform, rate modernization, and expanded wildfire-cost securitization, California's electrification strategy may lose public backing before other states follow its model.
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