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Biden’s green energy fiasco, not Trump’s reforms, is jacking up your electric bill
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There’s a battle to define a narrative about what’s to blame for rising electricity prices. Some claim higher electricity prices are due to President Donald Trump’s “one big beautiful bill,” which curtailed subsidies for “cheap” wind and solar installations. Others blame AI’s rapidly expanding appetite for electricity, while some blame inflation. None of these charges hold up under scrutiny.
But shifting blame, usually with the help of a complicit media, helps with the only thing that matters to most politicians: seizing political power.
This is readily seen in California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom’s trip to Belém, Brazil, to rub elbows with the global elite at the U.N.’s COP30 global climate conference on Nov. 11. Newsom, an all-but-declared candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 2028, slammed the Trump administration for not attending the confab, accusing the president of “handing the future to China,” presumably in the category of selling solar panels embedded with secret kill switches.
Newsom went on to say that “We’re not turning backwards to the failed policies of the past — California is fighting for a clean-energy future, even as President Trump bends the knee to his Gulf-State patrons and takes a nap as the world burns.” Newsom also claimed that California is now operating its grid on “two-thirds clean energy,” with California operating on 100% non-fossil-fuel energy for at least part of the day nine out of 10 days this year.
NEWSOM CLAIMS TRUMP IS ‘HANDING THE FUTURE TO CHINA’ AT BRAZILIAN CLIMATE CONFAB THAT WH SKIPPED
Solar power energy microgrid in California, as part of that state’s green energy push. (Photo by SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP via Getty Images)
But California now has the nation’s second-highest electricity prices, only behind 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 with the National Center for Energy Analytics.
The truth that Newsom doesn’t want Californians — or Democratic primary voters — to know is that “green” energy is expensive energy. That’s because, “60% of the time, (wind and solar) works every time” to borrow from the much-memed comedy “Anchorman.” And, it’s very costly to make sure the power is on when wind and solar aren’t producing.
This, Lesser notes, is one of the main culprits in rising electricity costs.
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The Biden-Harris administration’s reckless push for subsidized wind and solar — and California’s before that and since — has destabilized our grid and forced consumers to foot the bill for fortifying unreliable “green” energy with reliable gas power and expensive batteries — the latter of limited utility.
From the first quarter of 2010 to the second quarter of 2025, average residential electricity rates across the U.S. surged by about 63%, according to Energy Information Administration (EIA) data. But the pain isn’t evenly distributed. States like Massachusetts and California not only endured the steepest hikes, but now boast two of the nation’s highest rates — over 30 cents per kilowatt-hour in some cases.
Critics peddle all sorts of excuses for these increases. One target is data centers, those power-hungry hubs fueling AI and cloud computing. Sure, they consume a lot of power — Virginia, a data center hotspot, has seen demand rise. But Virginia’s rates? Below-average increases and still under the national norm. If data centers are the villain, why isn’t the Old Dominion suffering like California?
TRUMP’S UN SPEECH REVEALS INCONVENIENT TRUTH OF MASSIVE GREEN ENERGY COSTS
A recent International Renewable Energy Agency report touts falling costs for renewables. But as Lesser’s analysis shows, that’s a half-truth at best. Subsidies like the federal production tax credit — now $27.50 per megawatt-hour — let wind and solar operators undercut the market with negative bids, distorting wholesale prices and squeezing out reliable baseload plants — which end up not being built.
Here’s the missing link the green advocates ignore: the shift in our generating mix. Between 2010 and 2024, U.S. electricity capacity grew 16% to 1,325 gigawatts, outpacing a mere 5% rise in retail sales. Sounds good, right? Wrong. Dispatchable sources — coal, gas and nuclear, which can ramp up on demand — plummeted by 80 gigawatts. Intermittent wind and solar ballooned seven-fold, to 278 gigawatts.
California Governor Gavin Newsom traveled to Brazil for the COP30 World Climate Conference, touting his state’s energy policies while the Trump administration skipped the event. (Larissa Schwedes/picture alliance via Getty Images)
This trend accelerated in 2025: More than 1,900 megawatts of fossil fuel retired by July, with another 12,600 megawatts slated for shutdown by year’s end and into 2026. What’s replacing them? More subsidized wind, solar, and pricey batteries.
TRUMP’S ENERGY PRICE PROMISE IS COMING DUE. HE HAS THE POWER TO SOLVE THE CRISIS
It’s policy malpractice. States like New Jersey and New York forced premature closures of reliable power plants such as Oyster Creek nuclear in 2018 and Indian Point in 2021, which powered a quarter of New York City’s needs.
Biden-era EPA rules, now being rolled back under Trump, would have shuttered most coal plants by 2032. Mandates for cars to have “zero-emissions” by 2035 in places like California ignore reality. Where will they get the electricity? Wind and solar can’t provide inertia or reactive power, essential for grid stability.
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The fallout? Skyrocketing prices.
NEWSOM PUSHES CLIMATE RECORD ABROAD AS CALIFORNIANS SHOULDER AMERICA’S HIGHEST GAS COSTS
The truth that Newsom doesn’t want Californians — or Democratic primary voters — to know is that “green” energy is expensive energy.
Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act — only now going into effect, so any electricity price increases to this point aren’t due to the law — flips the script. By rescinding President Joe Biden’s vehicle emission standards and fossil fuel crackdowns, it prioritizes affordable, dispatchable energy. Expect more nuclear builds, streamlined pipelines and fewer handouts to Big Green. This won’t spike prices — it’ll stabilize them by restoring reliable supply.
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Biden’s (and Newsom’s) green zealotry promised cheap power, but delivered the opposite: unaffordable, unreliable electricity that hampers economic growth. Trump’s reforms demonstrate that true energy independence means ditching the myths and embracing what works.
Americans deserve a grid that powers prosperity, not one that bankrupts it.
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SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced multiple hate crime charges, as well as assault and vandalism charges against an Oakland man for an incident that happened in the Castro District last month.
On Thursday afternoon, Hans Haken pleaded not guilty to one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon, one count of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, one count of vandalism, one count of hit-and-run, and one count of reckless driving.
Prosecutors also allege each of the felony assault counts was a hate crime.
“In San Francisco, we have zero tolerance for any hate, hateful acts, certainly that cross the criminal line, and we will do everything that we can to protect our residents from these types of incidents,” said Jenkins at a Thursday afternoon news conference.
It was on May 16, around 5:30 p.m., when prosecutors say Haken spray-painted a homophobic slur on the wall next to Chartreuse by Roje, a gay-owned floral boutique in San Francisco’s Castro District.
“It was a reminder that even though we’re here in Castro, San Francisco, we live in this well-protected bubble that we have created very passionately and strongly, that that can still happen,” said Jeffrey Dumlao, the owner of Chartreuse by Roje. “If anything, that is what’s scary, that it happened here in broad daylight of all times.”
Dumlao says his store had already closed by that time, but Justin Donnelly, who lives above the store, heard the spray-painting and came down to confront the man and tell him to stop.
“He just became very agitated,” Donnelly said. “I tried to remain calm and just tell him, like, sir, you know, I don’t, I don’t, I’m not involved in any of that. I’m just, I live here, right, and this is, this is my home, and you know, this is vandalism.”
Donnelly says when he took a picture of Haken’s license plate, Haken got in the car and tried to run him over. Then, prosecutors say he got out of the car and punched Donnelly in the jaw while uttering homophobic slurs.
“I’m definitely doing a lot better than I was. It’s been, I don’t know, a month or so,” Donnelly said.
He says the incident has shaken him, but he’s been lifted up by the community’s support and law enforcement.
“A lot of people have said, ‘oh my god, I can’t believe something like this could happen in San Francisco, of all places.’ And the fact is that something like this can happen anywhere, but in San Francisco, we don’t stand for it, and we deal with it, so, so that makes me feel good,” Donnelly said.
In announcing the charges, Jenkins pointed out the climate in this country has become more hostile to the LGBTQ community. She says that makes it even more important for elected officials to protect that community, just like they do every other community.
Factors such as declining birth rates and families moving out of the city are contributing to declining enrollment at Denver Public Schools. In turn, it’s reshaping the district’s future.
“I think we’re in a good position, but it’s responsible for us to always be looking in the future and knowing we have to make some adjustments,” said Chuck Carpenter, the district’s CFO.
In a two-year span between this past school year and next, DPS expects a decline in enrollment of around 1,700 students.
“We haven’t really seen anything like this,” said Carpenter in response to the consistent decline.
Because of this trend, the district is facing a $28 million structural deficit over the next five years.
“We have a balanced budget now, and we’re not predicting that we’ll have an unbalanced budget in three years,” said Carpenter. “We’re saying we need to make adjustments over the next three, four years, so that our budgets are balanced.”
DPS’s Director of Campus Planning, Andrew Huber, told CBS Colorado in an interview last month that those adjustments will likely include closing down more schools.
“Additional school closures will be necessary in the upcoming years. When exactly that would be is hard to forecast right now,” said Huber.
The district’s CFO says his biggest takeaway from a recent round of closures is to make sure to give families options for what’s next.
“No one wants their school closed, but the second-best option isn’t going to be the same for every family,” said Carpenter.
This issue could be one Denver faces for years to come.
“We sort of say, how many kids are born here? Because in five years, those kids will be kindergartners,” Carpenter added.
The city’s birth rate peaked in 2005, meaning those babies have already graduated high school. And, according to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, more young families move out of Denver and into surrounding counties than move into the city.
“I think school consolidation is very — I understand why people want to talk about it, but I think it’s more about, like, how do we make sure that the programs that are offered are rich programs,” said Carpenter.
Carpenter also says the district is closely monitoring some potential cuts to federal grants for students of poverty and language learners. He says those decisions will be made by October for the start of the new fiscal year, and cuts would have a “terrible” impact.
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