California Wants Everyone To Drive Electric Cars. The State’s Energy Policies Make Charging Them More Expensive Than Ever.

 Susannah Luthi (freebeacon.com)    

Soaring electricity prices have nearly doubled cost to charge EVs since 2022.

 "If we electrify all of our end use, where will we get all that power?" Ring asked. "It’s absurd to think we can get that much electricity from wind and solar." 

"As California pushes consumers to drive electric vehicles, the state is also moving away from fossil fuels, making electricity—and charging those vehicles—more expensive.

"California has ushered in a nearly 70 percent spike in electricity costs since 2010 when the state began its big break from fossil fuels due to its cap-and-trade regulations, mandates on utilities to procure higher-cost renewable energy, crackdowns on oil and gas, and taxpayer subsidies for solar panels. And while Californian households use less electricity than residents of other states, their rates are nearly 63 percent higher than the national average.

"Now the price hikes are hitting EV owners, in some cases nearly doubling the charging costs since 2022, even as regulators ready a 2035 ban on the sale of gas-fueled autos. EVs still represent just a fraction of the cars on the road—just over 903,000 of California’s 14.3 million registered automobiles were electric as of 2022. The soaring costs come as President Joe Biden models his own administration’s green energy policies on California’s, with an aggressive target to cut carbon emissions, and push for electric freight trucks and EV sales. But critics of California’s renewable energy push say it’s ultimately an example of the state’s myriad climate policies undermining one another.

" 'Policy choices have driven up electricity prices in California, which is completely inconsistent with their desire to put people into electric vehicles," said Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute.

"Others say the dilemma is another sign California may be barreling toward a dead end with its goals of eliminating gas and diesel vehicles while powering the electric grid with renewable sources like wind and solar.

" 'To convert California’s transportation fleet to all-electric … you’re going to have to drastically increase electricity supply—and they don’t have any idea how to do it," said Edward Ring, cofounder of the California Policy Center and longtime energy policy analyst." . . .