The Leaflet: Higher State Support for Green Energy Increases Energy Costs for Consumers

Published June 2, 2016

In May 2016 the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) published an analysis that revealed a “statistically significant correlation … between high electricity bills and states with numerous policies supporting green energy.”

Using data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency, the study concluded states offering incentives such as “rebates, buy-back programs, tax exemptions and direct cash subsidies to green energy were 64 percent more likely to have higher than average electric bills. For every additional pro-green energy policy in a state, the average price of electricity rose by about .01 cents per kilowatt-hour.”

DCNF pointed to California and West Virginia to exhibit the failure of many states’ failing green-energy programs. Electricity prices in California, which includes 183 different policies that “support” green energy, are currently at 14.3 cents per kilowatt-hour. Electricity prices in West Virginia, which has only 11 green-energy-friendly polies, average 7.91 cents per kilowatt-hour.

DNCF says Connecticut and New York have had the most expensive energy costs since 2013, with prices averaging 15.7 and 15.4 cents per kilowatt-hour, respectively. Washington State (7.1 cents per kilowatt-hour) and Wyoming (7.55 cents per kilowatt-hour) had the lowest. Washington State has a higher number of green-energy policies, but the state produces 30 percent of the nation’s net hydroelectricity generation, which helps to lower the state’s energy prices.

Renewable portfolio standards—the subsidies and renewable power mandates state legislatures impose upon consumers—are very costly. The Brookings Institution published a 2014 study that found U.S. wind power is on average twice as expense as the conventional power it replaces. The study also concluded solar power is three times as expensive. The higher costs eventually trickle down to consumers.

H. Sterling Burnett, an environment and climate research fellow at The Heartland Institute, concluded states with renewable power mandates are seeing retail electricity prices rise twice as fast as the national average.

Wind and solar power receive disproportionate federal, state, and local taxpayer subsidies. To fund those subsidies, higher tax rates are utilized, which impose significant costs in addition to those reflected in retail electricity prices.

EIA says while solar power receives more federal subsidies than all fossil-fuel industries, it only produces 0.4 percent of the country’s electricity. Wind power receives more subsidies than fossil-fuel industries as well, and it produces only 4.4 percent the nation’s electricity. It is estimated wind and solar power receive 25 times more subsidies than fossil fuels when estimates are calculated based on the dollar per unit of electricity produced.

Low-income households are more impacted by such policies, because they spend a larger share of income on electricity, effectively making renewable power mandates a regressive tax.

Repealing renewable power mandates and eliminating green-energy subsidies would significantly lower electricity prices and raise the standard of living; lower-cost electricity would allow for the purchase of goods and services that improve lives. The economy would grow, and the number of jobs would increase as available money flows into other areas of the economy, creating the need for additional goods and services.

State legislators should reevaluate current renewable mandates and energy subsidies, not enact costly energy policies.

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