California Electricity Shutoffs Increase Up 64 Percent Over Five Years- Minnesotans Should Take Note

Hundreds of thousands of Californians are feeling the negative effects of their renewable energy mandates, which was recently increased to a 100 percent mandate for zero emission electricity by 2045, as the number of people who can’t afford their electric bill has skyrocketed.

According to Bloomberg, power disconnections have increased by 64 percent in just five years in California. Approximately 300,000 more people in California are unable to pay their electric bill today compared to just five years ago.  The high rate of disconnects has occurred because the state has seen skyrocketing electricity prices due to their renewable energy mandates.

About 10 percent to 15 percent of people who are disconnected never get reconnected.

Unsurprisingly, power disconnections have increased as electricity prices in California have risen five times more than the national average.

In what appears to be rocket science for renewable energy advocates, electricity prices have skyrocketed as the installed capacity of renewable energy on the grid has grown. This is because California already had enough reliable, affordable electricity to make sure the lights stayed on, but then they spent an enormous amount of money building more than 16 gigawatts of renewable capacity, according to the California Energy Commission.

While the situation isn’t as bad in Minnesota, yet, we are closer to this bleak future than we think. There are candidates running for office, including Tim Walz, who is running for governor, who want to increase Minnesota’s renewable energy mandate to require the state to source 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2050.

Increasing this mandate is a bad idea because it will cause electricity prices in our state to continue to climb. California has the highest poverty rate in the nation, the highest income inequality of any state in the country, and homeless rates are skyrocketing, in part due to people being evicted because they can’t afford to pay their electric bill.

Is this what we want in Minnesota? I don’t think so.