If renewable energy is so great, why does California pay so much for its electricity?

That's the question you need to ask — the one that exposes America's most inconvenient energy truth. Californians pay 35 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity, whereas Iowans, despite generating nearly twice as great a share of renewable energy, enjoy 14 cents.

This paradox reveals that California's energy crisis stems not from clean power itself, but from catastrophic policy choices, regulatory capture, and the brutal economics of being first.

The numbers demolish conventional wisdom. Eight states generate more renewable electricity than California's 38 percent, and all of those eight maintain rates below the national average of 17.47 cents. Iowa leads with 65 percent renewables at less than half California's cost. South Dakota achieves 62 percent renewable generation and its ratepayers pay just 14.34 cents. Washington State, with 78 percent renewable power from legacy hydroelectric dams, is able to keep rates at 13.67 cents.

What explains this paradox? Start with California's early-adopter penalty. When the state mandated renewable adoption in the 2000s, solar panels cost ten times their current prices. The state essentially bought the energy equivalent of a $4,000 flat-screen television that now sells for $400.

Power purchase agreements signed between 2007-2010 have locked ratepayers into decades of above-market prices — stranded costs that states building renewables today simply avoid.

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