"California’s electricity prices are among the highest in the country, new research says, and those costs are falling disproportionately on a customer base that’s already struggling to pay their bills.

PG&E customers pay about 80% more per kilowatt-hour than the national average, according to a study by the energy institute at UC Berkeley’s Haas Business School with the nonprofit think tank Next 10. The study analyzed the rates of the state’s three largest investor-owned utilities and found that Southern California Edison charged 45% more than the national average, while San Diego Gas & Electric charged double. Even low-income residents enrolled in the California Alternate Rates for Energy program paid more than the average American.

“California’s retail prices are out of line with utilities across the country,” said UC Berkeley assistant professor and study co-author Meredith Fowlie, citing Hawaii and some New England states among the outliers with even higher rates. “And they’re increasing.”

PG&E customers pay 80% more than national average. Costs are falling disproportionately on a customer base that’s already struggling to pay their bills."

When California's Public Utilities Commission approved PG&E's application to close Diablo Canyon Power Plant, the state's largest source of clean electricity, Administrative Law Judge Peter V. Allen noted,  "PG&E believes that the continued operation of Diablo Canyon beyond 2025 would exacerbate over-generation, requiring curtailment of renewable generation."

With the state's approval, its largest utility will soon sacrifice an $11.6 billion investment in affordable, clean energy to benefit solar developers and rich Californians at the expense of the poor.