EDITORIAL: Why blue states have higher energy rates

Consumers don’t like higher electricity prices, but many don’t fully understand why their costs have increased.

An Ipsos poll this year found that 73 percent of Americans were worried about increasing utility bills. Eighty percent said they didn’t feel they had any control over how much they paid. Many Nevadans share those concerns. In June, many ratepayers objected to NV Energy’s proposed price increase.

Democrats are eager to pin this on President Donald Trump. They’ve decided that emphasizing affordability will lead them to electoral success. This may help them politically, but it won’t help those worried about their electricity bills.

“In total, 86 percent of states with electricity prices above the national average in the continental U.S. are reliably blue, having voted for the Democratic nominee for president in the 2020 and 2024 elections,” a report from the Institute for Energy Research found. “In contrast, 80 percent of the 10 states with the lowest electricity prices are reliably red, defined as having voted for the Republican candidate in these contests.”

This isn’t the result of chance. States create their own energy policies. Through measures such as renewable portfolio standards, many blue states require an ever-increasing amount of electricity to come from carbon-free sources. Ironically, those mandates usually exclude carbon-free nuclear power.

Creating new power plants is expensive. So is the infrastructure to support them — hello, Nevada’s Greenlink debacle. Then, there’s the problem of reliability. The sun doesn’t always shine. The wind doesn’t always blow. Battery storage plants are expensive. When demand peaks and renewables can’t keep up, states must pay extraordinarily high prices on the open market.

California has some of the most aggressive green energy mandates in the country. Its RPS requires all electricity to be carbon-free by 2045. It has the second-highest electricity prices in the nation.

Florida’s power system faces many challenges, including frequent hurricanes that damage infrastructure. But by prioritizing natural gas power, which accounts for 75 percent of power production, it has power rates below the national average.

Louisiana generates almost 75 percent of its electricity from natural gas. Another 16 percent comes from nuclear. Just 4 percent comes from non-hydroelectric renewables. Unsurprisingly, it has the third-lowest power rates in the country.

Affordable electricity “is a function of state-level policy choices,” the report notes. It continues, “States that have prioritized dispatchable, affordable generation consistently deliver the lowest electricity prices.”

Nevada consumers who are upset about high utility costs should direct their ire to state policymakers.