Santa Barbara Current

Santa Barbara Current

As I Was Saying...

The Answer is Not Blowing in the Wind

By Saro Rizzo

Apr 24, 2026
∙ Paid

California is gripped by an electricity crisis. A “perfect storm” of structural and policy failures has saddled citizens with the highest residential rates in the contiguous U.S.—reaching up to 36 cents per kWh as of April 2026. This burden will only grow as EV adoption, high-speed charging, and AI data centers drive peak demand up an estimated 15% by 2…

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