Multiple studies have demonstrated wind and solar power remain more expensive than historically traditional sources of electricity, such as coal, natural gas, nuclear, and hydropower, and Energy Information Administration data back that up—disproving claims by renewable energy profiteers and their lobbying groups. As coal plants have been prematurely retired and replaced by wind and solar, prices have risen and reliability has declined. The greater the forced (through renewable mandates) or incentivized (through subsidies, tax breaks, and tax credits) incursion of wind and solar into a state’s electric power supply, the higher and faster the costs rise.

I’m from Texas, and my electric power rates have risen faster than the national average, to where our rates are now above average. Just 10 to 15 years ago, Texas’ electricity rates were declining and well below the national average, with residents such as myself benefiting from some of the lowest costs in the nation. The recent price rise has been driven by the closure of large coal-fueled power plants, amounting to several thousands of megawatts of reliable power being taken offline, and the tremendous growth of “cheap” wind and solar power, faster here than in the rest of the nation. Texas now leads the United States in intermittent wind and is second in the nation for intermittent solar, all built upon favorable federal and state subsidy regimes.

My personal conclusions were confirmed in a study published in the journal Electricity in 2022, which found solar power to be the most expensive form of electric power on a Levelized Full Cost of System (LFSCOE) basis. That means the costs of providing electricity by a given generation technology, assuming that a particular market has to be supplied solely by this source of electricity plus storage. Solar power has been the fastest-growing source of electric power in Texas for the past few years, with a rush to build during the Biden presidency. With solar being the most expensive source of electric power on an LFSCOE basis, Texas has unsurprisingly moved among the fastest-rising electric power rates in the nation.