Greener—and Poorer – Lower-income people shoulder a disproportionate share of the costs of California’s environmental policies.

The Biden-Harris administration has praised California’s progressive elected officials as model leaders on climate and environmental issues. But what have those state leaders and their policies actually produced? A fixation on renewable energy, along with the closure of natural gas and nuclear plants, has helped drive the cost of electricity and gas in California higher than anywhere else in the continental U.S. And the lion’s share of these costs is borne by low-income families. Adjusted for cost of living, California has the nation’s highest poverty rate—about 7.1 million people—due in part to the high costs of essentials like housing, gas, and electricity.