Newsom Proclaims ‘Clean Energy Victory’ as CA Energy Costliest in Mainland U.S.

California Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed a “major clean energy victory” with a tenfold increase in battery capacity as the state’s energy costs rose to the highest in the contiguous United States, or double the national average. Only Hawaii, the island state in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, has more expensive energy. Newsom announced the state has 10,379 megawatts of battery storage during Earth Week. Given that the state consumes 259.5 terawatts of energy per year — or approximately 711,000 megawatts of energy per day — that’s enough capacity to run the state for 21 minutes.