Rising energy rates are hitting Wisconsin families hard. What’s behind them? Megan Novak investigates.
Rising utility bills are hitting Wisconsin families at exactly the wrong time. Groceries are up, housing is tight, and now energy – one of the most basic household needs – is becoming steadily less affordable. The scale and persistence of rate increases point to a serious problem in our state: a series of policy choices by Democrats that are driving costs higher year after year.
The numbers are hard to ignore. Since 2019, state regulators appointed by Governor Evers have approved more than $2.2 billion in utility rate increases. That is not a temporary spike; it’s a sustained trend that reflects how entrenched interests are profiting from bad policies while Wisconsin families and businesses are left to pay the bill. Utility companies continue demanding, and receiving, double-digit rate increases. Earlier this year, WE Energies requested another rate hike for its customers, this time a 14% increase over two years.
These increases are cumulative. Each approved rate hike builds on the last, meaning customers are living with the compounding effect of years of decisions layered on top of each other. What might seem manageable in isolation becomes much more painful over time.
Democrats in Wisconsin, under Governor Tony Evers and then-Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, pushed a carbon-free-by-2050 energy policy plan for the entire state through 2019 Executive Order 38.
A report from the Center of the American Experiment analyzed this agenda and found staggering costs associated with it for Wisconsin families, businesses, and school districts. According to the report, electricity customers could see expenses increase by an average of more than $2,700 per year through 2050.
What is really driving these rate hikes? How has Wisconsin gone from one of the most affordable states to the second-highest electricity rates in the Midwest?
Let’s start with a basic fact: investor-owned utilities operate as government-regulated monopolies. Most Wisconsin families do not get to shop around for electricity. In exchange for that protected status, utilities are regulated by governor-appointed commissioners. But utilities also have a fiduciary duty to protect shareholder interests and deliver returns. That only works if regulators strike the right balance, but Wisconsinites are right to wonder whether that balance is gone.
It is also important to understand how utilities actually make money. Most people assume power companies profit when you buy more electricity. But investor-owned utilities make their real money through capital spending; building power plants, transmission lines, solar projects, wind projects, and other major infrastructure. The more they build, the more assets they put into the system, and the more opportunity they have to recover costs from ratepayers while earning a return.
That creates a perverse incentive for utilities. When government pushes top-down mandates and politically preferred energy sources, utilities see an opportunity.
For comparison, under former Governor Scott Walker, the PSC approved just over $300 million in rate increases. Contrarily, the PSC has approved more than $2.2 billion and counting under the Evers administration.
Carbon-Free Energy Goals
Democrats in Wisconsin, under Governor Tony Evers and then-Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, pushed a carbon-free-by-2050 energy policy plan for the entire state through 2019 Executive Order 38.
A report from the Center of the American Experiment analyzed this agenda and found staggering costs associated with it for Wisconsin families, businesses, and school districts. According to the report, electricity customers could see expenses increase by an average of more than $2,700 per year through 2050. School districts could face hundreds of thousands of dollars in added energy costs, forcing them to lay off staff, go to a referendum, or raise property taxes even further.
This is the part the Left does not want to talk about. Wisconsin has been building, but not to create more practical, affordable, reliable energy. Instead, the state is building to transition from one kind of energy to a politically preferred kind of energy. Ratepayers are being asked to finance that transition, not necessarily a better deal.
Renewable Energy Subsidies
So-called carbon-free policies rely heavily on unreliable, intermittent energy sources like wind and solar, all of which are subsidized by taxpayers.
That means Wisconsin families can get hit from both directions. First, they pay higher monthly utility bills to cover the buildout of a preferred energy portfolio. Then they pay again as taxpayers, helping subsidize the same industries through federal policy.
That is where the Green New Deal mindset in Washington made a bad situation worse. Under Joe Biden, the federal government poured taxpayer dollars into favored green technologies, lowering costs for developers and utilities while shifting more of the burden onto the public. Ratepayers are helping finance higher utility costs at the state level, while taxpayers are also footing the bill federally for the same transition.
Stranded Assets
One of the biggest and least discussed cost drivers is stranded assets. When a power plant is retired before the end of its useful life, the remaining value of that asset does not simply disappear. Utilities are still allowed to recover those costs, which means ratepayers continue paying for infrastructure that is no longer producing electricity. At the same time, they are also being made to fund replacement generation, which is usually less reliable renewable energy generation driven by Democrat policies.
In practical terms, households are paying for yesterday’s system and tomorrow’s system at the same time. It’s like continuing to make payments on a car you no longer drive while also financing a new one.
Recent reporting has highlighted that Wisconsin ratepayers are already paying for retired power plants through stranded asset costs, even as utilities continue building out new generation. The people pay for the original plant, keep paying after it shuts down, and then pay again for the replacement. Utilities win on both ends, and ratepayers get stuck with the bill.
PSC Rubber Stamps
Perhaps the most glaring reason bills keep rising year after year is that Tony Evers’ appointees to the Public Service Commission (PSC) are far too willing to approve rate hike requests from utility companies.
For comparison, under former Governor Scott Walker, the PSC approved just over $300 million in rate increases. Contrarily, the PSC has approved more than $2.2 billion and counting under the Evers administration.
The PSC is supposed to be a referee. It is supposed to ask hard questions, protect ratepayers, and make sure monopoly utilities are not simply using their captive customer base as a guaranteed revenue stream. Instead, too many Wisconsinites now see a commission that keeps approving higher costs while families keep paying more.
And all of this is before even addressing the elephant in the room: data centers. Wisconsin is already under pressure to build more generation, and the massive energy demand from data centers will only add to that strain. The obvious question is who should pay for the infrastructure needed to serve them. Lawmakers recently debated whether data center developers should bear more of those costs. Democrats in the Assembly voted no. In other words, they chose to shift more of the burden onto residential customers and small businesses.
Fewer Options for Ratepayers
Rising energy costs are not an abstract concern. The impact is being felt in real ways for Wisconsin families, farmers, and businesses.
But despite higher costs, families still have fewer options than they should. If homeowners, farmers, manufacturers, or small businesses want to generate more of their own power, invest in storage, or reduce their dependence on monopoly utilities, state laws should make that easier, not harder. Wisconsin should be moving toward a system that allows people to bring their own power and have more control over their energy future, not locking them deeper into dependence on monopoly providers.
Under Democratic policies, we have higher bills, fewer options, and a growing financial burden on all Wisconsinites. The real story is clear: the Left backed top-down carbon-free goals, embraced Green New Deal-style subsidies, protected a monopoly utility system that profits from building, allowed ratepayers to be charged for stranded assets, and relied on regulators who keep approving the costs.
If Democrats are looking to blame someone for higher energy costs, all they have to do is look in the mirror.
