Traditionally, utility bills are based on the “user pays“ concept. If you use twice as much electric power as your neighbor, you pay twice as much. But last year California’s legislature passed a law that adds a de facto income tax to the state’s electric bills.

The new fee would be $15 a month for lower income ratepayers, while upper income ratepayers earning more than $180,000 a year would be socked with a new charge of $85 a month, or about $1,000 a year.  The California Public Utilities Commission is expected to approve the measure in coming months. California already has the highest income taxes in the world.

Of course, California wouldn’t have to be raising rates for anyone, and there wouldn’t be continuing risks of blackout on the left coast, if the state would simply produce its own abundant energy.