California families are paying double the national average for electricity.
And their governor spent Tuesday posting clean energy victory laps on social media.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright just showed America exactly what kind of math Newsom is using – and it has Democrats furious.
The Trick Newsom Has Been Playing on California Voters
Newsom posted on X bragging that California runs on "100% CLEAN ENERGY for at least part of the day" more than nine out of ten days in 2026.
Wright – a man who spent his career actually drilling for energy before Trump put him in charge of the nation's – fired back immediately.
“If only the Governor or his team understood the difference between electricity and energy—or how an electricity grid works—maybe they wouldn’t have the highest electricity prices in the continental U.S.,” he wrote. “CA’s grid continues to shrink—producing less electricity than it did 10 years ago.”
https://twitter.com/SecretaryWright/status/2102455196227944522?s=20
That is the trick Newsom has been running for years.
Electricity and energy are not the same thing.
Electricity powers your lights and your phone charger.
Energy powers your car, heats your home, fuels the factories that make your groceries, and moves every delivery truck in the state.
When Newsom says California runs on clean energy, he's counting only the electricity grid – and only during the sunniest hours of the day when solar panels peak.
Wright then dropped the number Newsom doesn't want California voters to see.
More than 70% of California's total energy consumption still comes from oil and natural gas.
Newsom's "100% clean energy" claim describes a two-hour window on a sunny afternoon.
The other 22 hours – and everything that moves, heats, or runs on fuel – is still overwhelmingly powered by the fossil fuels Newsom tells voters he's eliminating.
“FYI, Gavin: More than 70% of CA total energy consumption today comes from oil and natural gas,” Wright wrote.
Californians Pay the Price for Newsom's Fantasy
The consequences of this green energy theater aren't abstract.
California residential electricity rates hit 35.25 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2026 – nearly double the national average of 18.83 cents.
Wright also noted that California's power grid has been shrinking – putting out less juice today than it did a decade ago.
A state that can't keep the lights on reliably is lecturing the rest of America about its energy future.
Compare that to Texas, which added more than three times California's solar capacity in 2024, more natural gas, more wind, more batteries – and still charges customers around the national average.
Texas built more.
Texas regulated less.
Texas charged less.
Newsom built a press release.
Meanwhile, Strait of Hormuz disruptions drove California gas past $6 a gallon this year – because over 60% of California's oil comes from overseas imports, a dependency Newsom quietly deepened while publicly celebrating clean energy milestones.
His response to $6 gas was announcing E15 ethanol blend legislation.
The man who told you he fixed California's energy system just proposed adding more corn to your gasoline.
This Is What the 2028 Election Looks Like
Newsom wants to be president – which is the only reason a governor posts clean energy victory laps while his constituents pay the highest electricity rates in the continental United States.
The "100% clean energy" post was a campaign ad dressed up as a policy win.
And Wright – an oilman who understands how energy systems actually work – just dismantled it with one statistic.
The rest of America is watching California choose between 35-cent electricity, $6 gas, and a shrinking power grid on one side, and Trump's energy agenda on the other.
One number – 70% – made that choice pretty easy to explain.
Newsom handed Wright the ammunition himself.
Sources:
- Secretary Chris Wright, X post, September 22, 2026.
- Badar Shaikh, "Chris Wright Fires Back at Gavin Newsom Over California's '100% Clean Energy' Claim," Benzinga, September 22, 2026.
- Center for Jobs, California Energy Price Data, February 2026.
- "Electricity Rates in California (May 2026)," Outage Pro / U.S. Energy Information Administration, May 2026.
- "Energy in California," Wikipedia / U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2026.
- "California's Pathetic Power Example," Washington Examiner, July 2025.