Washington Examiner
· collected 2026-09-14 · by Isaac Orr and Sarah Montalbano
The article argues that Washington D.C.’s renewable energy mandates have significantly increased electricity costs, making them unaffordable for residents and businesses. By 2025, these mandates caused a cost increase from $65 million to nearly $272 million, raising electricity prices by nearly 66% compared to neighboring states. The author suggests that Congress should use its authority under the Home Rule Act to review and potentially repeal D.C.’s renewable energy policies to save residents approximately $280 annually per customer.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-14,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Washington’s renewable energy mandates are making its electricity so expensive that the Council of the District of Columbia explicitly exempted its government buildings from being required to pay the costs of the regulations.
asserted
Council → make → regulations
Why should municipal buildings be exempt from a mandate that it imposes on residents, businesses, and federal taxpayers?
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it → impose → residents
We don’t think they should.
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they → think → ?
Congress and the Trump administration should use their constitutional authority to review D.C. Council legislation under the Home Rule Act to repeal the district’s renewable energy mandates and save it over $272 million.
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Congress → use → million
While data centers have become a national boogeyman for rising electricity rates, the district’s skyrocketing costs are directly attributable to its series of ill-advised green energy policies.
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costs → become → policies
For example, in 2019, the D.C. Council updated its renewable energy mandates to be the most aggressive in the United States.
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Council → update → States
Under the law, the district would be required to obtain 100% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2032, and the law increased the district’s mandated 5% local solar requirements to 10%.
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law → require → %
Then, in 2023, policymakers tripled the original 5% mandate by increasing the local solar mandate to 15% by 2041.
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policymakers → triple → 2041
As a result, renewable energy mandate costs soared from $65 million in 2020 to nearly $272 million in 2025, quadrupling in just five years.
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costs → soar → years
Federal price data show that from 2019 to 2025, the district’s electricity price increases were the largest in the nation, rising by nearly 66%, compared to 50% for neighboring Maryland and 20% in Virginia.
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increases → show → Virginia
The district’s renewable mandate costs now represent roughly 13.1% of the total cost of electricity, increasing the cost by 2.66 cents per kilowatt-hour.
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costs → represent → hour
This brings the average annual cost of the mandates to nearly $775 per electricity customer in the district, including residential customers, businesses, and federal buildings.
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This → bring → customers
As compliance costs soared, the D.C. Council once again amended the renewable energy mandates in 2024.
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Council → soar → 2024
This time, policymakers explicitly exempted the electricity sold to government buildings from paying the costs associated with them.
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policymakers → exempt → them
And although the exemption was supposedly temporary, policymakers have already extended it through September 2029.
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policymakers → extend → September
The district’s policy seems to be expensive renewable energy mandates for thee, but not for me.
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policy → seem → me
While the D.C. Council can establish laws and ordinances, Congress has the ultimate power to enact legislation for the district, and it could use that power to save residential, commercial, and federal electricity customers over $272 million, or roughly $775 annually per electricity customer in the district, by our estimates.
uncertain
it → establish → estimates
Even Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration acknowledges that residential customers pay an additional $20 per month, or $280 annually, for the privilege of using expensive, home-grown distributed solar.
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customers → acknowledge → solar
It’s one thing that local Washingtonians are forced to pay higher prices because of policies enacted by the politicians they voted for.
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they → ’ → politicians
But federal taxpayers are also paying the costs of more expensive electricity, as the mandates drive up the electric bills of federal buildings.
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mandates → pay → buildings
The General Services Administration alone owns or leases roughly 50 million square feet of office space in Washington.
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Administration → own → Washington
Data show federal buildings consumed 13.9 kWh per square foot per year in 2018, meaning the 2.66-cent-per-kWh premium paid to comply with the district’s increasingly unreasonable renewable energy mandates is unnecessarily costing federal taxpayers an additional $18.6 million per year.
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premium → show → year
In our recent report, Blue States, High Rates; Always On Energy Research; and the Institute for Energy Research identified renewable energy mandates as a major driver of electricity price increases, and nowhere is that more apparent than in Washington.
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that → identify → Washington
By repealing the district’s current renewable mandates and preempting future ones, Congress would take a concrete step toward lowering the cost of living in one of the most expensive places in America, saving taxpayers millions of dollars every year and clearly demonstrating that expensive electricity is a choice.
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electricity → repeal → dollars
