We’re paying a lot more for electricity than we did a decade ago. A report by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance finds rates in the Badger State rose 5.6-percent during the last 10 years.
During that time, Alliance President Todd Berry says Wisconsin has been about one to two percentage points higher than the national average. Wisconsin had been among the cheapest states for electricity before then.
Berry says rising coal prices are a factor in the cost increases. However, he says the bigger issue is the construction of new power plants and transmission lines.
Berry says Wisconsin was facing an energy shortage in the 1990s that required more generating and transmission capacity to be created in the state. He says the cost of making that happen is the primary reason Wisconsin now has the 20th highest electricity rates in the nation.