“Meeting the required renewable generation targets increases electricity rates and reduces consumption below the baseline forecasts. Given the inelastic nature of demand, when electricity prices increase in real terms, electricity expenditures also increase. For instance, in 2015 consumers pay $3.2 billion more for electric power than under the baseline scenario when economic growth is low. These additional expenditures rise to over $4.6 billion during 2020 and then fall slightly, averaging $3.7 billion per year thereafter.

“During the early years of the [renewable portfolio standard] scenario, the stimulus from building the renewable energy facilities offsets the negative effects of higher electricity expenditures. From 2012 to 2014, the average annual net gains in employment are 67,829 and 72,211 under the low- and high-growth scenarios, respectively. […] After 2014, however, the net gains in employment and value added turn negative, and increasingly so as the drag on economic growth from higher energy prices offsets any employment and output gains from building and operating the renewable energy facilities.” [Timothy Considine and Edward Manderson, University of Wyoming, June 2012]