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I pay about $0.14 per KWH. But, electricity costs in California always have been high because of air pollution regulation that require the utilities to use cleaner fuels and to have cleaner generating systems than in most other parts of the country.I have never bought into this argument. OK, we pay for the externals, through other costs--taxes being the main thing. But those payments are pretty much distributed along usage lines. Pushing all the costs onto the utility cost then ends up costing too much for the 'poor' so they get subsidized, and pretty soon your taxes are right back where they were (if they ever would have gone down in the first place) and you are still paying more for your energy. That's a no win situation for those who actually pay 'full' taxes and pay for their own utilities (e.g. just an increased burden on the middle class).
Unfortunately, there is a "free lunch" in the sense that most electricity consumers do not pay for the "external" costs of generating power. For example, you probably are not paying the real costs of air pollution caused by using coal-fired plants nor for the disposal of nuclear waste from the nuclear reactor on you electric bill. Much of that is subsidized by the taxpayer in most parts of the country. Here more of it is covered by the ratepayer.