Iconic LA deli’s eye-watering utility bill exposes ugly affordability crisis in California

Canter’s Deli, the nearly century-old Fairfax Avenue institution that has fed Hollywood and locals alike for generations, just got walloped with a massive $34,000-plus utility bill.

At that price, you’d think they were mining bitcoin, not slicing corned beef.

According to the California Post, Canter’s says its new utility bill is nearly $10,000 higher than it was in the past.

If the taxes and the homeless problem in the neighborhood weren’t enough, now LA and California want to make it impossible for places like Canter’s to meet their bottom line.

Canter’s blames rising electricity prices.

The LA Department of Water and Power says that water and sewer costs, and not electricity, are the issue with the deli’s higher bill — suggesting a leak might be to blame for the bill spike.

However, Canter’s is not buying it: “We’ve done nothing differently than we’ve done now for 95 years, yet our bill has skyrocketed,” Jacqueline Canter said.

Typically, rising bills are not one-off misfortunes or rogue utility glitches. They are the predictable result of California’s decades-long obsessive romance with “green energy” ideology.

Green energy costs more. Even when it looks cheaper, it depends on massive subsidies. And it does nothing for the planet. Not when China is pumping out coal no matter how many lights go out in LA.

Policymakers treat reliability and affordability as optional extras, while chasing ever-more-ambitious renewable targets.

The state’s average electricity price hit 27.63 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2025, more than double the national average.

Commercial customers like Canter’s, which keep refrigerators, ovens, and HVAC systems running around the clock, cannot simply absorb these inflated rates. They pass them on to customers, or they fail. And sometimes both.

Legislators in Sacramento have spent years piling mandates on top of mandates. Renewable standards have escalated toward a 100% carbon-free electricity goal by 2045, shifting energy grid costs onto non-solar customers.

Oh, and when it comes to “zero emissions,” only wind and solar seem to count. Forget about nuclear power, which barely hangs on in California, even though it’s the logical answer and the technology keeps getting safer and better.

Sure, utilities are also facing wildfire liability costs. They’re also paying for infrastructure upgrades to prevent fires from starting in the first place.

But these costs have been layered atop a system already distorted by policy choices that prioritize symbolic decarbonization over consumer well-being.

The result? California is getting crushed by the highest or near-highest retail rates in the continental United States. These are increases that have outpaced most other states.

Businesses do not get to opt out of the ideology; they get thumb-screwed to pay for it every month. You pay, or you fail. That’s it.

The damage is not confined to one deli.

Across Southern California, residential customers are reporting bills that have doubled or tripled. That includes a San Fernando Valley household hit with a roughly $3,300 charge, a staggering increase.

Most restaurants already operate on thin, single-digit profit margins. They can’t afford double-digit increases in their utility bills.

Electricity and utility bills are, of course, an unavoidable necessity. But when rates jump 40% in a mere few months, owners cannot raise pastrami prices to cover it. That would drive away customers.

Labor, rent, insurance, and food costs are already high. The green ideological premium is the additional weight that drags viable business operations into loss-making territory.

Canter’s is simply the latest high-profile example of a shocking pattern that has hollowed out commercial corridors statewide. And it’s entirely preventable, if California just allows fossil fuels and nuclear to compete on a fair basis.

Government officials have offered investigations, data requests, and expressions of concern, but the underlying policy architecture remains intact. Ratepayers continue to fund the transition, whether or not the promised benefits materialize on the promised schedule — or at all. 

The state’s political class is willing to bow to ideology over affordable electricity. And more restaurants like Canter’s will keep discovering that the “green” that many activists applaud actually carries an exorbitant price tag.

Richie Greenberg is a political analyst and community advocate.

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