California admits its reckless renewable energy dream is failing
Zachary Faria
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California’s dream of renewable green energy has left the state worse off, and even California Democrats have recognized just how deep the failure runs.
California energy regulators on Thursday voted to extend the lifespan of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant by five years, moving the shutdown date from 2025 to 2030. The 2025 date was agreed to back in 2016 as California Democrats attempted to purge nuclear energy from the state’s grid.
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It is yet another admission of failure by California Democrats in their embarrassing effort to turn the state into a wind- and solar-powered liberal paradise despite the technology being nowhere near making that possible. Diablo Canyon alone provides roughly 9% of the state’s electricity, leading even Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) to reverse his previous opposition to the plant and advocate its extension.
It isn’t just nuclear energy that is getting reevaluated either. Newsom went from campaigning to shut down the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility to pushing for it to be expanded. Natural gas comprised about 47% of the state’s energy in 2022, compared to just over 26% for wind and solar combined. This now marks four years of California turning to natural gas to avoid blackouts, with Newsom now taking a more proactive approach to avoid additional headlines about, for example, firing up temporary gas-field generators to keep the grid running.
Implicit in all of this is the admission that California’s renewable dream was a miserable failure. Knowingly or not, California Democrats recklessly pursued energy policies that would leave the state unable to provide consistently reliable energy for its residents. They didn’t have a plan to move on from natural gas or the nuclear energy provided by Diablo Canyon. They only had a dream toward which they wanted to plow forward regardless of the consequences, up until those consequences caused politically inconvenient headlines for Newsom and others about their inability to even keep the lights on.
The renewable energy dreams that Democrats are selling are frauds, and even California Democrats have shown that to be the case now. The rapid transition to unreliable forms of energy is not possible in its current, dreamed time frames. Voters should immediately distrust any politician following California’s model for ruining its energy grid in the name of climate change.