California’s renewable energy grid dream is a joke
Zachary Faria
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There is no way to describe California’s energy grid and the state’s vision of an all-renewable future other than pathetic.
On Tuesday, California officials finalized their decision to extend the life of three gas-fired power plants through 2026. The state had originally planned to shut them down later this year. In fact, California had originally planned to shut them down three years ago, but the plants got an extension then as well after rolling blackouts reminded the state that its energy grid was too weak to handle California’s regular heat waves.
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Here is the key line from the Los Angeles Times’s report on the extension: “Newsom’s appointees initially expressed confidence that California would be able to build enough clean energy resources by the end of 2023 to close the polluting generators.”
That is California’s entire energy strategy. If state officials just believe in wind and solar energy enough, suddenly they will make magic advancements that allow the state to cut off all other forms of energy. The state then slaps deadlines on other forms of energy to shut down, then must start improvising extensions when those deadlines approach and those magic advancements haven’t materialized.
This is the exact same game the state has been playing with Diablo Canyon, the last nuclear plant operating in California. The process of shutting down the plant, which provides around 9% of all of California’s energy, started in 2016. It was on track to shut down in 2025, but Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) requested an extension that would last until 2035. The entire debacle is made more hilarious (or perhaps depressing) by the fact that nuclear energy is clean and far more efficient than the renewable basket in which California has put its eggs.
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Both fossil fuels and nuclear energy continue to bail out California’s grid, which already relies on imported electricity from other states more than any other state in the country. California officials, guided by their climate zealotry, dismantled the state’s grid faster than they could rebuild it with renewables and are now turning back to the energy sources that are blacklisted by environmentalists because they are actually reliable.
California’s energy policy is based on naivete. California officials shut down reliable energy sources based on hope-filled projections while thinking that they can save the world by cutting California’s emissions, all while China’s growing output quickly cancels out the progress. The result is nothing more than a failing grid that can’t withstand the weather or consistently keep the lights on for California residents.