Posted on 09/07/2022 5:22:47 AM PDT by MtnClimber
This summer has seen repeated warnings in California that another round of rolling blackouts could be coming. (The last such round was in August 2020.). Somehow, before today, several close calls have been averted. But today, California’s luck seems to have run out. Even as I’m writing this post, California’s main utility PG&E has put some 525,000 customers on notice that rolling blackouts could be imposed this evening as the sun sets and power from solar arrays konks out.
Temperatures in California, particularly in the Bay Area, are indeed running unusually hot, although in most cases not all-time records. You won’t be surprised to learn that one mainstream press source after another attributes the power shortage and resulting blackouts to “climate change:” But the funny thing is, as hot as the temperatures are, they are no hotter than temperatures experienced this year — and indeed every year — in other states like Arizona and Texas. And yet those states are not having rolling blackouts caused by inadequate electricity on the grid. Nor have those states had rolling blackouts in other years when their all-time record temperatures have been set.
In other words, these blackouts have essentially nothing to do with “climate change,” and everything to do with criminally incompetent government policy supposedly responding to “climate change.”
Bloomberg has the latest with a piece from this afternoon headlined “California Says Brace for Blackouts as Heat Wave Drives Record Power Use.” It seems that the current heat wave is being accompanied by all-time-high power demand:
Electricity use reached 50.6 gigawatts at 3:15 p.m. local time, according to the state’s grid operator, surpassing the previous record set in 2006. The surge in demand comes amid a punishing and lengthy heat wave that has sent temperatures soaring past 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius), prompting officials to plead for conservation and warn rolling outages may be necessary to prevent the system from overloading.
The state’s largest power company, PG&E Corp., said in a statement that it had notified about 525,000 homes and businesses that they could lose power for up to two hours. . . . For a second consecutive day, the state’s grid operator issued a level-2 energy emergency alert. Officials expect to ratchet that emergency up to level 3 at 5:30 p.m. local time -- which would mean blackouts are imminent.
Now, it can’t possibly have come as a surprise that usage of electricity in California is increasing to all-time highs. After all, California has been doing everything it can to induce consumers to switch all energy usage to electricity, and particularly to switch from internal combustion to electric cars. The automotive sector uses about as much energy in total as everything currently powered by electricity. Considering just the automobile sector, if everybody switched to electric cars, demand for electricity would close to double.
In response to increasing government regulations and jawboning, not to mention voluntary virtue signaling, electric vehicle sales in California have been soaring. Wikipedia here has a chart of sales of electric vehicles in California since 2010. From a base of around zero (actually 300 cars) in 2010, sales of all-electric cars have risen to some 176,357 in 2021, representing a 9.5% market share of all vehicles sold. Another 61,261 plug-in hybrids were also sold in California in 2021, constituting an additional 3.3% of the market, bringing the total market share for cars drawing electricity from the grid to 12.8%. Of course use of electricity is increasing.
And use of electricity for cars is set to increase far more, and soon. Just two weeks ago the California Air Resources Board put in place a new regulation requiring a rapid transition to a situation where only electric vehicles will be allowed in California by 2035, with interim mandates for percentage of electric vehicle sales going up every year starting with 2026. From CARB’s release:
The new regulation accelerates requirements that automakers deliver an increasing number of zero-emission light-duty vehicles each year beginning in model year 2026. Sales of new ZEVs and PHEVs will start with 35% that year, build to 68% in 2030, and reach 100% in 2035.
Note that the 35% mandated market share of electric vehicles in 2026 represents about a trebling of the 12.8% market share for those vehicles in 2021. With one point of market share representing about 18,000 vehicles, electric vehicle sales would appear set to increase immediately by some 70,000 per year or so, if CARB gets its way. Here is CARB’s chart of the coming post-2026 electric vehicle market share mandates:
Meanwhile, over in the market for production of electricity, here is what Bloomberg reports:
California has aggressively closed natural-gas power plants in recent years. . . .
California also shut one of its two large nuclear plants, San Onofre, in 2013, and until recently was planning to shut its last nuclear plant, Diablo Canyon, in 2025 (although it may be reconsidering that decision). And what is the replacement for these reliable power sources?
[T]he state [is] increasingly dependent on solar farms that go dark late in the day just as electricity demand peaks. . . .
Nobody seems to have figured out that you can cover the state with solar panels, and you will still get zero electricity from them after the sun goes down at night. Could they really be this stupid? Yes.
Read a few mainstream media sources about this week’s power crunch in California, and you will find that the official explanation is “climate change.” For example, from PBS today:
California is facing its highest chance of blackouts this year as a brutal heat wave continues to blanket the state with triple-digit temperatures. . . . Scientists say climate change has made the West warmer and drier over the last three decades and will continue to make weather more extreme. . . .
From NBC News, also today:
California will face its highest chance of blackouts this year as a brutal heat wave continues to blanket the state with triple-digit heat, officials warned Monday. . . . Scientists say climate change has made the West warmer and drier over the last three decades and will continue to make weather more extreme. . . .
Do they all just copy those talking points word for word from each other?
And yet somehow the major cities of Arizona and Texas have week after week of 100+ degree temperatures, year after year, without any need for rolling blackouts. According to Weather Underground here, Phoenix got over 100 degrees F every day this year from July 1 to July 23, with many of those days over 110 and some over 115, but no threats of blackouts. Hey, you just need enough fossil fuel power plants (including several burning coal).
I’m wondering if the idiot pols in Sacramento will ban the sale of gasoline soon - to force everyone into electric cars that they can neither afford nor charge.
What do they care: They’ll still be driven around in their gasoline-powered limos and fly in jets powered by evil carbon-emitting fuels.
Not just limiting the thermostat. They’re talking about rolling blackouts, where the juice is completely shut off for two hours. If that comes during the hottest part of the day, you could be pretty uncomfortable for longer than two hours as your AC tries to catch up, and if your AC is having issues... Yes, I think, absolutely life threatening, especially if you’re are an older person (like me!).
I just had one of these “smart” thermostats installed in my home - I told my son-in-law to make sure it is NOT hooked up to any outside sources - he was able to disable that part (works in the tech industry).
So far, I’ve been able to set my temp at 75 degrees (have elderly in the home with health issues) - past few days here (SoCal) have been in the 105-110 degree range.
God help me when the bill comes in...
Liberals ONLY recognize the failure of their policies when those policies make them suffer.
California really created their own problems, so what are they going to do when buying electricity from other areas is not real feasible? I have noticed here where I live(NOT near Ca. thankfully) that as it gets hotter in the day, the breezes that were present oftentimes in the mornings have died away, so the wind turbines are useless. Then later as it really starts to heat up in the house, the sun goes down & solar would be ineffective. We have some solar here, but fortunately, they have not come to depend on it yet. Conventional power plants are still the way to go. I’m not a college graduate & I understand this, so what’s the problem here? In seeking “renewable” energy, they have now created a bigger problem than we had before. Then we now have EVs to compound the problem. This is stupidity at work.
My daughter reports that it was over 90 degrees in San Francisco yesterday - she said the problem is NO ONE has air conditioning so there is no escaping anywhere. They live on the top floor so I imagine it’s stifling there.
Daughter has health issues so son-in-law is looking at installing air conditioning.
Wouldn’t be surprised if the city set up special cooling centers for the homeless there - with plenty of power and a/c.
About the only way I see this “electric car” thing working in our favor is adding solar panels to charge your car. Lately I’m seeing plenty of conservatives and several homes with “don’t tread on me” flags prepping by investing in solar panels. They know it’s eventually headed our way-—if you can’t buy gasoline and can’t charge your car then it’s a (albeit expensive) solution. Or we can store up gasoline for the impending doom.
I was just coming to check on you! ;)
I feel your pain. I’m in SoCal, too, and I also got the alert and turned off my A/C. I figured that’s better than a complete brownout. Fortunately, the alert was late enough that the inside temperature held up ok. Took a shower, which helped.
I have a primus stove and some hurricane lamps and a 4 gallon drum of kerosene, so can heat food and read Epoch Times in the evening.
I’m so mad I could spit. Dumbocrats have nixed EVERY new reservoir proposal to come down the pike for the last 50 years.
/ AND have been tearing out dams and emptying resevoirs like crazy beserkers. /
And now we’re short on electricity AND water,
/
Water( hydro electricity capacity) that has been pissed out to the ocean as fast as possible
/
This is a purely Manufactored and avoidable crisis.
.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
.
CA residents deserve it for voting the way they did
/\
Getting real sick of hearing this.
Where you been?
In case you haven’t noticed, voter and election fraud is a real thing.
And has been since the cheat machines were introduced.
We weren’t given a vote on whether the Marxist wildlife biologists and lawyers and political scientists that got jobs on both sides of the lawfare tango via the blm, usfs, EPA , seira club , econazi orgs, to destroy our hydro electric capability.
Hydro is the greenest of power generation.
If they really wanted green, but they dont, they want commie red.
SPIT.
So ya, when it hits 110 here, as it does every summer , if there is no a/c the only way to cope is to stay wet so the fans work.
Over 105 swamp coolers quit being effective. Getting in and out of a cold shower and in front of a fan repeatedly is the only way I’ve found to get relief.
But THAT uses a boat load of WATER,, thus reducing water available to put through a hydrogenerator for electricity ( IF they weren’t pissing that water away for lying endangered species b.s. propaganda)
JFK dedicated the shasta damn, and the democommie and Marxist infiltrated academies and politicians and lawyers .gov has pissed all over his vision for a cheap clean power source for California and the nation.
SPIT.
Rolling blackouts.
My short time in CA had a Gray out Davis tenure..
This last recall had to have been rigged.
Thanks, LOL!
I turned off everything but the a/c - I had elderly relatives over with health problems. My animals were also suffering.
I have a new HE (high efficiency) unit that helps a lot with the billing too - was very expensive but I got a rebate from my city.
The a/c is a not only a quality of life issue - it is a life and death issue for some, especially the elderly. I tried using a fan but with such high temps it only blows around the hot air and makes it worse.
Supposed to break on Saturday with...rain. One can hope - and pray.
The really odd thing is - we keep getting alerts to turn our a/c to 78 degrees - I’m OK with that.
Then the next message is to “super cool” the house down and then turn the a/c to 78 degrees between the hours of 4-9 PM.
Well, which is it?
The name of the state is “Cali-”..”fornia” the etymology is dodge around by this time to an incredible array of idiotic
“sources” including “Song of Roland” and some jacka@@ named Montalvo.
Simple Spanish two word combination for what was experienced by them over 500 years ago. It is one HOT desert covered land with a shoreline on the cold Pacific ocean, a mountain range that is volcanic in origin but does have winter snow to source water to the valleys (if allowed).
Cali- HOT Fornia (from the Latin root word used to describe what were then Lime kilns)== FURNACE.
Cali- Fornia. Heat that is NOT caused by man but by Nature.
On the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show today, Clay said when he worked in the U.S. Virgin Islands as a lawyer, the power would go out randomly. No bad weather caused this, just out. The building he was in had a generator a backup. He consider the island to be 3rd world. He told that story then brought up what is going on in California and in europe.
They want all of us except themselves of course to do with less and at a higher cost.
EU will propose a “mandatory target for reducing electricity use at peak hours” in order to “flatten the curve.”
https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1567462388898594816
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