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).
it’s not like summer doesn’t come every year...
perhaps they can advert the need for brownouts until the midterms pass, then california will go dark
Going to be hell when all gas-powered cars have been junked and the power plants can deliver only about 1/20 of the energy that’s needed. CA residents deserve it for voting the way they did.
If there were just some way the rotation of the earth could be used to generate huge quantities of electrical energy, then the California Legislature and any of its recent succession of governors would be calling for the earth to stop rotating.
No electricity for nobody, no where, no time, no way. But the zero-emission electrical vehicles must replace all internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035. The hydrogen mines to provide all the hydrogen needed to fill the fuel cells will be open and operating by then.
Let the bastards collapse of heat exhaustion in the desert. The firestorms that sweep through the deserted countryside will burn away all the debris and waste.
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 now we’re short on electricity AND water, and their only solution is to put EVERYONE’S life in danger by cutting of their air conditioners.
(It was 116F here yesterday and is supposed to be 113F tomorrow. Yes, I could spit.)
California wants you to buy a $70,000 electric vehicle but you can’t charge it. Which is what they want anyway, to restrict your movements and control you. I think I’ll get an old points and plugs and carburetor car and when all the crap hits the fan, I’ll still be driving.
That’s the night the lights went out in California
That’s the night they sacrificed to the green energy man
It’s all in the plan to force liberal DemocRats out of California and into red states to turn them blue and screw them up, too.
To gain control of your destiny, you must leave California.
Spitting accomplishes nothing so far as tour destiny is concerned
Deep State to Californians: Beatings will continue until morale improves!
They shut down all the power plants and wondered why ...
Solar and wind power have no place at the utility level. IMHO hydro power is pretty dependable (at least in Alabama), but that’s it for any “green energy” source that’s do-able at the utility level.
Meanwhile, a preview of coming attractions...
Disclose.tv
@disclosetv
NOW - EU will propose a “mandatory target for reducing electricity use at peak hours” in order to “flatten the curve.”
6:38 AM · Sep 7, 2022
Tell me about it! My wife leans liberal. I'm conservative. She continues to work and when she retires would pretty much only consider moving someplace like Portland, Seattle or Honolulu; i.e., I'm screwed, blued and tattooed, as we used to say in the Army.
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. . . .
Climate Change is both reason for and scape goat for poor leadership.
Democrats use climate change as the excuse to funnel taxpayer funds to their cronies and later use climate change to keep voters in their corner despite the consequences of their leadership.
Global Warming; the gift that gives all year round.
IF you are a Democrat.
Are they actually cutting them off or limiting the thermostat? I read you couldn't set the "Smart" thermostats below 80.
80 is easy to live with with a fan. If they are really cutting your A/C off then you are correct. It is a threat to life.
It was 117 where I live in the SF Bay Area: an all time record for any day in history here supposedly—I didn’t lose power but I unfortunately lost a chicken in my flock. They had water and lots of shade but I’ll also make more mud puddles and give them a kiddie pool with water and rocks to stand on. I’m going to buy a mister today. I think the next super hot day here is Thurs…
I got an alert yesterday (So Cal) around 6:30 to turn off any/all electrical appliances to avoid an imminent blackout (that never happened).
We are already under a 15-day no outdoor watering mandate with temps over 100.
So, the solution is to build 12,000 more apartments at the edge of the city - guess they won’t tax the already fragile electrical grid or demand water from a system that is struggling to meet public needs now.
Sick of these hypocrites.
Why is Climate Change picking on California? Mexico not complaining, Nevada, Arizona seem to be OK. Climate Change is weird.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.