By Ronald Stein
Founder and Ambassador for Energy & Infrastructure of PTS Advance, headquartered in Irvine, California
California’s green crusade direction and actions are increasing the costs of electricity and fuels which guarantees growth of the homeless, poverty, and welfare populations, and further fuels (no pun intended) the housing affordability crisis.
It’s scary that our leaders can’t “see” that the regressive energy policies have serious consequences for working families. Their misguided directives are intertwined with every aspect of daily life and is causing the continuous growth of poverty and homelessness from the Oregon state line on the north all the way to the Mexican border on the south.
California professes to be the leader of everything, but spouting voracious pride of being the only state in America that imports most of its crude oil energy from foreign countries, and the State that and imports more electricity than any other state, may not be in the best interest of California’s 5th largest economy in the world. Its fine to import when you get bargain rates, but both oil and electricity, are two commodities that are ultra-expensive to import and drives up the cost of everything.
The inability of wind and solar to replace continuously operating uninterrupted power from nuclear and natural gas plants is causing the state to import more and more of its electricity. The good news is the state suffered no brownouts (for once). The bad news is the imported electricity comes at a higher price tag being borne by residents and businesses alike. With the huge land requirements necessary for wind and solar renewable electricity, and already high land values, California will have to import more energy every year.
Prices for electricity in California are already fifty percent higher than the national average for residents, and double the national average for commercial, and are projected to go even higher. Who knows how high they’ll go as the state continues its importing appetite for expensive electricity?
Adding to the problem of affordable electricity, California is phasing out nuclear reactors that have been generating continuously uninterruptible carbon-free electricity. In 2013, California already shutdown the continuous nuclear facility of SCE’s San Onofre Generating Station which generated 2,200 megawatts of power and will be closing PG&E’s Diablo Canyon’s 2,160 megawatts of power in 2024.
It gets bleaker in the coming years, as Mayor Garcetti recently announced the forthcoming closures of three DWP natural gas-powered plants at Scattergood, Haynes, and Harbor, saying, “this is the beginning of the end of natural gas in Los Angeles.”
With the shuttering of nuclear and natural gas plants that have been generating continuously uninterruptible electricity, our elected officials seem to be oblivious to the fact that the State has no electricity generating capacity to replace what’s going to be lost. Further, that “green” electricity from wind and solar is only intermittent, as neither generates when the wind is not blowing, and when the sun’s not shining.
With this path forward, in the event other states cannot generate enough electricity to export to California to replace what’s being lost by shutting down the last nuclear plant and three natural gas plants in California, it’s lights out for California’s future.
Regarding the crude oil demands for the state. there are scary similarities between Governor Newsom’s goals for California and Vladimir Putin’s objectives. Both support California being more and more dependent on imported foreign oil, and both support anti-fracking in California as a successful fracking enterprise would lessen the states’ dependency on that foreign oil. Does the Governor know his actions are supportive of California becoming a National Security risk to America?
California’s love of foreign crude oil is obvious as California increased crude oil imports from foreign countries from 5% in 1992 to 57% in 2018, costing California more than $32 Billion dollars a year (Yes, that’s a “B”)., that equates to $60 million dollars a day being paid to oil rich foreign countries, thereby depriving Californians of jobs and business opportunities. Without those tax paying jobs and businesses, the State’s coiffures are growing thin as it is struggling to pay its welfare and social responsibilities debts.
The Golden State’s position on crude oil production fits right in with Russia’s Vladimir Putin’s goal to control energy. Russia is adamantly against U.S. fracking efforts and very supportive of any environmentalist group or wealthy individual efforts to slow or stop crude oil and natural gas exploration and production within the U.S. and European borders. Recently a Russian funded environmental group gave millions to anti-fracking groups to stop, curtail or severely weaken US fracking of crude oil and natural gas in states like Texas, North Dakota, Colorado, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Pennsylvania.
Adding insult to injury Sacramento Democrats are seriously considering Assembly Bill AB-345 (Muratsuchi) “Oil and gas: operations: location restrictions” which would require, commencing January 1, 2020, that all new oil and gas development that is not on federal land, to be located at least 2,500 feet from a residence, school, childcare facility, playground, hospital, or health clinic. For these purposes, the bill would require the re-drilling of a previously plugged and abandoned oil or gas well or other rework operations, as defined, to be considered new oil and gas development.
The effect of this “2,500” clear space around production wells would virtually destroy California’s in-state oil production by half. That will result in California sending another $16 Billion, on top of the current $32 Billion, a year (Again, Yes, that’s a “B”) that would then equate to a whopping $90 million dollars a day being sent, to those oil rich foreign countries that have the audacity to not even send California a thank you note.
Its mind boggling that our California legislative leaders continuously fail to see the direct correlation between high energy costs for electricity and fuels, and poverty, homelessness, and a housing affordability crisis already impacting the Golden State.
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And by how many degrees will the temperature be lowered in 50 years time by all of this policy action by California?
In a democracy how can these clowns stay in power ?
“In a democracy how can these clowns stay in power ?”
Simple. There is no real opposition in CA
CA is a really one party state.
ex.:
Look at Nancy Pelosi’s Poop & Needle Town, San Francisco, yet San Franciscans keep voting for Nancy Pelosi and those like her.
There is opposition, unfortunately, power is concentrated in the populous districts. Fortunately, or at least poetically, those districts are getting the free sh*t for which they voted, as you rightly point out.
Actually, the opposition is drowned out by a corrupt and fraudulent voting system. Several seats in Orange County were initially won by Republicans until days and weeks later “new” ballots were delivered showing dimocrat votes. Clear and obvious fraud – but the only forum to contest is controlled by – you guessed it – dimocrats.
There is a Nancy Pelosi Drive in the Golden Gate Park, S.F. There used to be a good custom to name streets only after dead personalities.
She is brain dead. Does that meet the requirement?
The so-called “Jungle Primary” system doesn’t help either as more often than not it is two Democrats running against each other for a large percentage of elective offices.
By 2070, temperatures will be lowered by a whopping (negative) 0.317dC
In other words, despite Wakifornia committing economic Seppuku, the temperatures will increase rather than decrease by 2070by as much as a third of a degree C
by 2032 temps will have dropped by an average of 1.5 dC and it will be a natural drop based on the climate cycle.
During the Progressive Era, 1870-1920, the Democrats made a plan and followed through to take complete control of the US education system, and the rest is history. That’s how.
The State will implode into bankruptcy when those with money leave.
They are killing the golden egg laying goose by starvation.
13 million illegal aliens.
Zigmaster January 17, 2020 at 10:19 pm
And by how many degrees will the temperature be lowered in 50 years time by all of this policy action by California?
____________________________________
Good question. By how many standard&poor degrees has CA to get downgraded so that CA temperatures are lowered and CA gets funded by the UN.
Now, not in 50 Years.
https://www.google.com/search?q=standard+%26+poor%27s+rating&oq=standard+%26+&aqs=chrome.
The aim of the Democrats seems to be to force the entire population into poverty starting with the poorest and most vulnerable in society leaving the Democrat Elite riding high in Feudal Control. The reason for this initiative is obscure. It may not be a clearly thought out aim but rather a side-product of their Neo-Marxist proclivities. The old Communists thought that they were heading toward the Workers’ Paradise but wound up on Struggle Street.
This situation does not usually end well for the “Elite”. French revolution as an example.
Helicopters are a much better escape than horses and carriages though.
Guns are pretty good at downing helicopters.
When you force people into poverty, they become dependent on govt, the kind of govt the Dems want. Newsom is making ever more promises of handouts paid for with other people’s money. When people get hooked on the handouts, and are trapped in dependency, they will vote with certainty for those who keep them “safe”.
Obama tried to do the same thing to millions of Americans during his two terms. We spent $10 T for no useful outcome. Keynesian economics should be thoroughly dead now. Record numbers of families became dependent on food stamps. Record numbers of Americans were out of the workforce for so long they were no longer considered workers and didn’t count as unemployed.
Amazing how permanent corporate tax cuts allowed companies to plan having more money and could begin hiring new workers again. But of course, CA couldn’t allow Trump to succeed, or the Sacto regime would lose projected new Dem voters.
The economy in central CA is still suffering. That has much to do with Dems power grabs including surface and groundwater. Agriculture is the basis of the local economies in central CA. Through the CA Air Resources Board (CARB), they regulate farm equipment, water pumps, trucks to ship farm products. They even want to control cow farts.
They want to control healthcare, whether you live or not.
They do control education. K12 is an utter failure for teaching children useful skills, but an absolute success for creating dependency on Dems. They put school loans under the control of the federal govt under ACA. Now university costs bloat and increase costs. Kids get easy loans, owe lots of money, but don’t necessarily have jobs waiting. They will not have their loans forgiven. Govt more or less owns many of them now.
Dem attack dogs label the counter arguments of their political opponents as hate speech to shut down discussion. Antifa “anti-fascists” are of course fascists. The internet is not a wide-open place for free speech anymore. Whatever you write now follows you. It affects your employment. They use the machinery of govt to crush opposition, even attacking the lawfully elected leader of the opposition party.
In every way possible, Dems want to control us. Once you understand that, the rest makes sense. I’m afraid we are living in political conditions akin to those of the early 1770s. If we can use Article V Convention of States to patch the operating system of our nation (US Constitution), suffering from over 100 years of Dem exploits, we can avoid disaster. Congress will do nothing to help. They are part of the problem. That’s why we have to fix things.
Thomas Jefferson was right. It’s not the Supreme Court that will correct our problems. Marbury v Madison was a usurpation of power. The People have the final say. The People through state legislatures can solve these problems. The US Constitution is a wonderful document. Very wisely balancing power. The Dems crafted ways to get around the limits placed on them. We don’t have to replace the Constitution, but we do have to fix these problems.
You know there is something wrong when govt controls 40% of GDP. That’s when govt is in competition with the private sector. Our country was never supposed to have such a large govt. If we cut that, we can reduce spending, reduce debt, and it won’t matter so much who is in power. Restore the tight chains on govt, and take the chains off the people.
Thanks, Hoser, for an accurate assessment of a sorry situation. California leads the way of the US decline.
Brilliant analysis and the heart of the matter. The hunan tragedy horror is not climate change. It is climate action.
What are the rates [cent/kwh]? What is an average household monthly bill[$]? Knowing this would help to see the effect on individuals.
I guess that might not be important if you don’t have regular employment. What is the biggest industry in CA? Porn? I guess there isn’t much call for “actors” cr@pping in the streets in that LoB.
Now now, that’s no way to refer to Leo DiCrapios job…but then again…
Rather than hands a feet “actors” can deposit “jobbies” along that famous sidewalk.
My last Bill was calculated at an average of $0.26 per kWH
thank you… In Sarasota Florida I go about $0.11 per KWH.
At $0.08 that’s about 325% more than what I’m paying, here in the ‘other’ Democrat utopia, Illinois!
Then you have to calculate the cost of housing! I see those shows on TV where a typical house sells for $800,00 or more! How in the world can ANY working person afford that? I’m glad I left in 1996, since I would NEVER be able to afford the house I ‘owned’ then! My house was barely saved from foreclosure at about $65,000, and now is valued at something like $350,00! It’s insane! The jobs I had, in electronics and aerospace just don’t pay THAT much!
I’m in the PG&E area and residential rates are the ‘E1’ rate.
see the tariff page – https://www.pge.com/tariffs/index.page
the E1 rate is
Total Energy Rates ($ per kWh)
Baseline Usage $0.23581 (I)
101% – 400% of Baseline $0.29675 (I)
High Usage Over 400% of Baseline $0.51990 (I)
The baseline kWh vary between ‘winter’ and ‘summer’, which are in the rate page.
The Big Green Lie is winning here in California and it’s really sad to see how so many people have been so thoroughly fooled. It’s definitely one of the contributing factors leading to my exodus.
As long as the voters keep getting free stuff, they don’t care what the government is doing to other people.
And that is exactly why the Republic government exists and why true Democracies always devolve into totalitarianism.
Going to start a food fight with this but it has to be said:
Democrats have complete control due to massive voter fraud and that’s about it. It’s not unusual for turn outs in urban settings to be over 100% of those eligible to vote. Not registered to vote but eligible to vote in an election precinct, city or county; as in the case of San Diego County in 2016.
Lots of local elections for assembly seats, city council seats and house seats see giant swings in vote tallies in favor of a Democrat on a recounts as well. Seems the Democrat candidate always manages to “find” enough missing, uncounted or mid-counted votes to bridge the gap for a win, even when its several thousand in size. There are no safe districts here in Kalifornistan if you’re a Republican candidate.
For the record. I was a registered Democrat from 1984 to 2000. Al Gore ended my affiliation with party.
Cheers
Max
The irony is that so many of those who are fooled are on the other end of the ‘free’ stuff and it’s far more dangerous than just being fooled about climate science. It never ceases to amaze me how so many ostensibly intelligent people can be so wrong about so much. The evidence is clear that when logic is replaced by political feelings, it always leads to bad and often self destructive decisions. California is definitely the leader here and the rest of the country better not follow.
I’ve been in California for nine years. I continue to be amazed that, during these nine years, Sacramento has been able to be wrong about everything, every time everywhere. The decision to close Diablo Canyon Nuclear is the crown jewel on their idiot crown.
Definitely an Idiocracy in training
You often see these videos asking where socialism has worked – Republicans respond with nowhere and Dems respond with the typical list of European nations with nationalized healthcare etc.
Neither answer is correct. The correct answer is that Socialism has and is working everywhere that Capitalism is strong enough to enable it for now. It’s like cancer, someone can survive with it as long as their vital functions remain strong enough to keep their body going, but eventually the cancer spreads enough and the body quickly goes from fully functional to dead.
The longest lasting declared Socialist system is in North Korea. You can even see how successful they are from space.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2725415/Nasa-satellite-images-North-Korea-secretive-space.html
As well known British priminister observed,:” socialism is wonderful until you run out of other people’s money!”
From the article quote:-
“as neither generates when the wind is not blowing, and when the sun’s not shining.”
It is nowhere near binary, on or off. Wind output is a cube law to wind speed so small variations in wind speed produce a large variation in power output. Solar is similar, and output depends on the height of the sun. both are weather dependant and output does not generally match demand .
There are other technical drawbacks to wind and solar, lack of inertia being one such factor. Large steam plants have a high inertia so the grid is less affected by faults or trips of generation and transmission plant i.e. there is a stabilising factor.
All in all renewables are not the answer.
But on a still summer night or a cold winter night, neither produce any energy at all
No one said it’s binary. That is the extreme example that occurs way to frequently.
The fact that renewables are unpredictable as you state just means that they are worthless for power generation. Much less 100% of it.
Wow, that 2500’ setback number sounds awfully familiar to Colorado’s proposition 112 in 2018 which also called for a 2500’ setback from occupied structures and “vulnerable” areas. Of course everything was to be considered vulnerable. Thankfully it was voted down by a pretty wide margin. Unfortunately, it seems that margin is shrinking and the bunch of activists that hate the industry called Colorado Rising are trying to get it back on the ballot. I was sitting in a restaurant by the organizers of Colorado Rising and I could hear them discussing how they had to keep the complaint campaign going. They wanted all their members to call in complaints to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission daily no matter what.
The grossest part is that these organizations are often funded by our taxes through sue and settle tactics. Sue a de facto Leftist alphabet government organization and they gladly settle and give large sums of money to these self proclaimed Loraxes. Something that I really hope enters Trump’s radar for destruction in the next 5 years.
The similarities between the two bills in Ca and Co leads me to believe that this is a nationally funded group rather than the grassroots organization that they present themselves as.
George Soros has been funneling massive amounts of cash into the campaigns of State and municipal District Attorneys and into city council and county level governmental elections, has been doing this for over 20 years. We are seeing the results of that all over the country, and it ain’t good.
I live in the Permian Basin in West Texas and there are over a dozen oil pumpjacks within 2500 feet of my home. I’m outside city limits, therefore my water comes from my well. I have the water checked regularly and there are never any problems. In fact, the Total Dissolved Solids is about half of that in city water.
The main concern cited for these setbacks is air quality and noise, not so much water quality.
The climate scam is a pretext to impose Malthusian policies which aim at population reduction.
Here, more homeless, more poverty, a less well cared for population, is a means of lowering life expectancy and thus to achieve “legally” a population reduction.
And what is the most efficient (and legal or even mandated due to EPA’s rulling that CO2 is a “pollutant”) way to do so – furthermore, with the blessing of a climate fairy tail brainwashed population – if not by causing energy prices skyrocketing ?
Contrary to what happened in the Nazi era, it is currently the brainwashed people of the planet who vote for their own culling. Awesome.
I agree Petit Barde – the proponents of the CAGW scam are totalitarians and many are Malthusians.
Regards, Allan
WHAT THE GREEN NEW DEAL IS REALLY ABOUT — AND IT’S NOT THE CLIMATE
By Allan M.R. MacRae, B.A.Sc., M.Eng., July 19, 2019
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/07/20/what-the-green-new-deal-is-really-about-and-its-not-the-climate/
[excerpt]
Radical greens have used wildly exaggerated scary stories of runaway global warming and climate change to stampede the gullible, in order to achieve their political objectives.
The absolute lunacy of the Green New Deal and its delusional acolytes is now clear – global warming alarmism and green energy nonsense was never about the climate – it was always a false narrative, a smokescreen for the totalitarian objectives of the extreme left. Once the left controls our energy supply, they control everything in our society – it will be “One Man, One Vote, Once!” – the end of freedom.
THE LIBERALS’ COVERT GREEN PLAN FOR CANADA – POVERTY AND DICTATORSHIP
by Allan M.R. MacRae, B.A.Sc., M.Eng., October 1, 2019
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/10/01/the-liberals-covert-green-plan-for-canada-poverty-and-dictatorship/
[excerpt]
A highly credible gentleman wrote me as follows, concerning his recent conversation with an Ottawa insider.
The insider, he said, had been working on an advisory group to the Trudeau government. The group was not formed to discuss policy for the 5 year horizon that governments are usually interested in but to develop policies for the further future, 20 to 40 years out. The implication was that the group had concluded that the present economic model was flawed and had to be replaced. “Unregulated consumerism was unsustainable and people would have to learn to make do with less. The government would have to have more control over people to enforce their austerity and the wealth of developed nations would have to be redistributed to help undeveloped nations.”
No one imagined George Orwell’s 1984 would be picked up as a manifesto document, and blue print for social management, but that is what has been done by the Democrat Party in the USA. Not content with that dystopian death wish policy promotion, they looked again for an example to follow. They were looking for inspiration and for guidance. They noticed Venezuela (who couldn’t) and considered it had all the right policies for them to emulate. A country full of natural wealth and resource, being torn apart by ridiculous left wing political dogma.
We now see a State in the USA not just any State, but the richest State. A State determined to act as a exemplar to the rest of the Nation. They are determined to show how to turn wealth, into abject poverty. They intend to show how to ensure millions of people migrate out of the State, by State policy decisions, and they do not care what happens to the people or where those people eventually go.
If this Californication environmental scenario, was presented as a thriller series for televising, to be serialised over a few years, it would be rejected by the program makers as impossible to contemplate, too ridiculous for the normal viewers to regard as believable.
Yet here we are.
California wanting to copy Venezuela. California wanting to impoverish its citizens. California wanting to project the elite’s vision as Orwell’s 1984. They want to project these things as good for everyone? The ministry of truth lies, but who is there left to point out the real truth? All who are paid by the people to do just that, have succumbed to the ministry of truth doctrine.
Leftists are experts at turning gold into lead.
You are correct Rod. You wrote:
“California wanting to copy Venezuela. California wanting to impoverish its citizens. California wanting to project the elite’s vision as Orwell’s 1984. They want to project these things as good for everyone? The ministry of truth lies, but who is there left to point out the real truth? All who are paid by the people to do just that, have succumbed to the ministry of truth doctrine.”
Some people think that the global warming/climate change extremists are just scientifically wrong. I challenge that view – nobody could be this stupid for this long – they have an extreme-left totalitarian agenda and you have ably described their objectives.
THE RADICAL GREEN ROAD TO VENEZUELA – POVERTY, MISERY AND DICTATORSHIP
By Allan M.R. MacRae, B.A.Sc., M.Eng., September 20, 2019
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/09/20/the-radical-green-road-to-venezuela-poverty-misery-and-dictatorship/
[excerpt]
Radical greens have used wildly exaggerated scary stories of runaway global warming and climate change to stampede the gullible, in order to achieve their political objectives.
The absolute lunacy of the Green New Deal and its delusional acolytes is now clear – global warming alarmism and green energy nonsense was never about the climate – it was always a false narrative, a smokescreen for the totalitarian objectives of the extreme left. Once the left controls our energy supply, they control everything in our society – it will be “One Man, One Vote, Once!” – the end of freedom.
In 2016, the biggest brewery in Venezuela, Cerveceria Polar, shut down operations and laid off 10,000 employees because they could not get barley to brew. Beer is perhaps more important than arepas, and apparently production has now resumed although under perpetual threat of expropriate by Maduro’s thugs.
Here in Azusa, Miller brewery has been operating since 1980. We are not yet as low as Venezuela, and Miller has more definitive options. They just announced they are moving out of state.
Thanks Alan, I absolutely agree with you. No one is that dumb, it has to be pre-considered policy.
That is what is so worrying about the whole left, and ever more left movement. It is beyond any rational thought what they are doing, yet people still project it and people still fall into line with it.
The worry for all of us who see beyond the lies, is what do we have to do to stop this madness?
Sensible scientific proof is clearly not being acknowledged by the left. Those who show endless historic records (Tony Heller jumps to mind) are simply dismissed as “deniers”. I could accept their denigrating terminology, if it was a reference to our denying the left’s insane direction of travel. Clearly that is not what they try to suggest we are denying
I hope the younger generation start to wake up, and stop being “woke”, they are currently very much asleep at the wheel. We have to hand the levers of control over to these indoctrinated woke political children at some point in the future. We have to find a way to open up their minds. They must start to question and analyse the received truth, handed to them by politically motivated destroyers of society.
There is much work to do.
Hi Rod,
My latest paper includes 25 scientific falsifications of the CAGW/Climate Change scam.
THE CATASTROPHIC ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL WARMING (CAGW) AND THE HUMANMADE CLIMATE CHANGE CRISES ARE PROVED FALSE
By Allan M.R. MacRae, B.A.Sc.(Eng.), M.Eng., January 10, 2020
https://thsresearch.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/the-catastrophic-anthropogenic-global-warming-cagw-and-the-humanmade-climate-change-crises-are-proved-false.pdf
It’s never been about the science – it’s all about wolves stampeding the sheep.
…the State’s coiffures are growing thin as it is struggling to pay its welfare and social responsibilities debts.
We’ll be pulling out our hair, all right.
“They want to project these things as good for everyone? The ministry of truth lies, but who is there left to point out the real truth? All who are paid by the people to do just that, have succumbed to the ministry of truth doctrine.”
The Ministry Of Truth is a virtual umbrella organization embodying the five major social media giants and Associated Press.
As one of the commentators here on WUWT suggested, a good action is to become a member of a political party or group with an ideology appropriate to free our society from the The Ministry Of Truth and its totalitarianism, and stop offering to the weather and climate gods.
The Death Cult that runs this UN Climate Change are going into high gear.
The Gov of RI said last night that by 2030 we will be 100% green energy.. Yeah right..
These climate nazis in New England have refused to bring in Natural Gas pipe lines to keep energy prices low.
We pay over 80% higher costs than the National average.
http://neo.ne.gov/programs/stats/inf/204.htm
Plus we have Solar panels in fields every where, many towns have lawn signs up said No to Solar! Plus some wind farm bird choppers..
There is no way they can go 100% green unless they only supply energy to 15% or so.. Death Cult.. freeze to death.
New England is run by the insane Dems, death cult and they are destroying business and causing people to leave. 70,000 jobs have been lost because of high energy costs.
No one got to vote on any of this
Look at Europe suffering under the
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2016/03/30/green-europe-is-killing-40000-poor-people-a-year/
Looking forward to the end of this wicked system.. JW.org
This housing catastrophe is exactly why some major Democrats think California’s policies are the wave of the future!
Feed the population enough counter-revolutionary garbage and they’ll eventually accept the suppression without question!
I understand why they choose to import oil and gas, but what I don’t understand is why they have to import foreign gas and oil? Is it just because ‘pipelines are the devil’? Surely it would be cheaper and more environmentally sound to import gas/oil from Texas and New Mexico a few hundred miles away than to rely on fossil-fueled tanker ships from foreign suppliers thousands of miles away.
I am confused about why electricity prices rise if they are importing electricity. I would think so long as they have multiple utility companies outside of the state competing for selling to them the price should be good.
Is California restricting how the outside energy is produced to wind and solar. In that case I can see a high price. If they import nat gas produced electricity then they are Not saving any co2 from being produced. They are just moving where the co2 is produced.
“… why electricity prices rise if they are importing electricity.”
Apart from electricity import may be considerable more expensive at the time it is imported, due to higher demand, the cost to the additional wind-electricity is added to the general market price.
One factor is that they have to pay neighboring states to take electricity during the day when solar produces more than can be used. That cost is reflected in customer pricing.
It is imported wind power and British Columbia hydro power.
I believed the California wind turbines are located along the Columbia gorge which is the best location for wind turbines in that region of the country.
A PBS program had an interesting presentation on energy that showed a very long time lapse picture of the US wind flow over a year.
The PBS program stated, the engineering fact, that there are limited locations where wind turbines should be located based on year average wind speed, in the US.
The coastal mountains block most of the winds along the California coast.
“Atmospheric pressure differentials east and west of the Cascades create a wind tunnel effect in the deep cut of the gorge, generating 35-mile-per-hour (56 km/h) winds that make it a popular windsurfing and kiteboarding location. It also creates the right conditions for snow and ice storms during the winter months which also draw very cold east winds at the mouth of the gorge on the west end.”
The impacts of current energy policies in California and elsewhere are slow to show themselves, which is one reason why they continue onward. Everyone is impacted negatively, but slowly. Local businesses’ profitabilities don’t go negative in a year, they just shrink annually. Each business owner just has less each year, but is still getting by. But one by one they ultimately will have to close down.
The intentional blackouts last summer by PG&E were inconvenient but survivable. A lot of the companies are still employing people but most certainly aren’t expanding there and we are beginning to see the start of an exodus. But if you can’t guarantee a constant, competitive supply of power no company will stay and that is where California is headed.. and if there are no employers, there is no money for the population and the whole house of cards collapses.
Though the current lawsuit against PG&E cites the blackouts as evidence that PG&E is incompetent and negligent.
Obviously, it’s the classic break and take policy of those seeking Communism. Either they leave the power flowing and get sued for starting fires due to the state’s anti-fire prevention laws, or they turn the power off and get sued for “being ill prepared to prevent wildfires”.
Looking at the whole picture it seems leftists want all these problems to get worse. Each legislative action they take creates problems, then they “address” those problems and make them worse. Looks very much like a strategy, a means to an end.
Scarcity is fundamental to the ideologies and belief systems of the left. Abundance is anathema to the left. Hence they embrace energy production methods and infrastructure policies that guaranty scarcity. This is why even if they really believe the faulty and absurd premise that human co2 emissions are a problem, they reject the obvious solution-nuclear power. This is why the irrational fear of fracking and modern oil and gas exploration and production technologies in the face of evidence that it does little to no harm.
Probably a bigger deal than the anti-fracking law in California is the hold on permits to acidize wells for completion. That essentially shuts down 95% of prospects because even non carbonate wells typically get at least some mud-cleaning acid on completion to clear out drilling mud invasion into formation.
They have also put a hold on using steam for enhanced recovery, which puts the kibosh on CA heavy oil production.
All of these methods – fracking, acidizing, and steam injection – have been safely used for decades. But recently the state of CA has determined that thinking causes cancer, so apparently they have put a hold on that too.
Pied Piper state policy. For at least forty years, California has been trying to restrict development. They tried not building highways to limit sprawl, didn’t work. They take a developer’s plan to build hundreds of homes but only allow 15% of the plan. They raised the price of electricity and fuels the hit the poor and the working class hardest putting a strain on those families. This is all a gentrification plan for the incumbents and the well to do. It’s finally working. Of course young people who are starting out and thinking of raising families are neither incumbents or nor well to do. They are leaving and finding a better life elsewhere as this San Francisco Chronicle article describes. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/otisrtaylorjr/article/She-left-California-to-find-an-affordable-place-14978631.php?mod=article_inline
So what may look like short sighted policy harmful those least able to afford living in the state is simply a de-development plan decades in the making.
The Wall Street Journal also had an article on the appeal of Bernie Sanders and socialism, https://www.wsj.com/articles/boomer-socialism-led-to-bernie-sanders-11579304307?mod=opinion_lead_pos5.
California has this plan nailed.
Energy is literally the driving force behind any economy.
Without cheap and abundant energy, economies fail like Venezuela (a country with the world’s largest oil reserves—oh, how I hate Leftist irony…)
California is hell bent on quadrupling energy-production costs, while simultaneously reducing its supply. Any 10 year old can tell you such actions are insane, but Leftists can’t grasp such simple concepts as supply & demand, and price discovery…
Insane Leftist zoning laws, EPA regulations, construction-project approval processes, etc., also limit new housing construction, which greatly reduces supply and further drives up housing costs…
Leftists have absolutely destroyed California…
Way overegged.
The primary sources of California oil are: Saudi Arabia, Ecuador and Colombia.
Equally, the reason why there are oil imports is because of economics, not policy. Pipelines to major US oil production are far more expensive than bringing in oil by ships.
As for electricity imports – again, not at all clear the point presented is valid.
There’s this thing called Hoover dam on the Nevada/Arizona border. Nobody leaves around it, and the number of people in a 200 mile radius of it is still fairly small (i.e. Las Vegas). Why shouldn’t that power be exported? And imported into California which has the demand and is relatively close?
The high cost of California electricity isn’t due to the cost of imports – it is due to the utility companies.
c1ue-if the utility companies were actually private enterprises you’d be partially correct. California has a government body called the Public Utilities Commission that controls everything including the amount of profit the utility company can make. So yes the major problem is regulation.
BTW if California were to drill for their own oil it would be cheaper that the importing from foreign countries. You argument about importing from oil producing areas in the U.S outside of California is a distraction.
From the article: “Prices for electricity in California are already fifty percent higher than the national average for residents, and double the national average for commercial, and are projected to go even higher.”
That means California is not competitive with other States, and is a recipe for economic disaster. Radical California Democrats are leading California down the Road to Ruin with their delusional policies.
Road to Ruin – an excellent Ramones LP. Johnny Ramone would be loving Trump and spewing at California, if he were still with us. The inventor of punk rock guitar was a Reagan supporter. Suck it up, Snowflakes.
Ronald,
See “ Supreme Court lets stand ruling that protects homeless people who sleep on sidewalk”.LATimes,16 December 2019.
Also Martin v. Boise in the 9th Circuit Appeal Court which is the subject of the above article.
It was a 9/0 decision by the 9th Circuit Appeal Court with one partial dissent finding the 8th Amendment ( Cruel and unusual punishment)prevented local by laws stopping homeless sleeping and camping on sidewalks
It is a high water mark of mindless judicial activism.
Now read Heather MacDonald in the NY City Journal, Autumn Édition, “San Francisco:Hostage to the homeless”.
God help San Francisco and Los Angeles because the 9th Circuit Court won’t.
The money quote by MacDonald is “ For the last three decades,San Francisco has been conducting a real life experiment in what happens when a society stops enforcing bourgeois norms of behaviour.”
You are right on the money with your article.
It’s probably the same in the US, but in Australia, the working poor pay for the subsidies to the middle class for their solar panel installations and the like.
To conclude, this greenie policy is really sick and only the most self-centred people could be capable of supporting it.
ARTICLE: Its mind boggling that our California legislative leaders continuously fail to see the direct correlation between high energy costs for electricity and fuels, and poverty, homelessness, and a housing affordability crisis already impacting the Golden State.
Maybe they do, they are socialists. They are the ones in with Putin.
It’s time to petition Congress to revoke California’s statehood and return it to being a territory. It is a failed state and it is harming the rest of the country.
The states were setup as experiments in governmental structure, perhaps it is time to sunset those that are failing, by the Founders’ definition.
Oh, and add New York to that list. Have seen what AndrewTheInsane and his minions have been doing there? Scary s**t.