Forget Brown’s Minimum Wage Bomb, California Businesses Will Be Hit Hard by Energy Shortages First!

Posted by Tina

Steven Hayward of Powerline took note this week of events that will lead to blackouts in Southern California this summer. The first was a massive natural gas leak that depleted the source used by Southern California Edison in the summer months “to run natural gas “peaker” plants when electricity demand soars during hot weather. The very green California bureaucracy’s decision not to refill the underground formation will leave 17 power plants in the Los Angeles Basin short on natural gas energy (one-fifth of its capacity) during a peak season. A linked article from the L.A. Times makes the problem clear:

“These pipelines also cannot transport gas fast enough to meet the hour-by-hour or changing demands of power plants during the summer when electricity demand peaks,” said Mark Rothleder, vice president of the California Independent System Operator, one of four agencies that warned of the blackouts in a draft report released Tuesday.

(No energy, no water…LA is in for a bad summer experience)

The very green Governor Brown is, no doubt, cheering because of all those solar projects he’s embraced…right? Solar to the rescue! Not quite. a report done by Lauren Sommer of KQED found we can’t really rely on solar to fill the gaps. What?

Solar energy records are falling left and right in California these days, as the state steams ahead toward its ambitious renewable energy goals.

But the success of solar has brought about a hidden downside: on some perfectly sunny days, solar farms are being told to turn off.

“It’s constantly solving a constant problem, meaning you’re always trying to balance,” says Nancy Traweek, who directs system operations for the grid.

In the past, balancing California’s electric was fairly straightforward. The power supply was constant, coming from natural gas and nuclear power plants that put out a steady stream of electricity.

They have them turn off because” in the spring and fall, when Californians aren’t using much air conditioning and demand for electricity is low, the surge of midday solar power is more than the state can use.”

What that means is solar energy isn’t a reliable continuing source. Efforts to blunt use of natural gas to promote green energy alternatives “naturally cause” shortages the people must then suffer.

I have to share two observations by Mr. Hayward simply because they are so (seriously) amusing:

Such geniuses we have running California. Thank goodness we’re building high-speed rail. It’ll only take three times as long at twice the price of Southwest Air Lines to get up and down the state.

P.S. The necessity of conventional backup power for “renewables” is why the various mandates for expansion of renewable energy won’t translate into commensurate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. It will be an amusing day when the data comes in showing that renewables have failed to reduce emissions, and everyone will be scratching their heads why. Green Weenies all around.

Get educated California…it may be too late to avoid the pain but we Americans have dug ourselves out of deep dark holes before…we can do it again in California if the people smarten up!