Blackouts in the failing state of Democrat-run California have forced Governor Gavin Newsom to admit green every is falling short.
“Newsom says the transition away from fossil fuels has left California with a gap in the reliability of its energy system. He says the state must examine its reliance on solar power and how that fits into its broader energy portfolio,” reports the San Francisco Chronicle’s Alexei Koseff.
“Today we are anticipating substantially greater need for energy,” Newsom said at a Monday press conference. Per Koseff, he added that this greater need is “about 4,400 megawatts short of what the state needs. That’s a ten times greater shortfall than Saturday. ”
“We failed to predict and plan these shortages and that’s simply unacceptable,” Newsom somehow said without bursting into flames.
Give me a break.
No one “failed to predict” anything.
California has had decades to prepare for this. No one failed to predict it. They only failed to prepare for it.
The writing has been on the wall since 2001 when the state was hit with a series of massive blackouts and soaring electricity prices. The result was the successful recall of then-Democrat Governor Gray Davis in late 2003. He was replaced by the equally incompetent Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Over the weekend, the former-Golden State was hit with its second day of rolling blackouts. As my colleague Joel Pollak reported at the time, “the state’s power grid struggled to deal with a heat wave that caused a surge in consumer demand.”
The blackout hit 220,000 homes in the North Bay area.
While there’s nothing funny about people losing power during a heat wave, it is still hard not to laugh at a state that is so scientifically backwards. The luddites were thwarted by a lack of wind and clouds.
Yes, wind and clouds:
Officials blamed the “unexpected loss of a 470-megawatt power plant Saturday evening, as well as the loss of nearly 1,000 megawatts of wind power,” the San Jose Mercury News reported. In addition, cloud cover over the desert meant solar energy was in short supply.
What are we, savages?
What is this, the third world?
No one has to live like this in the 21st century.
All you need to do is build more power and nuclear plants and the problem is solved.
Yes, it really is that easy.
Oh, but California is closing down its nuclear power plants, and “the sudden shutdown of two conventional power plants” contributed to Friday and Saturday’s blackouts — one was shut down for service (in August!), the other shut down unexpectedly.
And let’s not forget that in 2018 the Democrat-dominated state legislature passed a bill demanding the state have “100% climate-friendly electricity by 2045.” This means no emissions.
Geothermal is emission-free, but the okay to build three new geothermal plants was only approved this year. However, per the far-left Los Angeles Times, “Building a geothermal facility can be several times more expensive than a comparably sized solar or wind farm, meaning geothermal plant operators must charge more for the electricity they generate.”
And as we now know, wind and solar might be cheap but can also be thwarted by clouds and the lack of a stiff breeze.
This is not progressive.
There is nothing progressive about going backward, about living like we still haven’t discovered electricity or clean, cheap nuclear energy.
You know, after almost nine years, the wife and fled California in 2011. Brother, even then, the writing was on the wall. Already there were sky-high energy costs combined with a government so regressive I was being punished with a tax for using plastic grocery bags while absolutely nothing was being done about the flood of illegal immigrants who increased energy prices, who made classroom learning in some public schools impossible, who lowered wages and stole jobs from legal residents and immigrants.
Since I’ve left, things have gotten exponentially worse — massive tax increases, an exploding homeless problem… The government is broken. While the Democrats who run California with no serious Republican opposition cannot deliver basic services like electricity during a heat wave or water during a drought (reservoirs hurt Mother Earth), these same Democrats are pouring billions into boondoggles.
California is a failed state, and it is not the fault of the Democrat Party — it is what it is… It’s the fault of voters who continue to double down on failure, who have given these loons a veto-proof majority in the state legislature.
When California was a Republican stronghold, it was truly the Golden State, a place where dreams came true…
Destroying California, one of the most beautiful states in the union, one with an endless supply of natural and human resources, is not an easy thing to do — but Democrats are locusts who eventually destroy everything.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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