Re: Reality Bites: California Moves Back Toward Gas and Nuke Energy To Keep Lights On

[Acetone]

On 15 Feb 2022, Lefty Lundquist <lefty_l...@ggmail.com> posted some
news:suguk2$b2a$4...@dont-email.me:

> Democrats never think any further than they can pee.

In late April 2022, Southern California was cool. I don’t mean the Steve
McQueen sort of cool. I mean that the high temperature in Los Angeles on
Saturday, April 30th, 2022 was 69 degrees.

It was a lovely weekend day. Not too cold, not too hot. SoCal was in a
Goldilocks temperature zone of comfortability. Since homes weren’t running
air conditioning, electrical use was way down. There wasn’t a massive
drain on the electrical grid. There was hardly any drain at all. In fact,
April 30, 2022, was something of a unicorn day for California weather and
megawatt use. At one point during the day at about 5 p.m., California was
using 18,600 megawatts - far less than a usual spring weekday. The wind
was blowing, the sun was glaring. “Green energy” approached 100% of the
draw.

Green energy geeks acted like California hit the lottery.

And then, it was gone. Poof. The sun went down. Night came, the solar
panels went to sleep and the perfect conditions were no more. Then, as
sure as the sun would rise, clouds would cover that big angry ball in the
sky and the wind would stop blowing, Summer came to California. By
September 2022, Gavin Newsom was back from vacation begging Californians
to stop using power. Goldilocks was, officially dead. Brownouts were in
the offing, warned Newsom. Charge your EV now, and don't run your AC.

In September 2022, RedState’s Bob Hoge wrote:

Dire “flex alert” text messages were sent out en masse by grid operators
Tuesday afternoon, calling on the populace to set their ACs no lower than
78 degrees and forgo the use of appliances like washing machines. Yes,
this is 21st-century life in a First World country.

Blackouts were largely avoided Tuesday as utilities were just able to keep
up with the demand. We’ll see whether the same holds true in the next few
days. (Although there weren’t widespread blackouts in the state, there
were still a few in some communities which authorities blamed on
“miscommunication.” That certainly doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence.)

While Newson was begging Californians to turn off their lights, he was
also begging green energy allies to unplug their EVs. Frequent brownouts
and calls to not charge your EV becuase the state is out of power isn’t
the best way to sell people on “we’re going 100% renewable!”

Yeah, no you’re not.

What’s California’s electrical pull on August 31, 2023? As of 7:32 p.m.
Thursday night, the megawatt draw was 36,636. That’s almost exactly twice
the Goldilocks day last April. What was the percentage of use of
renewables? Zero.

Three years ago, there were rolling blackouts in California. Although
Californians have been moving out of California to avoid the increasing
unaffordability, not enough energy users were moving out to stave off
increases on the energy grid and increases on everyone's wallets. Now
Newsom is greenlighting (pun intended) the use of the most reliable source
of running turbines – that is natural gas.

Now, Newsom is “blessing” the continued use of natural gas and nuclear
power that he campaigned on shutting down over time. Notwithstanding his
posturing for cameras he’s dealing with the reality that, if he wants to
keep the lights on and EVs charged, there is no other choice but to keep
gas and nuclear power-generated plants operational. Politico breathlessly
reported:

The Newsom-appointed Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote
Thursday on whether to approve the Aliso Canyon expansion, which would
boost storage by two-thirds to nearly 69 billion cubic feet.

His administration also extended the life of three aging natural gas
plants in Southern California last month and is helping keep Diablo
Canyon, the state’s remaining nuclear plant, open despite his prior
support as lieutenant governor for closing it.

Newsom Sugarplum Fairy's fantasy of a 100% renewable energy grid is
slamming into a wall of reality. Newsom still wants to ban the sale of all
gas-driven cars which would mean a bigger draw on an already overburdened
electrical grid when a million more EVs are plugged in every night.

Goldilocks was a fairy tale. So is Newsom's fantasy of 100% renewable
energy. Even he knows it's pretend.