California Is Both Increasing Electrical Demand and Cutting Off Access to Electricity Sources
Katie Tubb / September 14, 2022
Katie Tubb is a policy analyst for the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. Read her research.
California may be a trendsetter or bellwether in many ways, but after 10 grid alerts and emergency declarations in as many days, let’s hope that’s not the case when it comes to energy and climate policy.
Over the past two weeks, shortly after state bureaucrats finalized a regulation banning sales of gasoline-powered cars after 2035, Californians received emergency notices from the state’s regional grid operator (the “referee” responsible for grid reliability) to curtail electricity use in hopes of avoiding blackouts.
Record high demand during a heat wave strained the electric grid to power air conditioners, household appliances, electric cars, and lighting, as well as businesses and industry.
Such a heat wave is out of Californians’ control, but hot, dry weather is nothing new for California and should be a given when planning for grid reliability.
Instead, California policymakers have been chasing two competing policy priorities, neither of which have anything to do with reliability.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/09/14/californias-electrical-grid-emergency-shows-energy-policy-gamble-is-bad-bet/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CapitolBell&mkt_tok=ODI0LU1IVC0zMDQAAAGG4atpssCmNJLIabdTZ3QrvQbtCXhLYMbiDPWNrK_IOYRyACQaTn2JrnTpvIukvNdaSFVI-eRfDO2RLTrlyYsRToJtmp1oRkZWe-zHcaNpRZy_jA
