California has been plagued by annual electric power blackouts and brownouts when air conditioners place higher demands on the grid each summer, and the state’s increased reliance on wind and solar can’t keep up.
Now it’s about to get worse.
The Golden State is in the middle of a 10-year process to take the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant offline. This is California’s last remaining nuclear plant — one of the cleanest and most dependable sources of electric power.
This single facility currently provides about 9% of the electric power for the entire state. Its remaining needs are met by natural gas providing 37%, 33% from renewables (wind and solar), 13.5% from hydroelectric, and 3% from coal.
Despite that, California is committed to closing the plant.
The state issued five flex alerts in 2020, and eight in 2021 — in which they asked residents to decrease energy usages during peak hours — generally before 9pm.
Despite that, California is committed to closing the plant.
During an August 2020 heatwave, hundreds of thousands of Californians were without power altogether.
Despite that, California is committed to closing the plant.
The state is currently operating under an emergency order granted by the U.S. Department of Energy, to allow it to meet energy demand using natural gas without regard to pollution restrictions. That order will expire on November 9.
Despite that, California is committed to closing the plant.
Increased reliance on renewables hasn’t just plagued California.
A “hundred-year storm” caused a Texas power crisis in February, leaving more than 4.5 million homes and businesses without power for weeks. It was the result, in part, of excessive reliance on “green” energy — in that case wind.
And if President Biden gets his massive $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” boondoggle, which calls for increased reliance on electric vehicles with electric recharging stations scattered throughout the United States, it’ll only get worse.
Dr. Patrick Moore, a co-founder and former director of Greenpeace, and the author of the recently released book “Fake Invisible Catastrophes and Threats of Doom,” believes this race to a carbon-free existence is unnecessary — especially as the world’s greatest polluters aren’t playing ball.
“It is important to note that China, Russia, and India, among others, are barely paying lip service to this insanity, never mind actually adopting such policies,” Moore told Newsmax.
“The only hope is an awakening by the forces of reason, science, and logic that is powerful enough to defeat this insanity that has afflicted the wealthiest and most privileged of nations,” he added.
He also believes that the Biden climate change agenda will lead to an even greater catastrophe, because “the purported problem Biden & Co. claim needs solving does not exist.”
He explained that market forces historically “determined the mix of hydroelectric, fossil fuel, and nuclear energy that form the backbone of our energy supply.”
But the “Green” movement and politicians that bought into it, changed all that, and “make energy more expensive and less reliable, almost entirely due to the false perception that all three of these proven technologies and fuels are” too problematic for various reasons.
As for California, Moore said that the “‘Greens’ don’t like nuclear because they refuse to accept it is one of the safest technologies for energy production and the fuel supply is effectively infinite.”
But the Golden State’s leaders would rather see their constituents read by candlelight and swelter in the heat if it means they can say they’re being “responsible” to the planet.
But you can bet your bottom dollar that those same leaders won’t be living under the same conditions. They’ll enjoy everything that full electric power provides — air conditioning, electric lights, cooking and refrigeration.
Just as California Gov. Gavin Newsom sent his kids to private school while closing the state’s public schools.
Just as he also enjoyed dining at an exclusive Napa Valley restaurant while the rest of the state was in the midst of a strict lockdown.
Ironically, Newsom was breaking bread with a lobbyist representing creditors of Pacific Gas & Electric Company in a bankruptcy hearing.
PG&E is one of the state’s largest electric utility companies. It’s also the owner of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.
And that’s the way it works in socialist regimes — the leaders work out deals while they feast on steak and lobster, and the little people get the crumbs.
And shutting down Diablo Canyon will benefit neither the environment, nor PG&E, nor especially the people of the state of California.
It’ll only feed the egos of people like Newsom and make them feel morally superior.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to BizPac Review and Liberty Unyielding. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter, who can often be found honing his skills at the range. Read Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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