California’s commitment to wind and solar energy has run into a mild problem: summer.
California is no stranger to heat. Nor is it a stranger to terrible Democratic Party energy policies. Residents have previously had to deal with rolling energy blackouts during heat waves due to the strain on the energy grid. Mother Nature has mocked the Democrats’ best-laid plans, granting less sunlight and wind during a heat wave in 2020 than they had hoped for.
The state needs a new plan in the midst of another summer. Gov. Gavin Newsom has decided to trigger the nuclear option.
Diablo Canyon is California’s final nuclear plant. It accounts for about 9% of the state’s total electricity. But California is home to some of the worst environmentalists in the country, so the plant has been on track to close in 2025, though it will lead to an increase in carbon emissions and keeping it could decarbonize California more quickly and cheaply than shuttering it.
Realizing that California’s energy plans might be ill-thought-out, Newsom is asking lawmakers to extend Diablo Canyon’s lifespan to 2035 and to approve a $1.4 billion loan to the plant’s owner. It turns out that California needs reliable energy now, whether that be the temporary gas-field generators it approved in 2021 or the big scary nuclear plant that is only being shut down because environmentalists think nuclear energy is big and scary.
California’s energy policy is slowly turning into permanently temporary extensions for nuclear and natural gas. Perhaps it might be time for the Golden State to admit that green isn’t really its color.
