Heat advisory.....in case you missed the forecast.

Back to our regularly scheduled forecast for July 8.
The next 5 days in the southwest and Bay Area. This is becoming a regular thing. Try to stay cool.

 

We're looking at 120+ Saturday. Can hardly wait

 

If I were King, not one idiot from any party would see another day in D.C. but since I'm not King and my days are numbered, I'll continue to watch them pontificate. If only it were "One bad apple"

 

I'd also want a coal plant in my backyard if the alternative was no power. Reliable power isn't just a convenience issue or a health and safety issue, it's an economic and national security issue. If I was in charge (ha ha) I'd adopt an "all of the above" power strategy -- because Job 1 is having enough power -- while investing in expanding and fortifying the grid so it's far more resilient and effective at delivering the power we do have (see Texas crisis). And, importantly, I'd use economic incentives to move the power industry towards greener sources. Ultimately, green energy needs to be a sensible first choice from an economic perspective, not just an environmental perspective (though the two things are very much linked). And the fact is that we can get there. Already, green sources are starting to push out dirty sources on economics alone.

In any case, I think the underlying point of this question is that it's a false choice. It's not in fact the case that we can't produce enough electricity without adding more coal plants. These kinds of faulty dilemmas are pushed by people who profit from fossil fuels, whether financially or at the ballot box. It's like the horror that occurred in Texas, with so many people with no power for days on end, and then stuck with electric bills for thousands of dollars. Some people wanted to make that about green energy. Really it was about the dysfunctional (and actually non-free-market system) there.

 

I don’t think gov has any direct power over the California Independent System Operator to order rotating power system outages. Only the power to talk about it. Or not talk about it.

That was Gray Davis’s problem in the early 2000s, not saying much about all the PGE outages, bankruptcy, price hikes, etc. So voters blamed him as part of the problem, recalled him and we got Arnold instead.

People don’t like Newsom for a lot of reasons but at least he does complain publicly about PGE.
Now if voters think Newsom is to blame for all the PGE crap he’ll be recalled and we’ll get Caitlyn Jenner. That’ll fix everything.

 

The reason we run out of electricity is because we have a green problem.

Windmills and solar can’t keep up with demand, there’s no water for hydroelectric this year, and natural gas can only do so much.

We closed down the coal plants, and right now they’re trying to stop buying power from states that generate coal energy.

 

Yeah, there’s trouble ahead. California is part of the Western Interconnect that can share power among some western states and even parts of Canada and Mexico. But when the whole region is under a heat dome there’s not enough power to move around to CA from the other locations. Every state is in the same jam.

And as you said there’s less generating supply, and there’s more steady demand than even last year. When there’s a big spike in peak demand during these regional heat events CA is on its own. So it’s turn off your A/Cs, TVs and video games or PGE will pull the plug for you. Then there’s the whole electrical infrastructure inadequacy and PGE power line non-maintenance causing fires.
It’s shaping up to be a long hot summer.

At least with my DC fridge in the 4Runner I can keep my beer cold.