Sanity in Sacramento

“Californians are leaders and when they all are sure they won't lose social standing for leading because everyone else is leading in the same direction at the same time, they GO FOR IT”

- Mark Nelson

| Emmet Penney, aka Nuclear Barbarian

Okay this one’s short, and cynicism aside, credit is due when even the California State Legislature, does something SANE, in this case both chambers (Assembly: 64-3, Senate: 24-1) overwhelmingly voted to pass SB-846 which will provide an emergency $1.4 billion loan to Pacific Gas & Electric, the owners and operators of CA’s last nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon¹.

Now the bill sits on Gov. Newsom’s desk awaiting signature.

And in other news, CA is in day two of a massive and most likely record-breaking heatwave.

California Independent System Operator (CAISO) are asking residents to curtail their power usage between the hours of 4:00 and 9:00pm by doing such things as “pre-cooling” their homes (reminds me of the late George Carlin’s sketch on the excessive use of the suffix “pre”), cutting back on laundry or dishwashing, and avoiding charging their EVs. In CAISO’s super exciting thrilling System Conditions Bulletin, which are released daily, they list a number of bullet points which amount nothing more than self-own of the failures of CA’s grid and politicians such as (emphasis mine)

• We are monitoring weather conditions in neighboring areas, which impacts our ability to import power from other grids.

• We also have to expect the unexpected, meaning we need to be prepared for any unplanned event that could tighten energy supplies.

• That is the most critical time on the grid, because solar production is going offline, but temperatures remain high.

Fatal Trifecta much?

Also yesterday, CAISO declared the first level of the state of emergency, an EEA Watch.

And then there’s this, which seems to be under the radar but nevertheless flies in what resembles any logic with the “environmental justice” crew. I’m sure the LA Times will jump right on that story and the local CCA will issue an apology.

Michael Shellenberger @ShellenbergerMD

California leaders said we could use batteries instead of natural gas but electricity shortages are now so severe that the state has just ordered one of the state's dirtiest, jet fuel-burning plants to keep operating, despite having promised to close it 3 years ago.

Michael Shellenberger @ShellenbergerMD

"The plant that’s sitting there has been there for a long time and is the bane of many West Oakland folks because it is a significant contributor to air pollution here," said Sen @NancySkinnerCA adding that residents there face higher rates of asthma.

greentechmedia.comOakland to Swap Jet-Fuel-Burning Peaker Plant for Urban BatteryThe deal with Vistra will be the largest standalone storage facility contracted for a community-choice aggregator in California.

Michael Shellenberger @ShellenbergerMD

The announcement to close the plant was heavily promoted to journalists who described its closure as a done deal — typical of the renewables-and-batteries misinformation. I predict nobody will cover its re-opening, which is a bad defeat for environmental justice.

1. The LA Times also finally published the word baseload but unfortunately it didn’t come from any of their reporters themselves.

“This is critical in the context of making sure we have energy reliability going forward, that energy does not produce greenhouse gases. That energy provides baseload and reliability and affordability that will complement and allow us to stack all of the green energy that we’re bringing online at record rates.”

- CA Gov. Gavin Newsom (source)