By Ronald Stein
Founder and Ambassador for Energy & Infrastructure of PTS Advance
Lawmakers in Sacramento have made no secret that one of their goals is to force Californians to stop using inexpensive and reliable natural gas and force the entire state onto an already overloaded electric grid pushing energy costs higher. Berkeley became the first city in America to ban natural gas hook-ups in new buildings with a landmark ordinance effective Jan 1, 2020, they signed up for far-reaching unintended consequences that will stymie growth and push people closer to poverty and homelessness. Now, cities across California are seriously looking at creating bans of their own. Could your city or even Cypress be next?
Its mind boggling that our California legislative leaders continuously fail to see the direct correlation between high energy costs and poverty and homelessness, a crisis already impacting the Golden State.
Prices for electricity are already fifty percent higher than the national average for residents, and double the national average for commercial, and are projected to go even higher.
The State’s efforts to ban natural gas use in homes and businesses will stymie future growth as companies decide to locate out of state taking their jobs with them as they choose to operate in places with lower energy costs. Higher energy costs from electricity only will make homes less affordable. According to Californians for Balanced Energy Solutions, it is estimated the cost of converting houses from natural gas to electricity is $7,500 and energy costs will go up by nearly $400 annually. This would dramatically impact California’s lowest income wage earners. It’s simple math: if people cannot afford their homes and apartments, more will be on the streets!
What’s worse is that a mandated shift away from natural gas use could cause potentially dire consequences for California’s aging and overburdened electric grid during peak load times in the summer.
On a 100-degree summer afternoon, just as we hit peak energy use with air conditioners, all 40 million of us would be forced to cook our dinners on electric skillets, ranges and ovens. Our mandated electric water heaters would draw energy at the same time we turn on TV’s, just as electric utility companies say they will cut power on high-risk fire days.
California is on a path toward 100% use of renewables and “zero-carbon” sources in electricity by 2045. But technology has not advanced to a point where California can generate that much electricity!
Last year alone, California imported up to 29 percent because it could not generate that much in-state, but imported electricity comes at higher costs which are being borne by residents and businesses alike. The need to import will escalate every year because land use is now being blocked for wind and solar energy sources, as in San Bernardino now. Wind and solar alone cannot replace the closure of facilities that continuously provide uninterruptible electricity from nuclear and natural gas.
The benefits of a carbon-free society are often discussed, but rarely are the high costs of achieving this technological breakthrough, or its impact on California’s economy.
Adding to the problem, California is phasing out nuclear reactors that have been generating continuously uninterruptible carbon-free electricity. In 2013, California already shutdown the continuous nuclear facility of SCE’s San Onofre Generating Station which generated 2,200 megawatts of power and will be closing PG&E’s Diablo Canyon’s 2,160 megawatts of power in 2024 getting ready for the renewable intermittent electricity from wind and solar. The Mayor must be oblivious to the fact that Natural Gas generating plants provide about 47 percent of the state’s electricity, and the state has no plans to replace that with renewables!
It gets bleaker in the coming years, as Mayor Garcetti recently announced that Los Angeles will shut down three gas powered power plants at Scattergood, Haynes, and Harbor, saying, “this is the beginning of the end of natural gas in Los Angeles.”
With the shuttering of nuclear and natural gas plants that have been generating continuously uninterruptible electricity, our elected officials seem to be oblivious to the fact that the State has no electricity generating capacity to replace what’s lost. Further, that “green” electricity from wind and solar is only intermittent, as neither generates when the wind is not blowing, and when the sun’s not shining.
With this path forward, it’s lights out for California’s future.