Keystone Today

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has come under fire from critics for his handling of the state’s recent electricity crisis during a heat wave.

According to an editorial by The Wall Street Journal, Newsom blamed the heat wave on climate change, was forced to use emergency generators and also advised a series of guidelines to the public on how to deal with the situation. Critics of Newsom’s climate policy say that the electricity scare was due to man-made climate policies and that high temperatures at the end of the summer are a common occurrence. They also claim that this could be just the beginning in regards to electricity shutoffs, as other states are bound to pick up on this, including Pennsylvania.

“But what starts in Cal­i­for­nia rarely stays in Cal­i­for­nia,” The Wall Street journal editorial board said. “Amer­icans every­where will soon be soaked with higher prices for power that is be­com­ing less re­li­able. Rhode Is­land En­ergy this sum­mer asked reg­u­la­tors to more than dou­ble cur­rent elec­tric rates for this win­ter. Fall­ing gaso­line prices for many Amer­i­cans could be fully off­set by ris­ing elec­tric­ity costs. The grid problems that Californians are enduring will grow and spread as supersized green-energy subsidies and mandates spread their harmful incentives throughput the U.S. economy in coming years. The culprit is the left’s climate policies, not climate change.”

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman | Wikimedia Commons

The goal of switching to renewable energy is not something new for Democrats. During a campaign even in Newcastle, New Hampshire, in September 2021, now-President Joe Biden told an audience member: “Look into my eyes. I guarantee you we’re going to end fossil fuels,” according to a YouTube video of the speech.

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D-PA), who is a candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, has supported clean energy initiatives and, according to Fox News, called climate change an “existential threat.” He said, "We have to get with this idea that most of our energy has to, hopefully within the tail end of my lifetime, be coming from green and renewable sources in our economy.”

In Pennsylvania, the cost of electricity is an average of 16.51 c/kwh (kilowatt hours), as of June 2022, compared to last year’s average of 14.02 c/kwh, according to Choose Energy. The national average has increased 11.3% over the last year.

The Wall Street Journal piece went on to say that California has taken steps toward green energy reliance, which has caused gas and nuclear plants to close. This has made it so the state was unable to provide enough energy to residents, the report stated. The board states that between 2010 and 2020, gas-fired capacity decreased by 4,390 megawatts and nuclear by 2,150 megawatts. California has increased its solar and wind power by 17,000 megawatts, but the report states it cannot power millions of homes during times of three-digit temperatures.

The article added it was ironic that gas-powered generators were used for the emergency, as fossil fuels are used in those generators. Critics say that Newsom and the left’s call to move away from fossil fuels doesn’t make energy cheap, but instead makes it less reliable. Thirty percent of Los Angeles’ electricity supply comes from coal, and The Wall Street Journal called it his “dirty little secret.”

Due to the heatwave, Newsom told California residents to raise their thermostats and advised industrial businesses to temporarily close. He said in a YouTube video that everyone needs to do their part.

According to Choose Energy, California’s average electricity cost has gone up 25.4%, compared to 2021.

National Review reported in June that Republican commissioners on the Federal Electricity Regulatory Commission (FERC), as well as some industry groups, have been arguing for a slower transition to renewable energy. 

“We’re headed for a reliability crisis. We’re just not ready yet,” Commissioner of FERC Mark Christie, who was a Trump appointee, told National Review.

Democrats on the Commission have argued that power transmission issues have been the reason for the blackouts, not energy transition.