Talking Points on California Blackouts

Quick Summary

1. Fact: electricity producers know how to produce enough reliable electricity for virtually any situation--certainly plenty for the heat wave CA has been experiencing this year. All you need to do is build enough reliable power plants: nuclear, natural gas, coal, or hydro.
2. CA, attempting a mini-mini-Green New Deal, decided to mandate that a lot of the electricity generated in the state had to come from unreliable, "renewable" solar and wind electricity. We shut down reliable gas and nuclear plants to hit our renewable targets.¹
3. While California boasts about its massive use of "unreliables"--@KamalaHarris has called it a "model"--the reality is that it is a massive electricity parasite, hugely dependent on reliable gas, nuclear, and coal plants from neighboring states such as AZ, NV, and UT.²
4. What happens to a state trying to rely on "unreliables" during a regional heat wave? The wind dies down. The sun dies down daily. This meant CA needed more electricity from the states with “reliables”--but those states needed more, too, so they sent CA less. Surprise...blackouts!³
5. Everyone needs to learn from CA's blackouts--and fast. Policies mandating unreliable solar and wind electricity are making our electricity grid more unreliable every year. If we do not make reliability a priority we will become a third-world grid with frequent blackouts.
6. Nationally we face the prospect of frequent "green blackouts" thanks to a cocktail of 3 bad policies: 1) mandating unreliables (solar and wind), 2) prematurely shutting down ultra-reliable coal and nuclear plants while 3) stopping the construction of natural gas infrastructure.⁴
7. What is @JoeBiden's answer to the CA blackouts? His "plan" would make them nationwide and frequent via 1) more mandating unreliable solar and wind, 2) more shutdowns of ultra-reliable coal and nuclear plants, and 3) more obstacles to urgently-needed natural gas infrastructure.⁵
8. Blackouts aren't the only problem with green energy policies. The main problem is cost. Because wind and solar are unreliable they can’t replace our reliable power plants, only duplicate or supplement them at tremendous cost. Even when CA electricity is working it's expensive.⁶
9. Every candidate who supports mandating "unreliables," let alone the Green New Deal or @JoeBiden Plan, should be reminded of the utter failure the mini-mini-GND/Biden-Plan has caused in California. I hope @realDonaldTrump raises this in the debates and uses the term "unreliables."
10. There is no world in which mandating "unreliables" makes sense. If you want to lower CO2 emissions, decriminalize reliable nuclear energy--something the Joe Biden plan completely fails to do.

References

A key tool in mandating solar and wind on US state grids are so-called Renewable Portfolio Standards, which the majority of US states have already adopted. These standards require the local regulators to ensure that state-wide electricity to come from renewables by a certain share within a specific time frame. This can be up to 100% as California and New York require by 2050. Theoretically this would often include sources like hydro, geothermal or biomass by local rules. However, unreliable solar and wind are the only sources that have the potential to scale up as quickly.

Another significant policy that favors unreliable wind is the wind energy Production Tax Credit, which provides a financial incentive to prioritize wind electricity over other sources, and damages the economic viability of the reliable backbone of America’s electric grid, particularly coal and nuclear.\
[U.S. Energy Information Administration - Renewable energy explained, Portfolio standards](https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/renewable-sources/portfolio-standards.php)

[2020 Talking Points on Wind Production Tax Credit](https://energytalkingpoints.com/wind-production-tax-credit/)

The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that both coal and nuclear electricity generation will decline in the short term with few additions and several retirements scheduled. Both natural gas and renewable capacity is projected to increase significantly.\
[U.S. Energy Information Administration - EIA projects generation from coal and nuclear power plants will plateau after 2025](https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=42755)

Fossil fuel infrastructure like natural gas pipelines face increasing resistance from green activists and politicians who see this as an opportunity to attack the economic viability of fossil fuel production in the US.\
[Institute for Energy Research - While U.S. Pipelines Are Under Siege, China Streamlines Its Oil and Gas Network](https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/fossil-fuels/gas-and-oil/while-u-s-pipelines-are-under-siege-china-streamlines-its-oil-and-gas-network/)

[Institute for Energy Research - Natural Gas Moratorium in New York Due to Lack of Gas Pipelines](https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/fossil-fuels/natural-gas-moratorium-in-new-york-due-to-lack-of-gas-pipelines/)

Between 2009 and 2018 California’s electricity rates rose almost 4 times faster than the national average. So much, that by 2018 the California industrial electricity rate -typically the cheapest type- was more expensive than the average US residential rate -typically the most expensive type.\
[U.S. Energy Information Administration - Electricity data browser, Average retail price of electricity, 2009-2018](https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/browser/#/topic/7?agg=0,1&geo=g00000000004&endsec=e&linechart=ELEC.PRICE.US-RES.A~ELEC.PRICE.CA-RES.A~ELEC.PRICE.CA-COM.A~ELEC.PRICE.CA-IND.A~ELEC.PRICE.US-COM.A~ELEC.PRICE.US-IND.A&columnchart=ELEC.PRICE.US-RES.A&map=ELEC.PRICE.US-RES.A&freq=A&start=2010&end=2019&chartindexed=0&ctype=linechart&ltype=pin&rtype=s&pin=&rse=0&maptype=0)

[U.S. Energy Information Administration - Electricity data browser, Average retail price of electricity, indexed 2009 - 2018](https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/browser/#/topic/7?agg=0,1&geo=g00000000004&endsec=u&linechart=ELEC.PRICE.CA-ALL.A~ELEC.PRICE.US-ALL.A&columnchart=&map=&freq=A&start=2010&end=2019&chartindexed=1&ctype=linechart&ltype=pin&rtype=s&pin=&rse=0&maptype=0)