Gov. Gavin Newsom, worried about the threat of power shortages from climate-fueled heat waves, wildfires and drought as the state transitions to renewable energy, has crafted something of a devil’s bargain. To ensure California can keep the lights on during hot summer evenings when the power grid is at highest risk of outages, he wants to pump billions of public dollars into fossil fuel infrastructure.
A strategic electricity reliability reserve, included in Newsom’s May budget proposal, would spend billions of dollars over the next five years to put in place enough generating capacity to produce up to 5,000 megawatts of electricity in times of high demand. But it relies mostly on extending the life of gas-fueled plants along the Southern California coast that are scheduled to retire in the next few years. Some of the money, to be administered by the Department of Water Resources, would also pay for new industrial-sized natural gas generators that could be fired up when needed among other projects aimed at girding the state against blackouts.
Doing more to prevent power outages is an urgent and worthwhile project. Not only does losing power during heat waves place people in danger, it would be a black eye on California’s climate agenda, eroding public confidence during a crucial transition from a largely fossil-fueled grid to one dominated by renewable energy. But the governor’s solution leans far too heavily on the same polluting facilities that we should be retiring as quickly as possible to prevent a disastrous overheating of the planet.
