The Wall Street Journal editorial board criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom's climate change policies Wednesday, arguing they are causing the state's energy shortages.
"Californians narrowly averted rolling blackouts on Tuesday, but the threat looms all week amid an unpleasant but not unusual heat wave," the editors wrote in an opinion titled "Gavin Newsom's Dirty Energy Secret."
"This ought to be a warning about how the government force-fed green energy transition is endangering grid reliability, but Democrats and the media can’t break out of their climate-change conformity to think clearly, or think at all," they continued.
California does not have enough energy to supply consumers' demand and has asked people to reduce using their air conditioning, powering their homes and even charging their electric cars during heat waves. This past week, California's electric grid operator issued an "energy emergency alert 3," its highest alert level.
"Democrats blame climate change for the state’s week-long warnings to conserve power, but California’s climate hasn’t suddenly changed," the Journal's editors wrote. "What has drastically changed in recent years is California’s electric generation."
"Solar and wind power have rapidly expanded thanks to rich government subsidies along with the state’s renewables mandate," the editors wrote.
They noted that these subsidies have made it more difficult for gas and nuclear generators to make money and, hence, caused the closure of said facilities.
"[T]he result is that the state often lacks sufficient power when the sun goes down," they wrote.
The editors noted that California must "rely on imports from other states in the evenings" and that "these imports are becoming less dependable since California’s neighbors are also losing base-load generators owing to their own renewable buildouts."
"During heat waves that span the Southwest like the one this week, California must resort to emergency measures to reduce electricity demand," they wrote.
The editors warned that "what starts in California rarely stays in California," and "Americans everywhere will soon be soaked with higher prices for power that is becoming less reliable."
"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," they concluded.
