White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s assertion that California is “in the lead” on energy, despite the state experiencing significant power outages during a scorching heat wave.
Jennifer Granholm stated on Tuesday that California is in the lead in terms of energy and can teach the rest of the country how it’s done. Meanwhile, reports show that the grid operator in California is advising utilities to prepare for rotational power outages.
California’s Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom is also urging residents to switch off lights and refrain from using appliances in order to minimize power disruptions caused by high temperatures.
This comes after California prohibited the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles beginning in 2035.
Local reports show massive power outages happened in the Bay Area this week, as temperatures in some areas reached 115 degrees. Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside counties all experienced power disruptions.
Last week a reporter questioned Jean-Pierre if Biden agreed that California is “in the lead” in terms of energy transformation.
“I’m not gonna comment” came the reply.
On a recent episode of CBS Prime Time, Siva Gunda, a public member of the California Energy Commission, stated that the state must double and triple down on building renewables and clean energy resources, but that more storage is also required, as well as load reduction programs that automatically lower air conditioning and turn off appliances.
Gunda was questioned by host John Dickerson if renewables can manage emergency scenarios better than fossil fuels.
Gunda explained that the challenge right now is the net peak problem, or when the solar energy falls and you still have a significant load being handled because of the air conditioning demand. It’s about swiftly installing a significant quantity of storage to balance the loading of solar energy, and when wind and offshore wind come online, you’ll need to balance that aspect with storage. The question is how to install storage as rapidly as possible. Gunda stated that given the instability heatwaves cause, they must develop load reduction programs that can swiftly cut the load, 2,000, 3,000 megawatts for a few hours a year.
Dickerson wondered if the load reduction programs are not only going to send out texts to tell people to turn the lights on or off but would the systems also lower the air conditioning, stop the washer, and do it all automatically.
Gunda responded that Dickerson was absolutely right.
Look at it this way- What good is replacing the state’s energy systems if you don’t have complete control over the population?
