White Lies, Damn Lies, and California Lies – Watts Up With That?

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach

It must be another day ending in a “y”, because once again, Governor Gavin Goodhair Newsom of California is pushing lies about California. Here’s the deceptive claim, the headline is below.

So, what is “clean energy” in California? Is it the much hyped solar and wind that everyone is picturing in their heads when they read this headline?

Of course not.

Does “clean energy” include hydropower? Well, that depends on what lie you’re telling at the time.

California has an insane “renewable energy mandate”. By imperial fiat, Gavin Goodhair has decreed that by 2030, at least 60% of retail electricity sales must come from renewable energy resources such as wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, and small hydroelectric generation under 30 megawatts.

Note what they don’t count as “renewable energy”? Large hydro generation, the everyday kind that comes from dams all over the US and provides a good chunk of California electricity.

And why isn’t large hydro counted as renewable?

Because if they counted large hydro, on day one of the renewable mandates, we’d already have surpassed the required percentage of electricity sales coming from renewables.

And their justification for blocking big hydro? Well, it was the claims about big dams releasing CO2 from the construction, the concrete, and mostly from rotting vegetation underwater releasing methane and CO2. Which are mostly true. They do emit CO2, as do most human activities, although not huge amounts. But it was enough for big hydro to get kicked to the curb for political reasons.

But of course, when it comes to wanting to boast about “clean energy”, suddenly in California, big hydro is promoted to be one of the “clean” good sources of electricity … even though it still doesn’t count for the renewable mandate.

And the same is true of nuclear. For years, we were told that between construction and mining emissions, plus there being only a finite amount of uranium, that nuclear plants weren’t noble enough to be counted as “renewable energy” … but now, under the new rubric of “clean energy”, they’re back in the fold.

Funny how that works …

The second lie in the headline is that they are NOT counting energy in California. Instead of total primary energy consumption, they are only counting electricity, which is only about one-fifth of the energy that we use.

And how much electricity in California comes from those poster children of renewability, which are solar and wind?

Here’s how much.

Figure 1. Primary energy consumption and solar plus wind energy consumption in California from 2004 to 2023. Why is electrical use dropping? Because skyrocketing electrical costs and insane CO2 “Cap And Trade” policies have driven energy-intensive industries out of the state.

All the rest of their vaunted claim about “TWO THIRDS CLEAN ENERGY!!!” depends on nuclear, large hydro, and a bit of geothermal.

Despite the billions of our taxpayer dollars that Californian politicians have wasted on wind and solar, it’s gonna take a while for wind and solar to pick themselves up off the floor and make a difference … so the pluted bloatocrats sitting on their dead … databases in California simply fold them in with what they otherwise call evil nuclear and big bad hydro and claim a huge effect.

And what did we get for our billions spent on unreliable electricity? Here’s what Governor Goodhair’s insane focus on “cheap” wind and solar renewables has done to our electricity costs.

Figure 2. Consumer electricity prices in the US and in California.

Folks, please listen to those who live in this poor, benighted state. I grew up in California. It had beautiful beaches, mountains, a thriving economy, and an excellent education system.

It still has the beaches and mountains, but Democrats have flooded the state with illegal aliens, spent billions of taxpayer dollars on healthcare for those illegal invaders, destroyed the economy, pushed electricity costs to insane levels, invited homeless people to camp on the streets, spent $20 billion from the taxpayers on the homeless and can’t say where the money went, driven our educational system below that of Mississippi, forced people to flee the state for Texas and Florida, and meanwhile, I pay $0.30 per kWh for my highly intermittent electricity.

California can’t even keep the power on. My power has gone off three times in the last two weeks. It’s so bad in general that I had to spring kilobucks for a propane generator to deal with blackouts and brownouts … and the politicians’ response?

Their genius plan is to unilaterally jack up gasoline prices by $0.50 per gallon for no reason in this year alone, call for an end to the use of natural gas for stoves, water heaters, and home heating, and ban gasoline-powered cars, mowers, chain saws, leaf blowers, hedge trimmers, and small engines … yeah, that’s the ticket.

And meanwhile, AI computing is driving electrical demand through the roof. Freakin’ brilliant!

I’ve watched the ugliness up close, and I beg you all—do NOT ever vote for Gavin Goodhair, Kamala Harris, Adam Schiff, or any California Democrat politician for ANYTHING. They have totally destroyed the once-beautiful state of California, and their highest goal is to extend and increase that destruction all across the US.

Grrr … you know, if I weren’t such a paragon of virtue, I’d be saying bad words right about now …

w.

PS—Why don’t I leave California? I can’t afford to, plus I live out in a gorgeous enfolding redwood forest near the coast north of San Francisco and away from the cities and the madness.

PPS— Gavin Goodhair is not only destructive. He’s for sale to the highest bidder. One story among many of his corruption is in the article Corporate Donors Gave Big to a Newsom Family Charity. Then the California Governor Took Their Side on State Issues..

PPPS—Here’s Gavin on the recent discovery of child slave laborers on several marijuana farms in California.

Did Gavin Goodhair actually say that? Of course not, he’s far too smarmy to say something that direct. What he actually said was:

“There’s a real cost to these inhumane immigration actions on hardworking families and communities, including farmworker communities, across America. Instead of supporting the businesses and workers that drive our economy and way of life, Stephen Miller’s tactics evoke chaos, fear and terror within our communities at every turn. 

Yeah, because that sounds so much more sophisticated than the old Democrat refrain, “Who will pick our cotton if we don’t have slaves” …

PPPPS—As usual, I ask that when you comment, you quote the exact words you are discussing. Saves heaps of misunderstanding.

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