Commentary | Newsom’s Energy Experiment Goes Awry – By Miles Pollard & Hope Canlas (Heritage Foundation) / April 24, 2024
- With the highest effective poverty rate in America and some of the highest electricity costs, Newsom’s top priority should be to shift to energy affordability.
- Over the past 10 years, PG&E customers have seen rates increase 127%, disproportionately affecting poor people, small businesses, and farmers.
- Despite the increase in energy and transportation costs that will result if similar policies are pursued nationally, the EPA has taken Newsom’s lead.
This Earth Day, April 22, Golden State residents must be glad that California accounts for less than 1% of the greenhouse gas emissions of the top 50 countries. Yet California Gov. Gavin Newsom still wants to achieve 100% net zero carbon electricity by 2045. With the highest effective poverty rate in America and some of the nation’s highest electricity costs, Newsom’s top priority should be to shift to energy affordability.
The intermittency of renewables such as solar and wind is one reality plaguing the Golden State. Another is the fact that its transmission lines are sparking many wildfires, exacerbating problems with an increasingly strained and poorly maintained electrical grid.
In October 2017, Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s equipment caused 16 fires in California. By 2021, California experienced roughly 7,000 wildfires, some still resulting from trees and other flammable detritus hanging on transmission lines, which are PG&E’s responsibility to remove.
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