California points to future power blackouts in Minnesota

For decades we’ve been told that trends in California foretell the future of America. It used to be a promise, now it’s a warning.

This week saw a late-summer heatwave that strained the power grids serving the Midwest. Missouri public radio reported:

Monday’s extreme heat stresses energy infrastructure

The station reports:

Southwest Power Pool, the regional transmission operator that serves 14 states in the central U.S., including parts of western, central and southern Missouri, issued an emergency alert Monday saying widespread high temperatures led to “tightening electric reliability.”

Conditions on the Mid-Continent grid (MISO), which serves Minnesota and states farther east, were little better:

At the same time, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, that serves 15 states in the Midwest and south, including the northeastern part of Missouri, issued “max gen alerts and warnings” Monday and Tuesday due to the above normal temperatures impact on energy demand.

What makes normal summer weather troubling for us here in Minnesota is the state’s decision to eventually ban the use of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, diesel fuel) for making electricity. The goal is “carbon-free” power by the year 2040.

Minnesota is both following and trying to one-up the example of California, which has given itself the more lenient deadline of 2045 to accomplish the same goal. The result? Near catastrophe every summer. Here’s a headline from the Los Angeles Times from two weeks ago:

Power-hungry AI data centers are raising electric bills and blackout risk

The Times reports:

Experts warn that the frenzy of data center construction could delay California’s transition away from fossil fuels and raise electric bills for everyone else. The data centers’ insatiable appetite for electricity, they say, also increases the risk of blackouts.

We are experiencing the same issue in Minnesota, right down to the proliferation of data centers.

ABC News has reported on the near-annual phenomenon of August blackouts in California, digging into root causes:

ABC reports:

In August 2020, hundreds of thousands of Californians briefly lost power in rolling blackouts amid a heat wave, marking the first time outages were ordered in the state due to insufficient energy supplies in nearly 20 years.

And how is that California energy transition going? From the LA Times:

The state has already extended the lives of Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’s Diablo Canyon nuclear plant as well as some natural gas-fueled plants in an attempt to avoid blackouts on sweltering days when power use surges.

The state environment nonprofit CalMatters, published this story on the energy transition this month:

California Hits Milestones Toward 100% Clean Energy — But Has a Long Way to Go

California has given America a glimpse at what running one of the world’s largest economies on renewable energy might look like.

The nonprofit reports on the state’s mandates:

The state faces a huge challenge in coming years: A series of mandates will require carbon-free energy while also putting more electric cars on roads and electric appliances in homes. California, under state law, must run on 60% renewable energy by 2030, ramping up to 100% by 2045.

Please note that Minnesota mandates require 80 percent “carbon-free” by 2030 and 100 percent by 2040.

But California still has a long way to go to stop burning fossil fuels for electricity. Natural gas, which emits greenhouse gases and air pollutants, remains its single largest source of electricity.

The same is true for natural gas in Minnesota during extreme weather periods in winter and summer. Officials in California also fear the fallout from blackouts:

California continues to waffle about ending its reliance on natural gas and nuclear power.

Fearing emergency rolling blackouts like the one in 2020, Newsom and the Legislature in 2022 allowed some natural gas plants that were supposed to go offline to keep operating. 

And the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant will continue operating while Pacific Gas & Electric pursues federal permission to stay open past 2025.

These reports make it sound as if progressive California is taking a measured approach to implementing “clean energy.” Burned by the rolling blackouts of August 2020, the Golden State appears willing to look past the letter of the law to ensure that the lights stay on.

But will Minnesota officials be as pragmatic? Or, are they so committed to their climate change virtue signaling that they are willing to sacrifice the state’s economy and safety to meet arbitrary “mandates”?