(JustPatriots.com)- The state of California could be in for some dark years ahead.
According to policy experts who spoke with Fox News Digital, the electric grid in the state is facing many years of blackouts and general failures as leaders in the state continue to push very aggressive moves that would transition over to more sources of renewable energy.
California’s electric grid is powered mainly by fossil fuels. Currently, it’s undergoing a gigantic shift from coal and natural gas power over to renewable sources such as solar and wind. At the same time, officials in the state are pushing for more electric sources in transportation, including putting mandates on using electric vehicles.
This double whammy of pressure on the grid could cause some major issues.
In announcing what he called the “world’s first detailed pathway to carbon neutrality, California Governor Gavin Newsom said back in November:
“California is drastically cutting our dependence on fossil fuels and cleaning our air.”
The state plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 85% and cut its usage of oil by 94% in the next 20 years. In that time, California also has goals to deploy increased capacity for wind and solar energy.
This plan comes only three months after the top environmental agency in the state announced a new rule that would require all new vehicle sales by 2035 to be electric vehicles.
As of 2021 – the last year where there was data available – solar and wind account for only about 25% of all the electricity that was generated within California. By contrast, natural gas accounted for more than half of the electricity generation in the state.
At the same time, only 19% of California’s total new car sales were for vehicles that had zero emissions.
Many experts who spoke with Fox News Digital recently said these mandates have already begun to create instability in the state’s power grid. They said it’s only going to get worse, too, as other sources of energy start to replace fossil fuels.
The California Policy Center’s co-founder, Edward Ring, explained:
“They’re going to have to build an outrageous amount of wind and solar in a very short time if they want to accomplish their objectives of electrifying – our whole transportation sector and our whole home heating and cooling and residential sector.
“There’s a burden to the consumer that’s going to get very heavy. Even if they can pull it off without blackouts, the burden to the consumer is going to be ridiculous.”
Even the company that operates the state’s electric grid, the California Independent System Operator, said over the summer that the high demand in the state would significantly strain their ability to maintain proper supply to consumers when a heat wave hits.
In early September, the agency issued an “energy emergency alert 3,” saying that residents should maximize how much energy they were conserving while also expecting rolling blackouts to occur for at least seven days.
Even more ironic, the CAISO said that residents shouldn’t charge their electric vehicles in that time so that stress on the grid would be reduced.
