California Using Diesel After the Eco-Left Shunned Gas

June 16, 2020

Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) is a California-based power company. Last fall, the company cut power to millions of its customers on hot and windy days to prevent wildfires. These blackouts caused costly disruptions for businesses and emergencies for individuals with chronic illnesses – consequences that would be even more severe during the pandemic.

So, last week, the famously anti-fossil fuel California had no choice but to set aside its climate goals for a practical solution – allow PG&E to deploy diesel-powered generators to provide back-up power for homes, businesses and hospitals during power outages.

Of course, despite the desperate need for a short-term solution, green groups wanted to use giant batteries powered by solar panels. The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page writes:

Massive solar arrays would have to be built across northern California within the next couple of months, and even then batteries wouldn’t be able to store power to keep communities running around the clock for days.

Even in the face of a crisis, the eco-left prioritizes its own agenda over real-world solutions. PG&E only uses blackouts to prevent wildfires because they’ve been politically forced to spend billions on boosting renewable energy, subsequentially neglecting its aging power grid.

One irony is that PG&E had initially proposed deploying large natural-gas-fired generators at its substations, but green groups objected…Now it plans to burn dirty diesel to prevent disruptive power outages that would compound the pandemic damage. Only in California’s progressive climate utopia.