Opinion: More heat waves are in California’s future unless we act now
Earlier this month, California experienced one of its worst heat waves in history. Sacramento reached an all-time high temperature of 116 degrees, the hottest in nearly a century. Millions of Californians received emergency warnings to reduce their electricity usage to avoid rolling blackouts that could’ve left whole communities without power. This catastrophic heat wave follows a summer of historic drought and wildfires across the state.
Wildfires, droughts and severe heat waves will become even more common as California continues to experience the effects of runaway climate change. Although the state is taking modest steps to electrify our buildings and vehicles, energy demand will rise significantly over the next few years. California policymakers cannot backslide on renewable energy lest we risk greater exposure to the life-threatening effects of the climate crisis. In order to avoid this looming disaster, the state must double down on renewable energy while taking commonsense, climate friendly steps toward grid resiliency.
The drastic increase in extreme climate events we’ve seen over the past few years has been severely exacerbated by the state’s continued reliance on fossil fuels, specifically oil and gas. Nearly 40% of California’s total electricity is generated by oil and gas. During times of crisis, such as extreme climate events, California’s energy grid must rely even further on polluting, non-renewable fuels to meet the increased demand from customers.
There are a few specific actions California’s Legislature could take to ramp up our investment in renewable energy, make our grid more resilient and decrease our reliance on fossil fuels. Specifically, California’s state budget must invest heavily in zero emission resiliency solutions such as battery storage and responsibly planned pump storage. At one point during the most recent heat wave, California’s batteries provided more than 3,000 megawatts of power, exceeding the capacity of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.
Additionally, the Legislature should pass laws that will allow transmission to be upgraded and built quickly without compromising environmental review. Upgrading transmission can add greater capacity to the grid and allow for more renewable resources to come online quicker to power California homes, hospitals and schools.
Gov. Gavin Newsom must also use his authority to address this crisis. The governor should promote demand response programs at the Public Utilities Commission, which can financially compensate Californians for reducing their electricity use at times when there is significant strain on the grid. He should direct his agencies to further incentivize distributed energy resources, residential battery storage and vehicle-to-grid innovations that will turn our electric cars into resiliency measures.
California must take urgent and concrete action to address the disastrous state of our energy grid. If we continue to rely on polluting energy sources for the state’s power needs, this September’s heat wave could look relatively mild in a few years time. California has a reputation as a climate leader across the country. It’s past time our energy infrastructure reflects that.
Brandon Dawson is the California Director of the Sierra Club.