CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018, OR THEREAFTER
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“WESTERN REGIONAL GRID PERILOUSLY CLOSE TO REALITY”
“WESTERN REGIONAL GRID PERILOUSLY CLOSE TO REALITY”
Almost
daily, California’s entry into a western regional electricity grid grows
nearer.
As
the legislative bill to move the state into a deal with coal-oriented states
like Utah, Idaho and Nevada moves toward passage, the state also grows nearer
to a real risk of repeating the energy crunch that produced big rate increases
and weeks of brownouts here in 2000 and 2001.
There’s
also great irony in the strong support this bill, known as AB 813, draws from
Gov. Jerry Brown, the moving force behind California’s steady progress toward
getting most of its electricity from renewable sources including solar, wind,
hydro-power and underground geothermal heat. For the bill carries a major risk
of invalidating California’s green energy initiatives.
That’s despite
steady denials from the Brown-appointed Independent System Operator, the agency
which has run the state’s electric grid since the energy crunch with the
specific mission of preventing repeats of the market manipulation which caused
that crisis.
And yet…Brown and
his ISO board members are backing the regional grid, claiming it might save
California consumers as much as $1.5 billion a year. That’s less than $20 a
year per electricity customer, not much of a benefit compared to the risks
involved.
One reason the
bill draws strong legislative support is that simple word “regional.” Bigger is
better and more efficient, goes the frequent belief, even though that does not
always prove true.
One problem for
California in this proposal is that the new western regional board of directors
would be appointed largely by the electric industry. That’s like letting Enron
or its modern equivalent run the grid. It’s giving the fox control of the
henhouse.
The potential
danger to California’s green energy rules comes just as former state Senate
President Kevin de Leon, now running for the U.S. Senate, pushes hard for a
commitment to 100 percent green energy by 2050, just 32 years from now. De Leon
claims there’s a new urgency for clean energy, spurred by the current symptoms
of climate change, like frequent record-level heat and the related wave of huge
wildfires.
But the regional
grid would allow any such rules to be overridden by the Federal Energy
Regulatory commission, now led by appointees of President Trump and recently
showing a great desire to keep polluting coal-fired power plants in business
indefinitely.
Earlier this year,
for example, FERC passed a requirement that regional transmission organizations
(like the western grid) counteract state-level renewable energy policies. This
essentially makes FERC a strong opponent of California’s clean-power rules and
the regional grid would allow it to countermand any such standards.
It’s
hard to see why legislators would essentially give over one of their significant
powers to an agency currently determined to undermine California’s goals. Yet,
backers say “Regionalization…would mobilize more states to engage with Trump if
FERC were to do something crazy.” How likely to defy Trump are the solidly
Trump-backing states of Utah and Idaho?
The
regional grid bill also says big utilities, like Pacific Gas & Electric,
Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, would be entitled
to “just and reasonable compensation” for their past investments in transmission
lines if control of the state’s grid changes.
Why
include that provision when the costs of those facilities are paid by consumers
through their monthly bills, not by the companies themselves?
If
the utilities could somehow get double-paid for their power lines, that might
explain why they’re not opposing regionalization.
Plus,
there has so far been no thorough public analysis of the full financial impact
of regionalization. For sure, until such a report is made and proven reliable,
this plan should go no farther.
But
chances are it will. For the Legislature has a history of passing plans and
attempting to deal with fiscal consequences later on. That’s what happened with
the disastrous electric deregulation plan passed in 1998 that led to the energy
crunch. Several legislative committees did the same this year in passing
single-payer health proposals with no definite sources of financing.
The
bottom line: A regional energy grid is simply too risky for California, even if
there’s some (yet unproven) possibility it might save customers a dollar or two
each month.
-30-
Email
Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough,
The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch
It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias
columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
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