CALIFORNIA FOCUS
1720 OAK STREET, SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA 90405
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2025 OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“WESTERN REGIONAL GRID IMPERILS CALIFORNIA INDEPENDENCE”
If California wants power
company executives from coal-happy states like Wyoming and Utah to run energy
policy in this state, then the state Senate should pass a proposed law called
SB 540, sponsored by Silicon Valley Democrat Josh Becker.
Similarly, if California
wants its most important environmental decisions to be made by a Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) controlled by President Trump, pass this bill.
But if California wants to
continue controlling its own destiny in deciding what kinds of energy sources
to employ as power needs expand, then a no vote is needed.
Make no mistake, large
companies like Google in and near Becker’s district want this bill, which would
probably allow it and similar firms operating insatiably power-hungry
artificial intelligence (AI) plants
going up in many rural parts of the West to use all the coal-fired energy they
like, and hang the smog effects – which California has resisted for decades.
Becker chairs the state
Senate Energy Committee, where his bill is due for its first vote April 8.
Ironically, on accepting that job, he promised to push for clean energy.
This is actually the
second big effort in the last eight years to have California join something
informally called a Western regional electric grid. Like current Gov. Gavin
Newsom, ex-Gov. Jerry Brown also pushed the idea.
The advantage: New power
supplies could become available to California more quickly. The disadvantage:
much of that power would be from “dirty” sources, plants fired by coal, oil and
natural gas. Especially coal, which is favored heavily by regulators in states
with large coal reserves, like Montana and Wyoming.
No question, Idaho and
Utah are not as coal dependent as they once were, but they remain far more
reliant on that source than California. Utah, especially, has plants itching to
export coal energy to California.
So, says Jamie Court,
director of the Consumer Watchdog public advocacy group and the most vocal
opponent of the Western grid, “Sovereignty issues that have doomed the Western
Regional Transmission Organization and prevented it from becoming law have not
gone away. In fact, they are more perilous than ever.”
Advocates against the
regional grid contend flatly that “This…would place control over California’s
energy market in the hands of an (organization) heavily dominated by coal
interests. California would be subject to…a market authority not interested in
either California or its policies.”
One reason this plan has a
better chance of passage today than in 2017 is increased union domination of
the California legislature, achieved mostly via campaign donations.
Back in 2017, the similar
earlier plan was opposed by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
(IBEW), which issued dire warnings about loss of California authority. Now the
IBEW sports contracts with big AI farms and with PacificCorp, an Oregon-based
utility that controls vast coal resources from Montana to Texas, the nation’s
largest coal using state.
The regional grid, said
Court, could completely control how California’s Independent System Operator
manages this state’s grid. “California,” he said, “would give up its right to
demand that its own environmental, consumer and health laws be followed.”
What’s more, California
consumers could be forced to help pay for construction of new transmission
lines all over the West. Building new power lines is already a major part of
most utility bills here.
The new plan does contain
so-called guardrails aiming to protect California, including a “statement of
governance” saying the new regional grid
would “respect California’s right to set policies.” But that statement could be
overridden by a simple order from FERC whenever Trump desires.
What’s more, there is no
realistic way to escape this deal, once made. Any attempt for California to get
out would need approvals both by the regional grid’s officers and by FERC.
It’s as if California were
considering inviting Enron to move in and take over the state’s grid again,
even if that turns out to be as crooked and disastrous as when it happened
during the early 2000s energy crunch.
No, this proposal is not
labelled “Coal, Coal, Coal,” but reality is that a lump of worthless coal is
just what California would likely end up holding.
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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