The only things "renewable" about energy generation in California are the supply of lies and the suffering being imposed on Californians. 

Problems with the power grid in the state have been getting worse for years as Gavin Newsom and the Democrats keep pushing to electrify everything while simultaneously replacing reliable nuclear and fossil fuel electricity generation with so-called "renewable" energy. 

The results have been horrific. Costs for consumers have skyrocketed, and the current grid is creaking under the weight of multiple and conflicting requirements and consumers can no longer count on electricity being delivered to their homes and businesses. 

California’s Lights Are Out, and Gavin Newsom Isn’t Home by Allysia Finley https://t.co/4HK7dJzcXu via @WSJopinion

— Andy McCarthy (@AndrewCMcCarthy) September 9, 2024

Things have gotten so bad that in Hollywood--yes HOLLYWOOD--they can't even put on a concert because the power to do so isn't available. 

The power went out in Hollywood because it’s hot outside but everyone in California needs to buy an electric car and plug it into the grid by 2035. https://t.co/mWAsIJxaVq

— Storm (@stormrobinson) September 9, 2024

Liberals are blaming climate change, of course, because there is nothing in the world that climate change is not making worse. 

Los Angeles, like Phoenix and all the Sun Belt cities, exists mainly because air conditioning made living there not just bearable but preferable to living in colder climates. The fastest growing cities in America have been in the Sun Belt, and the two states growing fastest are Texas and Florida, famously hot places. 

If excessive heat were the problem Los Angeles would never have gotten big, and everybody would be living farther north. 

A concert at the Hollywood Bowl was canceled Sunday after the California heat wave knocked out power.

Severe weather is increasingly affecting the live-music industry: https://t.co/gsxHjDHSEx pic.twitter.com/AA8mWOVLJD

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) September 9, 2024

Heat waves don't knock out power. They increase the demand for it, and the failure to provide adequate generating capacity is the obvious cause of the current crisis--and of the rapidly increasing prices Californians are being forced to pay. 

Blackouts and brownouts are now a fact of life in California, which creates a larger divide between the affluent who can afford home generators, solar power with battery storage and those who really don't care whether they are paying what seems to them to be a pittance for power.

The middle class, though, can't afford any of this. They are expected to grin and bear it, and too many of them accept the "climate change" explanation that justified these ridiculous policies in the first place. 

All this is happening at the same time that Newsom and company demand that everything be electrified. Cars, heating and stoves will all be electric, but there will be no electricity to be found except for the wealthy. Rest assured that the climate cultists will have no problem cooling their homes, charging their EVs, and having their personal chefs cook on their electric stoves or smuggled gas ranges. 

When a power outage struck near the University of Southern California, for instance, the resilience of the wealthy was on full display:

The university asked its labs to check their refrigerators and ultra-low freezers. 

"Many university buildings have generators that provide emergency power to critical equipment such as fire alarms and emergency lighting, not for normal electrical outlets," the university wrote in the alert.  

Totally on-brand. The university will be fine. Ordinary Californians? Screw 'em.

California is the model for the country the Democrats want to build, and they aren't even shy about saying so. Liberal states often look to California for policy advice, including my home state of Minnesota, where Tim Walz is open about wanting to adopt California energy standards and automobile policies. 

Climate change isn't the cause--it's the excuse to deindustrialize and always has been. Societal resilience is based on ever more reliable and abundant power, and reliable and abundant power are the very things that the left wants to eliminate. 

It's not accidental. Expect more of the same in California and much more of the same in the United States if Kamala Harris wins. 

We aren't powerless to stop this--yet. At least not in the free states. Trump has promised a full-court press to build our nuclear power infrastructure and stop the ridiculous subsidies for "renewable" power that simply can't meet our needs. 

Wind and solar are niche. If I lived off the grid I would get a bunch of solar panels and batteries to store up power when the sun doesn't shine. 

But that's not a strategy for a thriving economy; it's a way to live in a cabin, an RV or to power a home in a third-world country.