California is on track to ban the sale of non-electric vehicles in an effort to “go green” as fast as possible. They’re even banning the construction of new gas stations in the next decade. But a slight hitch may have shown up in that plan, caused by a stretch of high temperatures this summer. How are the two related? Well, their power grid is being increasingly driven by renewable energy, specifically wind and solar power. But that leaves the grid teetering precariously on the edge of collapse after the sun goes down. And that’s when a lot of people come home and start turning on their lights and their air conditioners. And they also plug in their electric cars to recharge. That has the people running electrical power distribution asking everyone to unplug those cars to avoid a blackout. (Newsmax)

California’s power grid operators have asked the state’s residents to conserve electricity in order to put less strain on the power grid amid a major heat wave.

The Epoch Times reported that the California Independent System Operator (ISO) told residents numerous times in the past week to voluntarily conserve energy, even asking them on social media to avoid charging electric vehicles during peak usage times.

The ISO also said residents should avoid “use of large appliances and turning off extra lights,” and wrote that “[T]his usually happens in the evening hours when solar generation is going offline and consumers are returning home and switching on air conditioners, lights, and appliances.”

The state’s lead Energy Commissioner said that residents need to charge their cars “at different times” and that “charging behaviors matter.”

If you have a hybrid, this won’t be as big of a deal because you can always hit a gas station on the way home. (Although gas prices in California are currently going through the roof thanks to their massive tax rates.) But if you have an all-electric vehicle such as a Tesla, you could be in trouble.

It’s all well and good to tell people not to plug in their cars in the evening, but for anyone who commutes to work every day, when else are they supposed to do it? Not every employer has a parking lot with charging stations on it. Most owners wind up purchasing home recharging units and taking care of it themselves. And if they can’t recharge their cars, how are they supposed to get to their jobs?

Here’s one nice feature of cars with internal combustion engines and power plants that run on natural gas: they work when the sun goes down and the wind isn’t blowing. California has already run into a need for rolling blackouts during the summer months before. The state burns through a tremendous amount of energy on any given day and they are nowhere near the point where they can come close to meeting that demand solely through green energy.

If Californians suddenly get hit with blackouts in the summer evenings, either planned or via a crash of the grid, it’s mostly just an inconvenience for the majority of people. But if you’re an electric car owner, you’re going to suddenly find yourself stranded. And then there are all of the people with health issues who may not survive a full night without air conditioning. (Newsflash: if you live in a desert it gets hot sometimes.)

This is just a periodic reminder for the liberals in California who have turned green energy into a religion. Electricity is a finite resource. If you don’t want to run out you need to figure out how to either make more or use less. There aren’t any other options.