Category: Electrifying

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ELECTRICITY DEBT – Average residential rates have surged by 72% to 127% over the past 10 years – About 2.5 million households are behind on their Electric Bills, averaging $733 in arrears.

Remember Nancy Pelosi’s famous line that Democrats had to pass ObamaCare to learn what was in it? Democrats in Sacramento are now having second thoughts about a law they passed two years ago that would effectively establish a second progressive income tax in California.

Democrats last week introduced legislation to repeal a 2022 budget bill that authorized the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to restructure electricity rates by imposing a fixed charge on an income-graduated basis. The budget bill’s purpose was to reduce the state’s skyrocketing rates for lower-income people and shift utility costs to higher earners.

Average residential rates for investor-owned utility customers have surged by 72% to 127% over the past 10 years. About 2.5 million households are behind on their bills, averaging $733 in arrears.

One culprit is the state’s aggressive green-energy buildout, which has required batteries to back up intermittent solar and wind. Another is the state’s net-metering program, which generously compensates households with solar panels for excess power they send to the grid. This has shifted costs for maintaining the grid to homes without solar panels.

Lawmakers have also shifted state government costs for wildfire mitigation and climate subsidies to utilities so the politicians can devote more spending to their public-union friends. At the same time the state has mandated that utilities provide discounts to lower-income customers. These discounts get baked into higher rates for all customers.

The climate lobby frets that soaring electricity rates will discourage low- and middle-income Californians from buying electric vehicles (though they are also an inducement to install solar panels). Thus, Gov. Gavin Newsom two years ago pressured the Legislature to pass the budget bill to establish the nation’s first income-based electricity rates.

“This is a crappy budget trailer bill that was dumped on us late Sunday,” Democratic Assembly Rep. Al Muratsuchi said at the time. The bill nonetheless passed overwhelmingly. Now Democrats in affluent areas are hearing from constituents who are irate that their electricity bills could soon climb even more.

The PUC hasn’t finalized the new electric rate structures. But Pacific Gas & Electric Company has floated charging customers fixed fees ranging from $15 a month for those earning less than $28,000 annually and up to $92 a month for those making $180,000 or more. Income-based charges on higher earners will rise as utility costs do.

Ten state Senators recently sent a letter urging the PUC to reject utilities’ proposed income charges. “Californians already pay some of the highest electric bills in the nation and should not be forced to arbitrarily pay more to cover for a private utility’s poor business decisions,” San Francisco progressive Sen. Scott Wiener declared.

No—they will be forced to pay more to compensate for Sacramento’s bad policy decisions. The progressive epiphany in Sacramento is welcome, belated as it may be. Maybe California isn’t completely lost.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/opinion-a-progressive-california-epiphany-over-soaring-electricity-rates/ar-BB1hT7l4

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I’m on my 3rd Electrician Now and We Still can’t Find the Wire that My “Supposedly Green Energy” Comes In On – He Says it’s “All the Same Electricity” – You don’t think that this OC Power Authority and Green Electricity is One Big Fraud Do Ya? Huntington Beach pulls out of OC’s green power agency

Huntington Beach pulls out of OC’s green power agency

It’s the first city to pull out of OCPA — and the agency’s board expects to see a “financial impact”

Huntington Beach is pulling out of the Orange County Power Authority, a decision made by a split City Council late Tuesday night.

While the county withdrew last year, Huntington Beach is the first city to remove itself from the green power agency.

“Since the very beginning, the Orange County Power Authority has been a total disaster and doomed for failure,” said Councilmember Casey McKeon, who represents Huntington Beach on the agency’s board. “I believe in providing choice to consumers, but I don’t believe the government is a vehicle to providing choice in the private sector, especially not in the incredibly complex and volatile energy market.”

McKeon, along with Mayor Tony Strickland and fellow councilmembers Pat Burns and Gracey Van Der Mark voted to withdraw from the OCPA during a special council meeting added for after Tuesday’s regular meeting, May 16.

Councilmembers Dan Kalmick, Natalie Moser and Rhonda Bolton voted to stay.

Expressing concern with the OCPA’s ability to procure additional energy, McKeon said Southern California Edison is better equipped to obtain resources to protect the grid, making it a “safer option for our residents.”

But Kalmick argued there is still too much unknown about how the decision to leave will impact Huntington Beach residents.

“We have no idea what this is going to cost,” Kalmick said, suggesting the city should hire a consultant who could prep the city on the implications of its decision.

A timeline of next steps, including when residents and businesses will begin to see changes, is still being worked out, Strickland said Wednesday.

“We are deeply disappointed with the reckless action the Huntington Beach City Council has taken to withdraw from the Orange County Power Authority,” said its board chair Fred Jung, who is also the mayor of Fullerton. “Not only does this eliminate the opportunity for Huntington Beach to take bold steps against climate change, it strips away renewable energy choice from its residents and businesses.”

Huntington Beach announced the special meeting Monday evening, adhering to the 24-hour notice it must give residents. Several residents provided comments ahead of the meeting, decrying the quickly called meeting, with no staff report on the potential impacts.

And it was “sudden,” too, for the OCPA board, said Jung.

“The staff at Huntington Beach did not telegraph this, nor did they let our staff know at the Power Authority that this was a consideration for them,” Jung said.

“Huntington Beach families and businesses want and deserve an alternative to the decades-long fossil fuels-powered SCE monopoly,” he said. “Huntington Beach has put politics ahead of the health and well-being of those who call Huntington Beach home.”

The OCPA board, fired CEO Brian Probolsky last month and later appointed its director of communications to helm the agency in the interim.

Huntington Beach is the second-largest entity that is part of the OCPA, Jung said, noting “there will be a financial impact” to the City Council’s decision.

Aside from Huntington Beach and Fullerton, the OCPA serves Buena Park and Irvine.

Irvine, which has opted to stick with OCPA during recent council meetings, is slated to bring it back up next week.

“I understand what Huntington Beach has done, and I believe Irvine should do the same thing,” said Irvine Councilmember Larry Agran, who has voted to withdraw in the past. “My job is to protect Irvine ratepayers and taxpayers, and I think the best protection was getting out as soon as possible.”

The OCPA launched in 2020 as an alternative to Southern California Edison, offering more renewable energy blends as the county’s first community choice energy program. Both residential and commercial customers receive power purchased through the agency.

However, it was not without controversy. An audit by the Orange County Grand Jury, reviews by the county and a state audit all critiqued the OCPA, particularly its leadership, for its management, pricing strategies and transparency.

The OCPA has since implemented 80% of the reports’ recommendations, with the rest slated to be completed in the coming months, Jung said. Leadership, from the CEO to general counsel, has been removed; the board has more oversight; and the CEO’s unilateral ability to sign off on certain items has been scaled back, he said. And it lowered the rates for its “Basic Choice” plan to below the Southern California Edison equivalent.

“By the end of the summer, the Orange County Power Authority will be a beacon of what community choice energy aggregates can be,” he said.

The new Huntington Beach council leaders have eyed potential changes to the city’s agreement with OCPA since the new majority took over late last year.

Huntington Beach pulls out of OC’s green power agency
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Governor Jackass – California asks residents not to charge electric vehicles, days after announcing gas car ban

CALIFORNIA (WTVO) — With California’s power grid under strain due to extreme heat and high demand, the utility grid operator is asking residents to avoid charging their electric vehicles. This comes days after the state announced a plan to ban the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035.

The California Independent System Operator is asking residents for “voluntary energy conservation” over the Labor Day weekend.

According to the National Weather Service, the western United States is facing a “prolonged and record heat wave.”

“The top three conservation actions are to set thermostats to 78 degrees or higher, avoid using large appliances and charging electric vehicles, and turn off unnecessary lights,” the American Public Power Association said, asking residents to limit energy usage during 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.

“Today, most people charge their electric cars when they come home in the evening — when electricity demand is typically at its peak,” according to Cornell University’s College of Engineering. “If left unmanaged, the power demanded from many electric vehicles charging simultaneously in the evening will amplify existing peak loads, potentially outstripping the grid’s current capacity to meet demand.”

The regulations passed by the California Air Resources Board last week say that 2035 the state will require automakers to sell only cars that run on electricity or hydrogen, though some can be plug-in hybrids that use gas and batteries. People will still be able to buy used cars that run on gas, and car companies will still sell some plug-in hybrids.

The regulation will help California meet clean air standards by cutting emissions, resulting in a 25% reduction in smog-forming emissions from passenger vehicles by 2037.

California already has the nation’s largest electric vehicle market in the country with over 1.1 million vehicles registered. That comprises 43% of the nation’s plug-in vehicles.

Today, though, there are just 80,000 public charging stations around the state, far short of the 1.2 million the state estimates it needs by 2030.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has made $5 billion in federal money available to states for EV charging stations over five years, under President Joe Biden’s infrastructure law. Under Transportation Department requirements, states must submit plans to the federal government and can begin construction by this fall if they focus first on highway routes, rather than neighborhoods and shopping centers.

The law provides an additional $2.5 billion for local grants, planned for later this year, to fill the remaining gaps in the charging network in rural areas and in disadvantaged communities.

Electric vehicles amounted to less than 3% of U.S. new auto sales last year, but forecasters expect big increases in the next decade.

In the U.S., Massachusetts, Washington, and New York are among states that have set goals to transform their car markets or have already committed to following California’s new rules.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

https://www.mystateline.com/news/national/california-asks-residents-not-to-charge-electric-vehicles-days-after-announcing-gas-car-ban/

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