Newsom's energy plan hurts Californians

Gavin Newsom has for years wanted to make his state the vanguard in the fight against so-called climate change, promoting different measures linked to the absolute elimination of polluting gases using clean energy, such as solar. But the California governor's plan seems to be falling apart after seeing that this resource is generating more harm than good, mainly to citizens.

An investigation done by Los Angeles Times revealed that excess power production is causing residents to pay more on their bills. Specifically, since 2021 they have skyrocketed by around 51%, a record well above the national average, reaching double.

But that is not the only problem. Due to the size of the electrical infrastructure built by the Newsom Administration, production is disproportionate, which means that energy is wasted and represents a superfluous cost for California's coffers.

Newsom, proud of his progress

However, despite the damage it does, mainly to the pockets of Californians, Newsom boasts of his 'advances' in energy for meeting his goal of not polluting, whatever it takes, at a time when he assured that he would "rapidly" expand storage capacity.

"We are reducing pollution by adding more clean energy to our grid. That means quickly expanding battery storage to capture more of this clean energy that's produced during the day, like solar, for when it's needed when the sun goes down," the governor said in a communique.

"These are the essential resources we will continue to need as the climate crisis makes for longer and hotter heat waves," he added

Plant managers are also suffering the consequences

The grid Newsom refers to generates too much power and California does not have enough storage capacity to store it, forcing itself to waste it because it is greater than customer demand.

In addition to harming citizens, the excess electricity generation also harms the managers of the solar plants, since this overproduction - which has been partially alleviated by transferring this energy to other states after reaching public agreements - forces them to end up paying the energy companies.

Newsom aims to make the entire state's energy supply pollutant emission-free by 2045 through a progressive plan. "In the midst of global climate negotiations, the Action Plan lays out the world's first detailed path to carbon neutrality by 2045," the Governor's Office said in 2022.