On August 31, just days after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a mandated switch to electric vehicles (EVs), the California Independent System Operator, which runs the state’s power grid, called for a Flex Alert asking residents to voluntarily reduce their power consumption by avoiding “large appliances and charging electric vehicles” during peak usage hours of 4 to 9 pm.

The unforeseen problem, it seems, in addition to increasing power demands and anemic, unreliable wind and solar capacities, is weather … a heat wave hitting western states.

Nevertheless, California, a state that imports about 25% of its net electricity — more than any other in the country — seems to have hit a snag in its green energy plans, which include achieving “carbon neutrality” by 2035 while simultaneously banning sales of new gas-fueled cars by that date.

With all of the climate crisis hysteria driving California politics, wouldn’t you have imagined that someone might have anticipated a brewing problem here?

After all, heat waves aren’t particularly unusual, and this isn’t the first time that the Golden State has had to resort to emergency measures whereby residents have been repeatedly asked to conserve power to prevent blackouts.

The very same thing happened last summer when there were even fewer EVs plugged into the grid.

State officials say about 16% of cars sold in California today are electric, up from 12.4% last year. If about a dozen other uber-liberal states follow their lead, California’s restrictions would apply to about a third of all vehicles sold in 2035.

In addition, the proposed California Air Resources Board (CARB) rule also sets interim targets requiring that 35% of new passenger vehicles sold by 2026 produce zero emissions … a requirement that climbs to 68 percent by 2030.

Putting this into perspective, the apparent goal is to replace the current 98% of petroleum-fueled cars and trucks incentivized by inflationary government and state subsidies and mandates that grow the current 2% of EVs, and then add them to already overloaded power grids.

Gov. Newsom is doubling down on an anti-fossil agenda. Last year, he requested the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and California Air Resources Board (CARB) to accelerate California’s progress toward its nation-leading climate goals to establish a more ambitious greenhouse gas emissions target for electricity procurement by 2030.

Meanwhile, many Californians have seen their electricity bills shoot up by hundreds of dollars a month as residential electricity prices surged by 25% in June over the prior year — about twice as much as they have increased nationwide.

If this seems unimaginable … it is, at least from the standpoint of an America, that would appeal to most of us.

Think of Britain as such an example, where its green energy ambitions to achieve net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050 have caused household energy costs to soar. To meet that goal, they have banned fracking and slapped windfall-profit taxes on North Sea oil and gas producers that deter investment.

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine turned a self-inflicted energy and economic crisis into a geopolitical one. Having depended heavily upon natural gas from Russia to generate electricity and heat, prices have increased about 10 times more than only a year ago.

This is a big deal since more than 80% of English households rely on gas rather than electricity to heat their homes. Lower-income households bear the heaviest burdens of this as prices for goods and services skyrocket and companies lay off employees.

British household energy bills, which were expected to rise 40% this autumn, instead doubled that amount to 80% in a single bound.

This boost followed a 54% rise in April, bringing the average household’s annual bill to £3,549 ($4,208) — more than 10% of the £31,400 median household income. On top of this, the government adds about £153 in green levies and a 5% consumption tax directly on household bills.

Finally, recognizing that intermittent, unreliable, wind and solar systems can’t fill the energy gap, the U.K. belatedly plans to build new nuclear plants to balance supply and demand when the winds are still, and the sun is behind clouds.

They found this out the hard way when a lag in wind production last summer contributed to soaring gas prices.

At the beginning of his first term in 2017, President Emmanuel Macron floated the idea of shuttering 14 nuclear reactors, which then accounted for 75% of France’s electricity. He is now calling for six new nuclear reactors, and potentially another eight.

Then there’s Germany, which depends upon Russia for over half of the country’s natural gas, and a quarter of oil imports needed to keep their lights on, their homes heated, their industries producing, and their businesses open.

So confident in this relationship was Germany, that in 2011 it decided to shut down its nuclear power industry — which then produced a quarter of its electricity — and let coal and Russian natural gas account for the shortfall.

Germany has sabotaged itself to become even more dependent on Russian gas by already shutting down three nuclear plants in December, with three more to be mothballed this year.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz now calls for a Zeitenwende, or turning point, which centrally includes building several deep port liquid natural gas (LNG) importing facilities—something that Germany has spurned for decades.

The country has also authorized restarting coal-fired plants to shore up energy supplies ahead of the brutal winter heating season.

So yes, hot or cold, weather matters, although about four times more people die from the former than the latter.

It shouldn’t be all that difficult to recognize the energy abundance and independence we so recently took for granted, thanks largely to America’s fracking revolution and Trump administration policies, as a good thing … times before energy price-driven inflation reached highs not seen in more than four decades.

Elon Musk, the world’s largest electric car maker, recently warned that “civilization will crumble” if the world halted the use of oil and natural gas. Musk called for continued drilling and exploration of fossil fuel sources, and also for increased nuclear power generation.

There are encouraging signs that the U.K. and Germany are finally getting that green reality message. It’s high time the rest of us urgently do as well.

This piece originally appeared at AmericaOutLoud.com and has been republished here with permission.

Bridging Humanity and the Environment is the blog of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, the premier Christian think tank addressing Biblical earth stewardship, economic development for the poor, and the gospel of Christ all tied together. Would you like to help us publish more such articles and other educational resources? Because we are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, all gifts are tax-deductible