The economy is better now than the state it was in as Biden was coming into office. Biden’s stock market is more powerful than Trump’s stock market. Biden has inflation moving downward. Biden’s added costs are not increasing the wealth of the rich but investing in American infrastructure and domestic security.
Every year of the Biden presidency has seen the United States as a net energy exporter. The US is making more natural gas than ever, hitting record highs every of the last 4 years under Biden. In case you weren’t paying attention, we are drinking Russia’s milkshake.
COVID happened. We can’t just ignore it. No, it wasn’t Trump’s fault.
The stock market isn’t the best gauge of the health of the economy.
inflation “going down” is nice but it’s still bad. So, something that’s going in the right direction doesn’t mean it’s good. It’s still pretty bad.
We can do more to become more energy independent. And if Kamala has her way, it’s more Green New Deal and higher energy prices in the future.
Sorry if I don’t share your optimism. Food prices are how much higher now than 4 years ago? I feel it with my family for sure. I know many others do as well.
I agree about the stock market, but I am responding to bikki who for the 4 years of Trump’s presidency couldn’t shut up about Trump’s high stock market. In fact, I am responding to a post of bikki’s RIGHT NOW about the stock market.
Inflation is not just “going in the right direction.” The inflation rate, as in right now, is good. 2.9% for the last 12 months. That’s a desirable target.
We can do more to become more energy independent, and we are already in the process. Solar power is actually cheaper than coal already.
Yes, prices are higher now. No one can magically make them do down. Not even Trump.
How do your retail electricity rates look relative to the rest of the country? Connecticut is the highest. California isn’t a picnic.
Do you know that California imports a ton of power from out of state. Utah, Washington, Arizona, Nevada?
Do you also know that California has some of the highest transmission rates in the country? Those costs are set by utilities which pass them on to consumers.
I’ve also talked to folks that live in the Bay Area that work for our company that complain about power outages as a regular occurrence. PGE has a bad reputation.
Your state has a really tenuous generation mix. Way too much solar, especially when you don’t need it. Not enough non-intermittent generation so you have to suck power out of other areas when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. Then way too much solar and overbuild when the demand is low. It makes no sense. And the consumers end up paying for it.
You need nuclear and natural gas and other resources but those aren’t politically expedient in the state.
They wanted to retire the nuclear plant, Diablo Canyon but in 2022 they realized that was a bad idea and they need to keep it online for several more years because their wind and solar and battery only dreams don’t work
Countries in Europe are ahead of us and are realizing some of these things too.
I was wrong. Hawaii has the highest rates (makes sense). California is second.
Hawaii has the highest retail electricity rates in the United States, with an average rate of 42.45 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) as of September 2024. California is a close second, with an average rate of 34.31 cents per kWh.
I will concede that electricity in California isn’t cheap. (Well, it’s free for me BECAUSE of solar! But that’s not what you mean.)
But to counter all your facts about California energy usage:
Did you know that California is the most populous state in the nation?
Did you know that California has the 5th largest economy in the world?
Yet do you know that Texas uses more energy than California?
Even better, do you know that California has the 4th lowest per-capita energy use in the country???
Do you know that Texas produces more renewable energy than California?
Can you explain this? The time there is “too much solar” is at peak time when the sun is hot and everyone has air conditioners on. If it’s earlier in Spring and not hot and there is excess energy, California has been exporting it. This. btw, mitigates your criticism of energy imports.
Not to mention, batteries save solar energy, so there is no such thing as not having enough solar.
You are right we only have 1 nuclear facility, but you’re dead wrong on natural gas.
Did you know Texas is the only state that uses more natural gas than California?
Did you know natural gas provides 39% of California’s power?
Yes, Texas has some of the same problems with too many renewables all lumped in the same locations. Agreed with that.
It’s a cost problem. You end of having to over supply capacity when the capacity factor of the generator is low. In the wholesale market, there are times that locationally the price is negative in some areas of the grid because the market algorithm incentivizes the generation to turn off. You have to actually pay to generate electricity instead of get paid for it. It’s really backwards but it is a logical signal that tells you we don’t have the generation in the right place and can’t get it to the demand centers because of congestion.
So, too much solar locationally. It’s in the wrong spots and the transmission isn’t built to accommodate it. That’s another problem and a whole other discussion.
So while solar has zero variable cost there are fixed costs associated with it. Battery technology isn’t close to solving the problem. It’s just not.
I’m not even making this into a Republican or Democrat issue. It’s just a common sense energy mix issue combined with transmission limitations that need to be fixed and are long overdue.
So what are the problems, in a nutshell? Poor planning on the transmission side and cost allocation issues where no one wants to pay for it. Too much of an energy mandate for all renewables without thinking of system cost, reliability, and wasteful spending. Although winter storm Yuri and Elliott and a few other events have people walking some of those things back a bit. Just hit those targets by 2030, 2035 whatever and let sensible policy go by the wayside.
I’m not anti-renewable by any means. I think a sensible mix is fine. When you start to limit yourself too much or push aggressive standards you run into problems. Hydrogen fuel cells and batteries sound great, but we are a long ways away from them being viable.
I also think cost to the consumer matters. We deal with lower income rural areas and they feel the pinch of electricity costs more than the wealthy that don’t really care about their electric bills.