California Keeps Sizzling
California is baking in a huge summer heat wave that is straining the power grid. (New York Times)
“ Wildfires raged at both ends of California. Gavin Newsom, the state’s governor, warned of “unprecedented” heat. The power grid teetered on the brink of outages into the evening.
But as California endured its sixth day under a ferocious heat dome, the nation’s most populous state narrowly managed to avert rolling blackouts, even as temperature and energy use records shattered on Tuesday and power grid officials begged homeowners to turn down their air conditioning.
The mere maintenance of electricity in most of the state was celebrated as a minor triumph after California’s Independent System Operator, which manages most of the state’s grid, issued a “Level 3” emergency alert earlier in the evening, a sign that outages were imminent.”
California is continuing to struggle under the latest challenge posed by climate change and America’s energy policy and grid are being put to the test. Summer temperatures are getting hotter and urban areas as well as rural America are suffering the consequences of a rapidly changing climate. The power grid is of particular concern due to aging infrastructure and a lack of investment that has rendered it unable to cope with a hotter environment. These mini power crises will multiply in the coming years.
