The gig is up.
The Green Wizard of Oz has been exposed and all it took was for wildfires to ravage Los Angeles County.
The big question, however, is does California’s entrenched political class have the brains, courage, or heart to stop — or at least — rethink the madness?
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass unwittingly pulled back the curtain exposing the green wizardry. The City of Angels mayor decreed LA would be suspending the city’s “all electric” building codes in the wake of the wildfires. However, it is only for homes being rebuilt that burned in the wildfires. Plus, the footprint of the reconstruction can’t be 10 percent large than the home it is replacing. The reason? Requiring stoves, water heaters, and heating systems to all be electric adds thousands of dollars to the cost of constructing a home. They also cost a lot more to operate.
Then there is the detail of overhauling the local electricity distribution system to handle the additional load. California already enjoys the highest electrical rates in the 48 contiguous states. It is more than double the rates in Arizona, Oregon, and Nevada.
The cost of rebuilding is already going to be higher than what it was for original construction costs simple inflation over the years. State building codes for new home construction have required fire sprinklers since 2019. Few of the homes in Pacific Palisades or Altadena that burned had them.
Solar power for a home’s own use has also been required for new homes since 2022. The average cost of a solar power system including installation in California is now in excess of $18,000, according to a 50-state survey conducted by ConsumerAffairs.
Let’s not forget the inability to depend on the power grid for electricity. The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power has a less than stellar record of being able to keep electricity flowing during heat waves. This past September, blackouts forced a Hollywood Bowl concert to be cancelled and interrupted a University of Southern California football game.
Battery storage, if one is so inclined to go that route, can add $7,000 to 18,000 to the cost of homes.
Putting aside the debate about whether solar power and fire sprinklers should be mandatory, there is no question they add to the cost of a new home, making them less affordable. It’s a minimum $25,000 hit.
The fact it costs less to heat a home or water using gas is not debatable. Nor is the fact natural gas generates more heat.
All electric homes cost more to build and operate.
In just under five years, California is basically outlawing the sale and installation of new and replacement water heaters and home heating systems powered by natural gas. The 2030 mandate will not only increase the cost of new homes being built, but it will subject millions of existing California households that rely on natural gas for warmth and heating water to expensive retrofits when existing units go out.
Before anyone starts jumping up and down about greenhouse gas emissions, there are alternatives to natural gas. They are biogas that helps reduce methane released into the atmosphere and green hydrogen. Both technologies offer promise but Sacramento, by decree, has already determined electricity to be the answer for all residential energy needs. It may be the right answer. One would hope finding the right answer would have been left to scientists, researchers, and innovators to explore instead of going with an answer reached by politicians, career bureaucrats, and legacy energy companies.
It is clear that fossil fuel will eventually be tapped out. Not so when it comes to biogas. That said, biogas likely would never be produced in large enough quantities to replace the energy loss that natural gas carries.
Then there is hydrogen. PG&E in 2024 submitted a rate increase proposal to the California Public Utilities Commission to blend hydrogen with natural gas. The utility plans to use recycled water from the Lodi wastewater treatment plan along the west side of Interstate 5 north of Stockton to produce hydrogen to do just that. The technology is in its infancy. There is concern 100 percent hydrogen replacing natural gas would require replacing existing natural gas lines and the ignition units of home heating systems, water heaters, and stoves.
Sacramento, though, has outright dismissed any other mass energy source besides electricity. That electricity, Sacramento has decreed, must be 100 percent renewable.
The primary sources, unless California allows nuclear to be part of the mix, is wind and solar. Solar and wind are not a 24/7 power source, hence, the need for battery storage that interject fire safety into the energy debate whether it is a massive commercial scale operation or those working in conjunction with home solar installations.
Then there are the social-economic questions no one in Sacramento is addressing.
Homes with natural gas for heating make up a large segment of older housing stock that is the most affordable. Being forced to replace natural gas heating systems with electric ones is an expensive proposition.
The most insane aspect about Mayor Bass suspending the all-electric requirement for new homes replacing those that burned is not the fact it undermines how pressing the need is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is the sheer waste it encourages in a world order dictated by green mandates.
Natural gas water heaters have an expected lifespan of 8 to 15 years. Home heating systems that use natural gas have typical lifespans in the to 20 year range with maintenance. Retrofitting homes after 2030 will cost money.
If greenhouse gas emission reduction is that pressing of a survival issue, then why is LA making any exceptions especially when the wildfires have been framed by California’s political ruling class as being the direct result of climate change?
Too bad the technology doesn’t exist to harness all of the apparent hot air generated in the California crusade to singlehandedly save the planet to produce electricity. It might be able to keep the lights on 24/7 for all of Los Angeles.
Do not misunderstand. We have serious issues in regards to climate and how we may contribute to — and deal with — change. That said, isn’t it amazing how green disciples in high places retreat from their “principled positrons” when they sense the people they govern are about to put two and two together and realize how green absolutes are hitting them hard in the pocketbook?
— This column is the opinion of Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Courier or 209 Multimedia. He may be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
