SACRAMENTO, CA – As California stares down the barrel of another extreme heat event, gas-fired power plants fail yet again to show up with the electricity the state was expecting from them. To avoid future energy crises caused by extreme heat, environmental justice leaders are urging the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to plan for retirement of unreliable gas plants and make room for clean energy in the 2022 Scoping Plan, the roadmap to meeting the state’s climate goals.
Despite industry claims to the contrary, gas plants have shown to be unreliable in moments of high energy demand. According to an August 31, 2022 CAISO outage bulletin, unexpected failures at gas power plants accounted for more than a quarter of the power that was unavailable Wednesday.
“While we welcomed Governor Newsom’s bold call for no new gas plants in the Scoping Plan earlier this month, we are extremely disappointed that just yesterday Governor Newsom also suspended protections for the water and air this week, when it is unbearably hot and already difficult to breathe in low-income communities of color,” said Shana Lazerow, Legal Director for Communities for a Better Environment (CBE).