• @RizzRustbolt
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    5019 hours ago

    Every smart person told them, “update the grids before adding solar.”

    But did they listen? No. Because updating the grids was an expensive and difficult endeavour and they just wanted to lower their costs first.

    • @LifeInMultipleChoice
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      810 hours ago

      Obama tried to push grid upgrades for years, kept getting shot down. His plans would all be done by now. Throw in the fuel economy requirements of 54.5 mpg requirements for cars and light trucks and we would have seen billions of barrels of oil not being needed. (Lower gas prices as well). Granted it wasn’t everything, but it was what we needed to start doing. Now 13, 14 years later after Trump rolled back those fuel efficiency policies as much as he could because it cost manufacturers more money in research, we are much closer to a rock we can’t live on and haven’t advanced nearly enough. So we voted in Drill Baby Drill to finish off the rock.

    • @surewhynotlem
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      1416 hours ago

      Sometimes the best way to get things done is to wedge your way in and cause a problem. It sucks, but humans be humaning

    • @[email protected]
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      513 hours ago

      Which is so odd to me, because electricity just a couple states over is about 1/3 the cost vs CA. I pay $0.12/kWh in UT, whereas CA pays more like $0.32/kWh.

      If we look at solar generation, we’re doing pretty well here in Utah vs other states in the US (source). Taking a rough average of that data, here’s what the numbers look like:

      • California - 8500 MWh, or ~217 MWh per million people
      • Utah - 650 MWh, or ~203 MWh per million people
      • Texas - 4800 MWh, or about 160 MWh per million people
      • Arizona - 1700 MWh, or about 242 MWh per million people

      I just don’t understand why California electricity prices are so high. It’s not like they’re generating a ton more than other states in the area or anything.

      Maybe I’m misunderstanding the figures, but the source I quoted didn’t say anything about per-capita production, so I think it’s total for the state.

      • @[email protected]
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        56 hours ago

        California rates are high because everyone has to pay for forest fires. Everyone except shareholders.

      • @Pieisawesome
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        712 hours ago

        I paid $0.52/kWh in California before I moved out of state

        Even more with fees tacked on.

        • @[email protected]
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          512 hours ago

          Wow, that’s nuts. After all fees, I’m around $0.12-0.13/kWh, and it seems we generate a similar amount of solar.

      • Darth_Mew
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        312 hours ago

        the math aint mathing

        • @[email protected]
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          112 hours ago

          What’s not mathing?

          I pulled population numbers from Wikipedia, so:

          • California - 39.1M
          • Utah - 3.2M
          • Texas - 30.5M
          • Arizona 7.1M

          I rounded a little here and there, but that shouldn’t change the numbers too significantly.