Gavin Newsom’s administration has done the impossible.
It’s managed to put Donald Trump and Joe Biden on the same page when it comes to a green energy project.
And the Newsom administration’s position also benefits Chinese immigrants.
Not those that are “illegal” that Immigration & Custom Enforcement (ICE) are rounding up.
The ones that carry clout.
They put down a minimum of $500,000 into an EB-5 investment program to secure a fast-track green card for themselves, their spouse, and unmarried children under 21.
What’s this minor miracle that led Biden and Trump to agree on green energy?
It’s the Ivanpah concentrated solar energy plant in eastern San Bernardino County.
PG&E, which knows a thing or two about inefficiency and costly endeavors, believes the Ivanpah plant that has 177,000 mirrors concentrating bird death rays — they killed 6,000 birds in 2024 — on a 40-story tower that boils water to generate power produces electricity more expensive than what can be done using photovoltaic technology.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last month rejected PG&E’s request to pull the plug on its Ivanpah contract — that the Biden administration signed off on in late December 2024 — because it was producing electricity at $100 million more a year above the highest at-market rate.
The Trump administration agreed that the Biden administration was spot on.
Both those working for Trump and Biden agreed a $100 million annual hit for 16 million PG&E customers was unacceptable.
However, the CPUC — of which all five members were appointed by Newsom — believes it is an acceptable fleecing of the ratepayers.
Thanks to the CPUC, collectively PG&E customers will be paying $1.3 billion more for electricity than they need to through the year 2039.
There is a CPUC concern that ratepayers will be stuck with $333 million in “stranded assets”.
That references the transmission infrastructure put in place for one thing and one thing only— to move electricity from the $2.2 billion Ivanpah plant to the power grid.
But there are also private investors who could lose money.
Among them are 180 EB-5 investors, who are mostly Chinese, that would be out $90 million.
The CPUC has now made sure those 180 “legal” immigrants that are basically making a business transaction to secure a green card will be kept whole.
This means Northern Californians — including those in Manteca, Lathrop, and Ripon — will be paying $1.3 billion to not just protect the $90 million investment of Chinese nationals but to guarantee they can make a big, fat profit.
Call it the platinum package from the leading sanctuary state in the world.
The Newsom administration extended free Medi-Cal for adult illegal immigrants while at the same time working tireless to protect those that outright buy their way into the country
Is not the wonderful wacky world of Sacramento great?
Legal immigrants get guaranteed investments and illegal immigrants get free health care while ratepayers and taxpayers get the bill.
But wait, there’s more.
There’s the big green lie perpetuated by Newsom’s minions.
You can find it in the CPUC ruling rejecting PG&E request — endorsed by political polar opposites in the form of Donald Trump and Joe Biden — without having to read between the lines.
The CPUC admits California is in a “tight electricity” supply situation due to green energy policies.
As such, pulling the plug on a contract that powers 120,000 households would plunge California into an energy abyss.
But how can that be?
Newsom and those in the green cartel up until mid-2024 were bragging about how solar and wind power was effectively replacing fossil fuel generated power.
As such, the Golden State was well on its way to having 100 percent of every watt of electricity consumed by California generated by a carbon free source by 2040.
Newsom touted his own horn across the globe about how on his watch he had put California at the forefront of the climate change fight.
A funny thing happened on Newsom’s way to green sainthood.
It seems Newsom grossly underestimated how his 100 percent electrification of California from homes and buildings to transportation would send electricity demand soaring.
Electric vehicles and electric semi-trucks need electricity.
High speed rail, which requires considerably more electricity than a model HO scale train, has the potential to dim the lights when running.
Imposing mandates to eliminate natural gas from being used in homes for heat, cooking, drying clothes, or heating will increase the demand for electricity.
And then there’s the “mining” of bitcoins, the darling of hedge fund investors in utility stocks in the form of data centers, and the black hole version of electricity consumption — artificial intelligence.
All of that adds up to needing a lot more electricity.
And it doesn’t matter if those data centers, and such, are even in California.
It’s because California is not an island on the power grid.
Newsom clearly can’t walk from owning high speed rail, wanting to kill off carbon-based powered new car sales by 2035 — that Trump has effectively derailed for the time being — and eliminating the use of natural gas in homes.
Nor can he say he does not embrace bitcoin as well as artificial intelligence.
If his administration’s actions regarding Ivanpah does not raise a red flag, then consider two words — Diablo Canyon.
Newsom seven years ago was all for pulling the plug on California’s last nuclear power plant.
Then he had an apparent epiphany regarding nuclear power.
Instead of closing it down last year as he first promised, he helped give it new life through at last 2030 with part of the cost of doing so being guaranteed by a taxpayer loan.
It seems that someone in Sacramento misjudged when green energy would allow California to wean off its last nuclear power plant by Dec. 31, 2025.
How far off were they?
Diablo Canyon in 2025 generated just under 10 percent of all of California’s daily electricity needs.
With a thousand pardons to Kermit the Frog, “it isn’t easy — or cheap — to be green.”
This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
