by Katy Grimes, E&E Legal Senior Media Fellow and California Globe Editor
As Appearing in the California Globe
…and to improve the power grid
The Biden-Harris administration will provide a stunning $15 billion bailout “loan” to Pacific Gas & Electric “to support the utility’s efforts to combat climate change and improve the power grid.”
Climate change. In 2019, the Globe reported that instead of spending on crucial infrastructure, PG&E was spending $2.4 billion annually on a legislative mandate to buy renewable power.
“The funds would support a portfolio of projects to expand hydropower generation and battery storage, upgrade transmission capacity, and enable virtual power plants throughout PG&E’s service area, the energy department said,” the AP reports.
Even in 2019 lawmakers knew California’s renewable energy mandate was nonsense. Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) said every dollar spent on the additional cost of renewable energy is one dollar that is not available to be spent on vegetation management, line insulation, “undergrounding” lines, and other grid-hardening measures. “Dollars spent on forestry management have been found to do more to reduce carbon than other measures. Science shows that redirecting funding to forestry management gets us a better bang for our buck in carbon reduction,” said Gallagher.
