Nevada Does a California: A steep renewable energy mandate is on the ballot that would mean higher electricity costs and shortage

WSJ editorial. Excerpts:

"All of these have happened in California, which started its fossil-fuel purge in 2010 and now has a renewable goal of generating 60% of its power by 2030 and 100% by 2045. Utilities have rushed to build solar and wind farms in rural areas and transmission lines to transport the power to metropolitan areas. 

But the state must still keep gas-fired plants online to ramp up generation at night and on cloudy (or smoky) days. Smoke from wildfires caused solar generation to fall 30% during the first two weeks of September. Yet California produces so much solar power on some sunny days that it has to pay its neighbors to take the surfeit so its grid isn’t overloaded.

All of this has caused electricity prices in California to rise while falling in states that have benefited from plunging natural gas prices. Since 2010 electric rates in California have jumped 30% for homes and 37% for manufacturers while decreasing 3% and 17%, respectively, in Nevada where about three-quarters of power comes from natural gas.

Higher electric costs in California have reduced job growth in power-hungry industries, especially manufacturing. Between January 2010 and January 2020, manufacturing employment has increased 6% in California versus 55% in Nevada. Many tech companies have located data centers in the Silver State because of its cheap, reliable power.

Californians learned this summer they can no longer take reliable electricity for granted after a heat wave resulted in a power shortage and outages. The state’s utilities lacked enough back-up fossil-fuel generation to keep the lights on when solar power waned. They usually import power from other states in a pinch, but regional supply was strained."