Electric Cars Could Save California's Power Grid
January 26, 2021
Climate change ramped up its attacks on California this year, serving up massive wildfires and blistering heat waves, which led to widespread power outages. To fight back, Governor Gavin Newsom took aim at heat-trapping carbon pollution from cars. In September, he signed an order to phase out the sale of new gas-powered cars in California by 2035.
The move earned praise from green groups, but critics say that millions of new electric vehicles will further strain California’s power grid, which is already buckling under the stress of worsening heat waves. In a letter to Gov. Newsom, outgoing EPA Chief Andrew Wheeler asked how California can expect to service a massive fleet of EVs when it “can’t even keep the lights on today.”
In their response to Wheeler, California environmental officials said that electric cars “support a more reliable, resilient, and affordable grid. Indeed, electric transportation and increasingly cleaner electricity go hand-in-hand.”
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