Alamogordo NM
9-16-2026 4:34am

Perspective: Credit Where It's Due on California's Grid

In his own words by Contributor, Steven Edwards :

"No rolling blackouts in six years, more solar, wind being added constantly and let's be intellectually honest here, a lot of this has been thanks to one of the last Good Republican men standing Arnold Schwarzenegger and his support of Cap and Trade and actually believing in it.

A man who time and again has said not a matter of rhetoric but as a matter of belief that the American Dream is one of a society of being able to pull ones self up by their bootstraps but what if you are missing an arm or a leg and has actually meant it. He's never once said, put in all the hard work like I did and the results are part of the Standard Model. He always maintained that some will fall behind and it is a Civic Duty to lock arms with them and carry them until they are ready to walk or run again, or accept the great gifts of the land of opportunity and carry them as far as you can until the next actual human comes along and helps.

Arnold along with the plethora of Democrats who worked tirelessly and more zealously than Reagan did with the California Air Resources Board making smog and acid rain a thing of the past, as well as his support for switching to CFC alternatives with the Montreal Protocols at the very least vastly reducing our contribution to skin cancers and such around the world.

There is some debate that he saw the writing on the wall and society had not become stupid enough to start eating its own grandchildren.

This isn't to discredit Reagan in regards to environmental policy, I happen to think if he really didn't believe in it, he wouldn't have pulled that sleight of hand card trick (a smoke screen if you will) of taking Carter's mostly symbolic Solar Panels off the roof of the White House while not kissing industries' ass at every turn, but then again I try to look at things from everything to differing angles, to rhetoric (and lack thereof) and results and am willing to grant him a check in the W column on those issues, God knows the man had enough L's."

The Facts Checked by Alamogordo Town News:

Edwards' commentary was prompted by a Los Angeles Times report, republished by Yahoo News, on how California made it through record heat this summer. Here is what that reporting found.

Record heat, no rolling outages. Californians got through the hottest August on record without any rolling power outages. The state has not issued a Flex Alert, its public call to cut electricity use, since 2022, and it has not ordered rotating outages since 2020. That supports Edwards' point that it has been about six years since the last rolling blackouts.

The main reason, according to the report: batteries. The article credits a large expansion of battery energy storage for the grid's improved reliability. The batteries store solar power generated during the day and release it in the evening and morning, when demand peaks as people run air conditioners at home. Edwards provides historical context to how the battery storage system and investment came about. 

A dramatic change since 2020

During the August 2020 heat wave, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), which manages most of the state's electricity, declared a Stage 3 emergency, and hundreds of thousands of households lost power. At that time, CAISO had less than 100 megawatts of battery storage, according to spokesperson Jayme Ackemann. Today it has more than 17,000 megawatts.
A bigger, connected grid. California's grid is now tied into electrical systems across much of the Western United States, so power from cooler areas can help during a heat event in Southern California.

Looking ahead. CAISO aims to add another 20,000 to 25,000 megawatts of battery storage by 2045, the same year the state has set as its target for carbon neutrality. The state will also need more supply to keep up with growing electricity demand from AI data centers.
Outages aren't gone entirely. Utilities still use public safety power shutoffs to keep power lines from sparking wildfires in dangerous weather. A wildfire that knocks out generation during a major heat wave could still trigger Flex Alerts or limited rolling outages.

What the article does not say

The report does not mention cap-and-trade, Arnold Schwarzenegger or Ronald Reagan. It attributes the grid's performance to battery storage, solar power and regional grid integration. Edwards' argument that Schwarzenegger-era climate policy laid the groundwork is his own interpretation and valid.

Historical Context

The following points address Edwards' historical references and are not drawn from the linked article: 

• Cap-and-trade: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, signed the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) in 2006. The law set the framework for California's cap-and-trade program, which began several years later.
• California Air Resources Board: CARB was created in 1967, when Ronald Reagan was governor of California.

• Montreal Protocol: The international treaty to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals such as CFCs was signed in 1987 during Reagan's presidency, and the U.S. Senate ratified it.
• White House solar panels: President Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House in 1979. They were removed in 1986, during Reagan's presidency.

Commentary Inspiration: "The surprising reason California survived record summer heat without blackouts," Los Angeles Times via Yahoo News: https://www.yahoo.com/news/weather-news/articles/california-survived-hottest-august-record-100000456.html

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