LA Times exaggerates that the high price of natural gas in California is due to completely distorted “fossil fuel instability”

Guest post by Larry Hamlin

The LA Times’ long-running campaign of editorials propagating flawed and politically directed climate warnings, including the Times’s misleading and incompetent statements about 2022 climate outcomes such as: exposed in a recent WUWT article (shown below) has now turned to another sham editorial that falsely attributed the recent high natural gas prices in California to “fossil fuel instability,” an assertion that falsifies an assertion. oddly and politically laborious, it would make both Russian Prime Ministers Putin and Pravda proud because of the misinformation behind this claim.

This latest Times editorial completely conceals the global failure of unreliable renewables that cannot be sent to meet the load demand of the power system with imperfect performance results. This results in a large demand shortfall for generating capacity that requires an increased unplanned increase in fossil fuel use and consequent limited capacity.

This global renewable energy failure has left countries across the globe reliant on emergency fossil fuel purchases from unreliable and unworthy high-priced energy market participants. trust, including Russia, then continue to use this situation to try to blackmail these countries into ignoring Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine or face huge fossil fuel cuts. needed to compensate for the disastrously failing performance of unreliable renewables in these countries.

Times editorial office show below completely conceals the global failure of unreliable renewables, which is a major driver of current fossil fuel prices and the resulting failure of the natural gas energy market.

Fortunately, media publications based on climate change propaganda and climate change politically less biased than other renewables have addressed the issue of rising natural gas prices. California’s current state of affairs more fully and competently than the Times’s distorted editorial including a recent comprehensive series of articles produced by the Orange County Register.

Editorial Office Register show below gets to the heart of this failure of California politicians’ policy to provide natural gas and the failure of high-priced energy.

The main entries from the Register editorial are presented below:

“Natural gas prices have increased in California. According to SoCalGas, the cost of this item has increased 314% from a year ago.

However, in the rest of the country, the price of natural gas did not increase. In some places, natural gas futures prices are at 17-month lows, while in California, natural gas is now more than five times the U.S. benchmark price.”

“But something can be done. California can produce more natural gas in the state, just like it did in the past. Ten years ago, production in California was double what it is today.”

“Overall, California uses more natural gas than any other state except Texas, and nearly a third of that is used to operate power plants that generate electricity.

However, state leaders rarely acknowledge the reality when it comes to energy policy, preferring to pretend that the use of “fossil fuels” will be phased out completely, according to a timetable. increasingly accelerating.

The ludicrous LA Times editorial mentioned above madly emphasized the need to accelerate the use of unreliable high-cost renewable energy, which of course would only exacerbate the situation. Current national, national and global availability of natural gas as well as the failure of energy prices.

The subscription article ended with this factual assessment of California’s natural gas power failure:

“Californias are suffering this winter because politicians prefer lofty speeches about climate change to rational discussions about critical industries and infrastructure. “

The Register also published a More detailed test articles The problems that have caused the state to increase the price of natural gas are as follows.

The article highlights the many different natural gas energy market conditions and complexities that have driven the price of natural gas in California. Compare this assessment of the state’s natural gas failure with incompetence failures and political intrigue to present and discuss such issues including the Times’ propaganda editorial.

“Southern Californians, prepare for a severe case of sticker shock as your natural gas bill across the region more than doubles this winter, according to two major utility companies. of the region.”

“Although gas bills tend to increase slightly in winter as more gas is used to combat cold weather, both companies attribute this increase to natural gas prices. However, the market has risen accordingly – for a variety of interrelated reasons including the drought in California, unexpected cold spells across the country and the Russian war in Ukraine which has increased by about 128% since November. “

“Worse, natural gas supplies are not keeping pace with growing demand and US natural gas exports to Europe are increasing significantly, causing greater strain on supply.”

“Europe is heavily dependent on Russian gas for its energy needs – especially during the winter months,” said Brian Peck, director of the Center for Transnational Business and Law at the University of Southern California. heating system. “And as part of the US-led effort to provide Western support to Ukraine, they have asked Europe to stop depending on Russian gas.”

“But for the EU, capital get more than 40% liquefied natural gas from Russia — a complete ban on this fuel would not have been possible without major economic consequences for the population. Peck said Biden’s deal to expand gas shipments to the EU would help eliminate the need for countries to collect Russian natural gas over the next five years.

“The United States has committed to supporting liquefied natural gas exports to help Europe detox itself and become less dependent on Russian oil, which in turn will reduce gas revenues for the Russian authorities,” Peck said. speak. “(It also) helps insulate Europe(s) from Russian restrictions on gas until Europe is able to remove its own supply.”

“International relations are not the only factor straining the supply of natural gas in Southern California. Along with the new year, the state celebrated a much grimmer milestone: The fourth year of a severe drought.”

“Although most of California’s electricity is still generated with natural gas, approximately 10.2% of California’s total electricity is generated by hydroelectricity, according to the state Energy Commission. However, the state’s shrinking water supply has forced a greater reliance on natural gas for electricity production in recent years.”

“And because 90% of California’s natural gas supply is imported — largely from West Texas, the Rocky Mountains, and the Four Corners region — the state relies heavily on the health of an extensive pipeline. interstate to receive its share of the supply. “

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), capacity along that key federal pipeline has been impacted in recent months due to wholesale suppliers in West Texas, one of the major importers. California’s government, has solved a wide range of maintenance problems.

“The capacity to store natural gas in California’s underground reservoirs — three of which are in the Los Angeles area — has also greatly diminished in recent years.”

“Natural gas levels in storage facilities across the Pacific Region — including California, Washington state, and Oregon — were 25% lower in December than they were a year earlier, according to the EIA, and 30 percent lower. % of the 5-year average. “In Northern California, pumping Pacific gas and electricity, to rebuild natural gas reserves, has not kept pace with previous summers,” the EIA added.

The Register published another article that addressed the many reasons behind the states’ natural gas price hikes in the article. show below.

“None of us live in Hearst Castle. However, my natural gas bill went from $44 to nearly $300 in a two-month period. Kay Kearney’s is expected to hit $368 in January – more than triple what she paid this time last year. And Burl Estes is staring at a $397 tab for the audacity to stay warm.

“It’s not sustainable,” says Kearney, whose modest 1,500-square-foot home in Garden Grove. “We keep the thermostat at 68 when it’s raining and cold. Turn off the heater when the weather is nicer. With the current economic and inflation problems, what should we do? There is nowhere left to cut.”

The article delves into the heart of California’s obsession with unreliable renewables and its ill-considered rejection of fossil fuels that have been completely masked and ignored by the LA Times editorial. after:

“We’ll talk about the powerful forces of supply and demand at work here right now, but first, the core issue, at least according to some experts: Politics, perhaps with a bit of heart. greed.

With good intentions and a pure heart, California is more or less moving towards 100% renewable energy. We are phasing out fossil fuel power plants and natural gas storage facilities in an effort to quell global warming. But we don’t have enough credibility — and good price — energy to replace them.”

Regarding supply and demand challenges, the article notes:

“You have heard a lot about “perfect storms” and dark stories about market manipulation. But the official explanation, according to the US Energy Information Administration, is a simple story of supply and demand.

Demand: From the Canadian border to the Mexican border, the West Coast is shivering as spreading below-normal temperatures force us all to wear socks to bed. This increases demand for natural gas — by far, our largest source of energy except for eight hours of the day, when the sun is shining and solar energy is abundant, according to the Regulator. operates the California Independent System (which runs our grid).

Supply: Unfortunately, the supply fell exactly as demand skyrocketed. The people in the north don’t transport natural gas our way because it’s cold, too. An interstate oil pipeline in Texas leading to the West Coast has been shut down for maintenance. And we don’t stockpile as much natural gas as we can; low levels of storage on the West Coast, as one can see in the story of Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility in troubleis allowed to operate at 60% capacity and is being slashed.”

The article concludes:

“Even with a significant drop in prices, the fundamental problems of the transition from fossil fuels to green energy remain. California’s insistence on doing that quickly means not investing in new pipelines and new storage, which means we’re forced to rely on the expensive spot market.”

“Targets are too far-fetched and unrealistic — unless you want to inflict massive economic damage,” says Hiatt of USC. “The problem is, so much political capital has been put into this that no one wants to admit they did something wrong. Just push forward until something breaks.

A more sober and less expensive approach, he says: Plan for a longer transition period.

The LA Times editorial was politically orchestrated and used cover-ups, ignorance, and gross misrepresentations of the globally unreliable renewable energy failures that prompted The world’s demand for natural gas and other fossil fuels is increasing. The Times editorial presents nothing but flawed propaganda, ludicrously inflated support for the more unreliable renewable energy mandates that are central to natural gas availability. globally today and the failure of rising energy prices.