| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 17, 2020 CONTACT: Brooke Armour *** PRESS RELEASE *** California Business Community Once Again Calls for Diversified Energy Portfolio To Address Electricity Shortfalls SACRAMENTO—Representatives from California’s business community, including retailers, manufacturers and large business properties are once again calling on the governor, state regulators, the Legislature and local governments to invest in a diversified energy portfolio that will help keep the lights on during peak energy demands. WHAT THEY ARE SAYING: “The governor, CPUC and CEC are all pointing fingers about whose fault this is, but the fact is that they have all known for years this was going to happen. Last year the Independent System Operator warned that there would be ‘potential resource shortages starting in 2020.’ No one listened and now residents and businesses are paying the price. Retailers support environmental sustainability goals and will continue doing their part to help alleviate the predicted megawatt shortfall, but now is the time to have an honest discussion about California’s energy future.”—Rachel Michelin, President, California Retailers Association “The business community has supported California’s climate change goals and established CARE (Californians for Affordable and Reliable Energy) to ensure that our energy transition will maintain a stable and affordable energy supply for business and all Californians. Our transition has resulted in some of the highest energy prices in the country and now we are facing reliability problems in the summer months when our economy should be at its peak. We must have a robust and diversified energy portfolio including a statewide energy plan, which we have sponsored in a previous legislative session. “All Californians deserve to have electricity when they come home from work to cook dinner, wash clothes and cool their homes. The California Energy Commission (CEC), the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and national and state politicians cannot continue to push a false narrative that we don’t need reliable energy options like natural gas to meet peak demand during this time. Today’s crisis underscores that we need to make immediate policy adjustments in our current renewable and climate change plans so we can ensure that they will succeed in the future, ensure that our we can grow our economy and ensure that Californians can turn their lights on when they get home from work. ” –Rob Lapsley, President, California Business Roundtable “Hot weather and a cloudy day should not be able to shut down the fifth-largest economy in the world. In fact, we shouldn’t even be claiming that about our economy if we can’t keep the lights on. Manufacturers in California already pay electricity rates 117% higher than the rest of the nation due in large part to California’s climate change policies. While we support California’s renewable energy goals, we absolutely need system redundancy that allows us to continue to operate and manufacture products for our residents and the world.” –Lance Hastings, President, California Manufacturers & Technology Association |
“For rural and inland regions of this state, reliable electricity can be a matter of life and death. We should all be embarrassed that the fifth largest economy cannot keep its lights on. The state has already asked so much of the business community this year, and now we’re being asked to bail out the state for its short-sighted environmental policies. The business community has warned about these policies for years and today we are seeing those warnings become reality.” –Rex Hime, President, California Business Properties Association