Our neighbor works for a public utility district. He works directly to maintain our grid. He says it is not robust and they struggle to maintain it, much less expand it. Our area is one that is growing very quickly in population because we had a good thing going before the creeping liberal rot made its way from Seattle to us. But it is here. He says getting parts to maintain equipment and finding good employees have gotten more difficult. Vaccine mandates didn’t help. We saw during covid what even a small supply chain disruption could do.
Idiot governor Inslee is waging war on both natural gas AND internal combustion vehicles. New homes can’t be built that use natural gas. He is imposing ridiculous requirements with lofty, virtue-signalling and totalitarian policies that force everything (EVERYTHING) onto the electrical grid.
I ask you. Wouldn’t competent leadership move into using different sources of energy gradually, instead of forcing too-quick dependence on ONE source? In fact, ALWAYS having a variety of energy sources would be the best. But that’s exactly what “leadership” is not doing.
Someone is profiting from the manufacture of electric cars and batteries, and there is a corresponding and very tempting conduit of control that the electrical grid provides to those who want to control us. That’s not a conspiracy theory. The slavering quest for narrow energy dependence, because it IS unwise and crippling for human flourishing, is one of the big reveals of the rigged and corrupt system we’re living under.
Provide multiple energy sources, innovate, and let people decide which to use. Joe gets his EV and Jose and Maria get their 2002 Honda Accord. The web of transportation is stronger. But don’t skew hundreds of millions of dollars over onto making spots for a diminishing number of people (EVs are not practical and sales are declining) to plug cars into chargers. We have more important needs in this country.
My husband and I both worked for electric utilities, my husband up until he retired two years ago. This country has a LOOMING electric grid reliability problem. Not just the grid but ALL utilities and all forms of energy and all transportation and all infrastructure. This is because the people who uphold and maintain all of this are largely older generation MALES, and they are retiring in droves. Yes women are majoring a bit more in engineering and sciences but not in nearly enough numbers to replace the old guys, and not in the boots on the ground work (skilled labor). The young men are first of all, way fewer in numbers as the birth rate has crashed, and secondly, experiencing an epidemic of mental problems rendering them unable to do much but play video games in mom's basement or major in "journalism" in college.
There is such a brain drain in the energy industry that my husband was offered almost $250,000 a year to come back in an engineering management position but they wanted a 3 year commitment and he said fuck that, no way.
Getting parts is a huge problem, because we simply don't make them in the U.S. anymore, we don't make our own steel, we don't make our own electronics. There were big advantages to globalism like taking advantage of cheap labor overseas but the price we pay is loss of control over our own supply chain. Quality control is a HUGE problem. Anything made in China is suspect.
Plants and equipment are aging out and not being replaced. The cheapest most efficient ways to generate electricity are being phased out by incredibly destructive leftist policies based on eliminating fossil fuels or hobbling nuclear generation with crushing regulatory requirements. The latter was a long term problem starting in the 80s or before. I know, I worked at a nuke plant. It was like 90% suck the dick of the federal government and 10% actually get something accomplished. (Excuse my graphic analogy, I've been listening to too much Styx, lol!) If not for that we'd have a robust base of nuclear generation.