Double Takes
California Extreme
California can be a pretty extreme place... It boasts the country's lowest elevation (Death Valley at 282 feet below sea level) and the highest peak in the Lower 48 (Mt. Whitney at 14,505 feet).
Even its weather can be extreme. The Golden State can be hot when the rest of the U.S. is bone-chillingly cold, and frigid when just about every other place is baking in record heat. Don't believe me? Try visiting San Francisco in July. Bring a sweater.
So when Southern California suffered through a heat wave this past Labor Day weekend, many shrugged it off as just another example of "California Steamin.'" But this heat wave had tragic consequences. As many as 25 people died, most of them elderly shut-ins, from heat stroke and other heat-related complications. Overtaxed power transformers exploded and cut off electricity (and air conditioning) to large swaths of sweltering inland areas. Even some with power weren't spared. One elderly coupled perished together after telling neighbors they planned to turn off their air conditioner to keep their electricity bill down.
In a sad irony, the state of California has kept on a cap on electricity costs for that very reason, so no one should need to make a Solomon's choice between staying cool and staying out of debt.
But as Marketplace's Stacey Vanek-Smith reported on Aug. 30, 2007, the state caps themselves may have played a role in depriving others the power to run their air-conditioners.
The heat triggered record electricity demand, but the caps kept the price of that power artificially low — consumers had no incentive to cut back on the A.C. when they really didn't need it. With so many toggle switches flicked to "on," parts of the grid just couldn't keep up, plunging thousands into darkness... and oppressive heat.
In this case, the power of market forces might have prompted consumers to save enough electricity to keep everybody's lights and A.C. humming. It's Econ 101: higher bills encourage people to dial the thermostat to a warmer, but still tolerable setting. Less energy use means less wear and tear on the grid and fewer potentially lethal black-outs. It's as easy as pouring a glass of iced tea, finding a shady spot, and sweating a little to save a few bucks.
Now it looks like we're heading into another hotter-than-average weekend and perhaps anther surge of electricity use.
Ironically, as our planet gets warmer because of climate change, the best thing we can do in times like these may be to embrace the heat in the short run, in the hopes that things might cool off in the long run. Rather than cranking up the A.C. during the next heat wave, perhaps we should dial it down to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the far-flung power stations that keep California running.
And the market could help coax us toward that goal too if states like California let the price of electricity float during peak energy demand. It may sound like an extreme solution. But hey, in California, we like it that way.
Digging Into the Archives:
• Sept. 2, 2007: Food prices could ride heat wave up, up, up
• Sept. 2, 2007: Natural gas prices ride along with heat wave
• Special report — 2006 heat wave: Summer heat, summer drought
Posted by: David Banks, Sustainability Web Producer
