The epic five-year drought cost Californians in many ways. Homeowners throughout the state witnessed severe water restrictions. Once flourishing fields were left fallow in response to dwindling irrigation supplies. And as a new report suggest, everyone spent more on electricity.
Under normal, non-drought conditions, California produces electricity from a variety of sources, with natural gas and hydropower being at the top. With little to no rain or snow between 2012 and 2016, dams that power hundreds of hydropower stations were closed or substantially cut back production. This forced cities and utilities across the state to rely on power plants fueled by natural gas. As it turns out, this was an expensive and environmentally taxing change. [1]
According to a study conducted by the Pacific Institute, a severe shortage of cheap hydroelectricity during the drought was responsible for electricity costs rising by a combined $2.45 billion from 2012 to 2016. Concurrently, substantial increases in levels of smog and greenhouse gases (GHG) were also recorded due to the change in power source.[2]
“The drought has cost us in ways we didn’t necessarily anticipate or think about. It cost us economically and environmentally,” said report author and co-founder of the Pacific Institute Peter Gleick, in an interview with Mercury News.[3]
California has nearly 300 hydroelectric dams that range from small reservoirs in the Sierra Nevada to towering feats of hydro-engineering that are displayed in the state’s largest reservoirs like Shasta, Oroville, and Folsom. Although environmentally controversial, electricity produced from dams cost substantially less and produce less GHG emissions than many other sources currently in use.
Although more environmentally friendly sources of electricity increased such as solar and wind, power managers throughout the state were still shackled by a lack of overall power, forcing them to rely on natural gas power plants. This reliance on natural gas ended up increasing total greenhouse gas emission from power plants by nearly 10 percent, or 24.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide between 2012 and 2016. To put this into perspective, it is equivalent to adding an additional 2.2 million more cars to California’s highways over that time.[4]
“There are lots of impacts of the drought and we’re just beginning to understand what the impacts were, and they’re not negligible,” Gleick commented. “And in fact, all California ratepayers were affected by the drought as they paid for electricity that was both dirtier and more expensive than in non-drought years.”[5]
[1] Rogers, Paul. New Study: California drought increased electricity bills and air pollution. The Mercury News, April 26, 2017. Web.
[2] The Pacific Institute. $2.45 Billion in Increased Electricity Costs During California’s Five-Year Drought. The Pacific Institute, May 22, 2017. Web.
http://pacinst.org/news/2-45-billion-increased-electricity-costs-californias-five-year-drought/
[3] Rogers. New Study: California drought increased electricity bills and air pollution.
[4] Rogers. New Study: California drought increased electricity bills and air pollution.
[5] Kasler, Dale. California’s drought is over, but we’re still toting up the costs. The Sacramento Bee, April 26, 2017. Web.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article146786244.html
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