California Is Forced to Import More Electricity Than Any Other State Because of Its Insane Green Energy Policies

Guest Post by Ronald Stein P.E. and Gene A. Nelson, Ph.D.

Over the years, the so-called forward-thinking policymakers in California have achieved questionable results:

• California’s high cost of electricity is already more than 80 percent higher than the national average for residential and commercial, more than 140 percent for commercial, and is projected to go even higher.

• California imports more electricity than any other US state, more than twice the amount of Virginia, the second-largest importer of electricity. California typically receives between one-fifth and one-third of its electricity supply from outside the state, mostly from out-of-state coal-fired power plants.

• California now has the second–highest rate of unemployment.

• California has lagging job growth.

• California has roughly half of the nation’s homeless population.

The same policymakers who have achieved the above “low” points for the residents of California are the same ones seeking zero-emission targets for the State, while concurrently attempting to shutter its only zero-emission electricity-generating plant!

Diablo Canyon Power Plant by Tracey Adams - https://www.flickr.com/photos/bikracer/2542010478/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87029660

California prides itself on being a good environmental steward. However, since 2014, Warren Buffett’s PacifiCorp has sold almost a billion dollars of electricity at wholesale to California, mostly from coal-fired electricity generation sites outside of California. PacifiCorp’s lobbying has successfully introduced corruption into California energy policies.

The independent nonprofit intervenor Californians for Green Nuclear Power’s (CGNP’s) filings link this large volume of PacifiCorp power with post-2012 sales to Southern California Edison (SCE) of “unspecified power.” (Unspecified power is a California-specific legal euphemism created in 2010 that mostly applies to out-of-state coal-fired power.)

Unspecified power from out-of-state coal-fired power plants has largely replaced the pollution-free power that SCE previously obtained from San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), which was closed at the end of January 2012 instead of being cost-effectively repaired after a mismanaged routine service operation.

Californians for Green Nuclear Power (CGNP) believes that PacifiCorp supplies most of the unspecified power imported from out-of-state coal-fired power plants that SCE currently sells.

• PacifiCorp is a power company that has customers in California, Oregon, and Washington. They have spent $2 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, and more than $5 million in total for 2023, making PacifiCorp’s gargantuan lobbying expenditures for 2023 and 2024 the fifth-largest spender for the year. This spending pace continues in 2025 at the state and federal levels.

• It appears that PacifiCorp is likely to achieve its huge California wholesale business objective through massive lobbying that influences policymakers.

• Although PacifiCorp has a negligible retail footprint in California, the firm has typically spent more on lobbying in recent years than the much larger Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E).

• PacifiCorp’s expenditures on direct lobbying of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) are concerning. The California Constitution assigns all legal disputes involving California public utilities to the CPUC. Thus, these direct lobbying expenditures can influence CPUC decisions that are of interest to PacifiCorp.

Despite intense recent lobbying from Warren Buffett’s PacifiCorp – likely focused on shutting down Diablo Canyon Power Plant (DCPP) so Warren’s coal-fired power plants in and around Wyoming can supply even more electricity to California, which already imports more electricity than any other US state

For power source diversity and efforts to reduce imported electricity from out-of-state coal-fired power plants, California should keep the Diablo Canyon Power Plant (DCPP) running to provide affordable, safe, reliable, continuous, uninterrupted, emissions-free electricity. Nuclear power also requires the least amount of the Earth’s natural resources to generate that electricity.

California already financially supports human atrocities and environmental degradation in poor countries to support the materialistic supply chain needs of the so-called renewable electricity and EV batteries.

PacifiCorp has successfully lobbied California to import a large quantity of its electricity from its out-of-state coal power plants that support California’s high cost of electricity.

Reposted from America Out Loud News.

Ronald Stein, P.E. is an engineer, energy consultant, speaker, author of books and articles on energy, environmental policy, and human rights.

Gene A. Nelson, Ph.D. in radiation biophysics from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He was recognized by the American Nuclear Society with a Presidential Citation for his tenacious advocacy for the extended operations of Diablo Canyon Power Plant (DCPP) near San Luis Obispo, California.

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