Joe Biden wants 100% clean energy. Will California show that it’s possible?

Solar panels track the morning sun at Rosamond Central, a newly completed 192-megawatt solar farm developed by Clearway Energy Group in California’s Kern County, on Feb. 4, 2021, with wind turbines in the background. “People won’t want to buy electric hot water heaters for their homes because boiling natural gas is clearly cheaper.” Yet the Independent System Operator — the agency responsible for initiating rolling blackouts when the need arises, as it did in August — has continued to criticize the utilities commission’s clean energy infrastructure planning as so insufficient that it may undermine California’s ability to avoid blackouts and achieve its ambitious climate goals. “We’re very frustrated with the lack of serious planning for offshore wind in California,” said Nancy Rader, executive director of the California Wind Energy Assn., an industry trade group. Analysts at the energy research firm Wood Mackenzie say meeting the new president’s lofty ambition would require “hockey-stick growth in offshore wind.” Biden also promised to create millions of clean energy jobs — and organized labor sees offshore wind as a good fit. Asked about those letters, Newsom spokeswoman Erin Mellon said in an email that the governor had “emphasized the need to meet the state’s clean energy goals.” She also noted California’s role in launching a task force “to bring together state, local, federal agencies and tribal governments to advance offshore wind including to open up offshore lease areas.” Gov.