Will Californias Energy Grid and Governor Gavin Newsom be harmed by an early heat wave?
Californias electricity grid operators are cautiously confident about their capacity to keep the states grid from overheating during the first heat wave of the summer, a promising sign for Governor Gavin Newsom as he defends his government against a targeted recall effort. Californias energy problem in the early 2000s was a major factor in former Governor Gray Davis recall, which he lost to Arnold Schwarzenegger in October 2003. Despite the fact that the states power grid is expected to be stressed this summer, Democratic strategist Garry South, who ran Davis successful gubernatorial campaigns in 1998 and 2002, told This website that he believes summer power outages will have little impact on Newsoms chances of winning a recall. The international aspect of Newsoms battle with the coronavirus pandemic, according to South, was a crucial contrast between his troubles and the California-centric issues Davis had to deal with earlier this year. Voters, including many Democrats, saw [Davis] as failing to handle the electrical problem that we had in 2000, particularly in 2001, South told This website. However, that was a single-state crisis.  The fact that the virus has spread across the country is crucial, he said. That is the key distinction between the catastrophe that brought Davis down and the pandemic issue that Newsom has been dealing with for the past year, South explained. This is a national issue that affects every state and every governor, regardless of political affiliation.  The coronavirus outbreak and the resulting economic shutdowns have been blamed by organizers of the Recall Gavin Newsom movement for boosting their efforts to assemble recall supporters. Californias official reopening was marked on Tuesday with a press conference honoring the states vaccination rollout, which saw more doses provided than any other state and 72 percent of the adult population receive at least one dose. However, as pandemic fears faded, the summer heat began to wreak havoc on California residents, who last year saw the states first heat-related power outages since the early 2000s. Dozens (perhaps hundreds) of daily record high maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be set during the following few days, according to the National Weather Service. This is a condensed version of the information.