PUT NOT YOUR FAITH IN ALLOCATION CZARS.

It seems like no matter how many times I warn you, there's always going to be somebody who screws it up.

Last November, Gov. Gavin Newsom named his cabinet secretary Ana Matosantos the new state “Energy Czar.” Gov. Newsom is on record that Ana is a “genius” and a person of “unrivaled professional accomplishment.” Whatever Matosantos did since November failed to prevent the current round of rolling blackouts. That should come as no surprise.

Matosantos has a degree in political science and feminist studies but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed her state finance director, a post more suitable for a proven expert with advanced degrees in economics. Blacked out Californians might also wonder about her energy experience.

My Chicago Boyz colleague David Foster has already noted parallels between California's current troubles and the plot of Arthur Hailey's Overload. I never expected to invoke a Kurt Schlichter novel in a post about energy policies, but that "political science and feminist studies" is spot on (and the power goes off.)

In California, though, showing fealty to Gaia matters more than reliable power to the tract houses.

In a particularly obtuse report on NPR's Morning Edition [August 19], Union of Concerned Scientists energy analyst Mark Specht asserted, "the solution is definitely not more natural gas plants. Really if anything this is an indication that California should speed up its investments in clean energy and energy storage."

NPR reporter Lauren Sommer followed up by observing, "After all, he [Specht] said climate change is making heat waves worse, so burning more fossil fuels to deal with that is somewhat counterproductive."

Completely ignored in the reporting is that California has been shutting down a huge source of safe, reliable, always-on, non-carbon dioxide–emitting, climate-friendly electricity—that is, nuclear power. In 2013, state regulators forced the closing of the San Onofre nuclear power plant that supplied electricity to 1.4 million households. By 2025, California regulators plan to close down the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant that can supply electricity to 3 million households.

The problem of climate change, along with the blackouts resulting from the inherent vagaries of wind and solar power, are an indication that California should not only keep its nuclear power plants running but also build many more of them.

Let the record show, first, that any organization using "concerned" in its title is attempting to hide its real (and more dangerous) wishes behind an anodyne title.  Such is the leper's bell of people who affect to trade for the (it's never a singular noun, dear reader) public interest.

Then consider, dear reader, what is going to happen in Illinois, where Facebook are building a large data center just south of DeKalb, which they hope to power with a wind farm, while Exelon are going to close two nuclear generating stations in the next year or so.