California
California’s power grid stood up to a recent heat wave but summer is far from over
A persistent heat wave that scorched most of California earlier this month essentially amounted to a real-time stress test that the state’s electric grid managed to withstand. But the head of the organization responsible for keeping the lights on says energy officials are still on alert as the summer wears on.
“We are generally well prepared” to avoid potential power outages, said Elliot Mainzer, president of the California Independent System Operator. “We’ve taken important steps to bring new clean energy and capacity onto the system, but we must stay diligent.”
As the Independence Day weekend approached, hot weather descended on the Golden State, with residents in Northern California suffering the brunt. Sacramento hit a high of 113 degrees on July 6, setting a city record for that date.
Though not as severe, parts of Southern California sweltered as well. In the deserts of San Diego County, temperatures hovered around 120 degrees in Borrego Springs and Ocotillo Wells on July 8.
Heat waves strain the electric grid because homes and businesses crank up their air conditioners, putting pressure on system operators to meet the surge in demand.
To make matters worse, the hot weather lasted 14 days and bled into neighboring states.
On July 10, the Western Interconnection that helps coordinate electricity between 14 states in the West (including all of California) plus northern Baja California, British Columbia and Alberta hit an all-time record of 167,988 megawatts for peak load.
But the California Independent System Operator, known as the CAISO for short, did not resort to issuing any Flex Alerts — requests of customers across the state to voluntarily reduce their energy use.
On July 8, for example, CAISO operators had about 55,000 megawatts of supply on hand to meet an estimated demand of just over 43,000 megawatts — a fairly comfortable cushion of around 12,000 megawatts.
The elbow room was due in large part to capacity that’s been added to California’s grid in recent years.
The state has added nearly 11,600 megawatts of new grid resources since 2022. Of that amount, energy storage from batteries accounts for 5,800 megawatts.
Storage facilities take solar power generated during the day and discharge the electricity when California’s power system is under the most stress.
The batteries “did exactly what we expected them to do” during this month’s heat wave, Mainzer told the Union-Tribune. “They charged during the day when solar is abundant and put energy back onto the grid in the afternoon when solar production is rolling off the system … They were clearly a difference maker.”
It should be noted that the costs of building storage systems — and other grid enhancements — are passed on to utility customers in their monthly bills.
During this month’s heat wave, multiple wildfires broke out in Northern California but they did not affect major power lines or distribution and transmission infrastructure that feed into the grid.
System operators were not so lucky three years ago.
The Bootleg Fire in Oregon in July 2021 tripped a major transmission line called the California-Oregon Intertie that carries imported electricity from the Pacific Northwest into California. The fire knocked about 3,500 megawatts off the system at the same time stifling weather blanketed the area.
“Every event and every set of facts is different,” Mainzer said.
The threat of statewide power outages has taken on a higher level of urgency in recent years.
In August 2020, rotating outages in California occurred for the first time in 20 years after oppressive heat nearly overloaded the system for two straight days. The blackouts caused some areas to go without electricity for up to 2 1/2 hours.
The Golden State barely avoided a repeat the following summer. In September 2022, it nearly happened again when relentlessly high temperatures nearly buckled the grid. The CAISO issued a record 10 straight days of Flex Alerts and thanked utility customers afterward for helping save the day by cutting back on energy use from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Those are critical hours for California’s power grid because solar production quickly disappears from the grid when the sun sets and system operators must seamlessly replace those megawatts of solar with other energy sources in real time to make sure the power system doesn’t collapse.
September can get tricky for the CAISO because the weather is still hot so customers keep running their air conditioners. But since autumn is approaching, the sun sets earlier in the day and that means there are fewer hours of solar generation the power system can draw on.
Other complicating factors?
If wildfires break out, the smoke from the blazes can obscure the skies and that leads to a reduction in solar output.
And if a heat wave extends to neighboring states, that can lead to reductions of imports and exports in power trading markets. States under stress tend to hold onto the megawatts they already have so they can keep electricity flowing to their own utility customers and not export them elsewhere.
The system is interconnected and complicated but Mainzer is cautiously optimistic.
“The four-hour lithium-ion battery fleet that we’ve got in California is now the largest of anywhere in the world, outside of China,” he said.
Last year, the CAISO issued zero Flex Alerts. Can that be repeated this summer?
“If we have another set of unprecedented circumstances that take the system to its absolute outer edge — both here in California and other parts of the West — then it’s possible to call Flex Alerts,” Mainzer said. “I couldn’t put a probability on it, but it’s certainly a possibility. We always try to minimize those but it is a tool in the toolbox.”
The CAISO manages the flow of electricity across the high-voltage power lines for about 80 percent of the state, plus a small part of Nevada.
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As the nation prepares for its 250th Independence Day celebration, a decades-long California Fourth of July fireworks tradition that has raised millions for local children’s programs is going dark this year after the California Coastal Commission rejected a final effort to keep it alive, citing environmental concerns to protect the bay.
“We’ve raised over the past 14 years $2 million for kids programs here in Long Beach,” event organizer John Morris told Fox News Digital, adding the July 3 event is fully funded by the local community.
“This community pays for everything — everything. City fees, and the city doesn’t give us a break. We pay $20,000 to the city for police and fire, which I’m fine with, because there’s 100,000 people enjoying the fireworks,” said Morris, a Long Beach resident and business owner.
Morris, who owns the Boathouse on the Bay restaurant, had planned a scaled-up fireworks display this year to mark America’s 250th Independence Day.
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Long Beach residents have enjoyed the fireworks organized by John Morris for over a decade. (Scott Varley/MediaNews Group/Torrance Daily Breeze via Getty Images)
In January, Coastal Commission staff rejected the proposal, and last week commissioners unanimously upheld that decision despite an appeal backed by local, state and federal officials.
Regulators warned Morris last year that 2025 would likely be the final year for fireworks at the event, as they continue pushing organizers to switch to drone shows they say are more environmentally friendly.
The decision stands in contrast to other approvals by the commission, including a permit granted to SeaWorld allowing up to 40 nights of fireworks.
“They get 40 nights in Mission Bay. All I’m asking for is 20 minutes — it doesn’t make any sense,” Morris said.
Morris, 78, also pushed back on the environmental concerns cited by the commission, pointing to years of testing around the event.
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Due to the lack of fireworks, Morris has decided to cancel the July 3rd celebration.
“We’ve had 10 years of environmental studies,” Morris said. “We test the water before and after the fireworks and send a robotic camera into the bay to check for debris — there’s never been any. It’s been spotless.
“We’ve also had eight years of bird reports to make sure we’re not harming wildlife. We’ve never had an issue. We’ve never been written up one time. So what is it really about?”
Joshua Smith, a spokesman for the California Coastal Commission, told Fox News Digital that permits are determined on a case-by-case basis, citing environmental concerns to “protect the bay.”
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Organizer John Morris said environmental studies are regularly conducted to measure the impact of the fireworks show on the bay. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Smith said Morris was approved for a permit to hold a drone show in lieu of fireworks. Morris told Fox News Digital such a show would cost about $200,000 — roughly four times more than traditional fireworks.
Smith confirmed that SeaWorld received a permit allowing 40 nights of fireworks. When pressed on the discrepancy, he reiterated that decisions are made individually and declined to provide further details.
Morris said the loss of the fireworks show will be felt across the community, from local businesses to families who have made the event an annual tradition.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the wide-open race for California governor, billionaire Tom Steyer is on a spending binge.
The hedge fund manager-turned-liberal activist is using his personal fortune to saturate TV screens and mobile phones with advertising, while his competitors accuse him of trying to use his vast wealth to buy the state’s most powerful job.
Steyer’s ads — in which he promises to bring down household costs or rails against federal immigration raids — appear inescapable at times in heavily Democratic Los Angeles, the state’s largest media market. Data compiled by advertising tracker AdImpact show Steyer has spent or booked over $115 million in ads for broadcast TV, cable and radio — nearly 30 times the amount of his nearest Democratic rival.
If he makes it through the June 2 primary election, Steyer could easily eclipse the 2010 record set by Republican Meg Whitman, who spent $178.5 million in a losing bid for governor, much of it her own money. At the time, it was the costliest campaign for statewide office in the nation’s history.
Even when ad buys from all his major competitors are combined, along with ad purchases by independent committees supporting candidates, Steyer is outspending the field by tens of millions of dollars.
“Billionaire money is flooding our state in an attempt to buy this election,” former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, one of Steyer’s chief rivals, warned her supporters this month.
Mail-in ballots are set to go out to voters next month. Steyer is among a crowd of candidates hoping to seize a spotlight after former Democratic U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell’s dramatic departure from the race following sexual assault allegations that he denies.
But while Steyer has ticked up in polling amid his spending splurge, he has not broken away from the field, leaving some wondering if he’s getting value for his dollars.
“If your first round of ads doesn’t move you dramatically (in the polls), the third, fourth, fifth, six, seventh and eighth rounds won’t either,” said veteran Democratic strategist Bill Carrick, who for years advised the late Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “There is something inherently holding Steyer back.”
In recent prior campaigns for governor, at this stage a leading candidate was taking control of the race. This year, voters appear to be shrugging at a contest that lacks a star candidate among seven leading Democrats and two Republicans.
“Somehow the campaign is frozen,” Carrick added.
History shows that money doesn’t always translate into votes.
Billionaire developer Rick Caruso spent over $100 million in 2022 in his bid to become Los Angeles mayor, much of it his own money, but he was handily defeated by Mayor Karen Bass, who spent a fraction of Caruso’s total. Billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent more than $1 billion of his own money on his 2020 presidential bid before dropping out. And Steyer’s money was unable to lift him into contention in the 2020 presidential contest, when he dropped out early in the year after a poor finish in the South Carolina primary.
Steyer has never held elected office.
In a 2019 interview with The Associated Press, Steyer was asked what he would say to people who think he’s trying to buy the presidency.
“I don’t think that’s possible,” Steyer said at the time, before adding, “I’m never going to apologize for succeeding in business. That’s America, right?”
His campaign did not respond directly when asked about similar criticism facing his run for governor.
“Tom now stands as the only Democrat with the grassroots energy, institutional backing and resources to advance to the general election,” spokesperson Kevin Liao said in a statement.
The governor’s race was recently reordered by two developments: Swalwell, a leading Democrat, abruptly withdrew from the race then resigned from Congress, following sexual assault allegations. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump endorsed conservative commentator Steve Hilton.
Still, there is no clear leader.
Polling in late March and early April by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found a cluster of candidates in close competition: Democrats Steyer and Porter, Republicans Hilton and Chad Bianco, and Swalwell. Other candidates were trailing. The polling was conducted before Swalwell withdrew.
Democrats have feared the party’s large number of candidates could lead to them getting shut out of the general election in November. That’s because California has a primary system in which only the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party.
Leading Democrats are all claiming to have picked up support since Swalwell’s exit. Steyer nabbed one plum endorsement, when the influential California Teachers Association, which previously backed Swalwell, recommended him.
In his ads, Steyer promises to “abolish” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been staging raids across California. In another, he laments the state’s punishing cost of housing, “Everybody needs an affordable place to live,” he says.
Rapper was stabbed 16 times by fellow inmate in May 2025 while 10-year sentence in Megan Thee Stallion shooting case
Tory Lanez has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections stemming from a May 2025 incident where the rapper was stabbed in prison.
Lanez — born Daystar Peterson and currently serving a 10-year sentence after being found guilty in the Megan Thee Stallion shooting case — also sued the warden and guards at the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi, where the rapper was stabbed 16 times in an “unprovoked life-threatening attack” by another inmate, the lawsuit states.
Peterson was hospitalized following the May 2025 incident, suffering a collapsed lung among stab wounds to his back, torso, and head.
According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit criticized the Department of Corrections for housing Peterson with fellow inmate and alleged attacker Santino Casio, who was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder. “The choice to house Casio with Peterson was known or should have been a known danger,” the lawsuit said, adding that Tory Lanez’ “high-profile celebrity status” made him a target.
The lawsuit also said that prison guards were slow to respond to the shanking, and didn’t employ flash grenades or other measures to halt Casio’s attack.; Casio was not charged for stabbing Peterson, the Associated Press notes.
Lanez, who following his hospitalization was transferred to San Luis Obispo County’s California Men’s Colony, also alleges in the lawsuit that he never received his possessions from the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi, including songbooks filled with lyrics to his unreleased music.
Lanez is serving a 10-year prison sentence for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot during a confrontation in the summer of 2020. He was eventually convicted on several firearms charges, including assault with a firearm, in December 2022. In November 2025, his appeal was denied by a three-judge panel, and the 10-year sentence was upheld.
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