The Lights Go Out in NewsomCity in NewsomState

San Francisco is the center of the world AI revolution. AI needs electricity. Yet over the weekend NewsomCity, the jewel of NewsomState, couldn’t keep the lights on, or the self-driving Waymo cars of Google running on the potholed roads.

The top three AI companies in the world now are OpenAI/ChatGPT 5.2 and Anthropic/Claude, both in NewsomCity, and Google/Gemini 3, just south in Silicon Valley. Other top NewsomCity AI firms are: Databricks, Thinking Machnes Lab, Harvey AI, Exa.ai, Chorus.ai and Grammerly. More AI startups sprout there, and in the Valley, every day.

They need power, lots of power. But Governor Gavin Newsom has spent his whole career attacking Big Oil and mandating all vehicles purchased in California must be electric by 2035. Which would mean more power diverted from AI – and street lights in NewsomCity. But it turns out that isn’t going to happen. EV sales in Q3 amounted to 29.1% of sales, up from 26.9% in Q3 2023, boasted Newsom’s office. That’s because the federal tax credit of up to $7,500 expired at the end of September and car buyers wanted to cash in. Sales likely will drop in Q4. 

Newsom also is involved in a legal wrangle with President Donald Trump, who in June rescinded NewsomState’s federal waivers allowing the EV mandate. Newsom then responded on June 12, as described by his office: 

Governor Gavin Newsom today signed an executive order doubling down on the state’s efforts to transition away from fossil fuels. This action builds on the lawsuit Governor Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta filed earlier today against the Trump administration to protect California’s clean air authority.

Conveniently, Newsom leaves office in a year. Even if Trump loses the legal battle, Newsom’s successor will be forced to face reality and reduce the mandates as 2035 approaches.

Despite the feces all over the streets, the petty crime and the city’s general dilapidation, NewsomCity remains an incredibly wealthy city – for those who can afford it. According to Zillow, the average house price is $1.2 million. Average rent is $3,500. On the positive side, the city’s famous balmy weather means, if the electrons die in the winter and your electric heater fails, you won’t freeze to death like in New York City; and in the summer, if the AC doesn’t work, you won’t burn up like in Phoenix.

As to AI, like it or not it’s here to stay, in a big way. Our main competitor is China. And they are building electric generation like gangbusters, from any and all sources. Elon Musk posted this:

That’s one of the reasons many Tech Bros. backed Trump in 2024: He understands we need energy – “Drill baby drill!” – including energy to generate electricity. The other reason they backed him, as Marc Andreesen recounted, is this. At a spring 2024 meeting Biden-Harris officials explained the government would control AI. TechCrunch reported on Andreesen:

He walked away believing they endorsed having the government control AI to the point of being market makers, allowing only a couple of companies who cooperated with the government to thrive. He felt they discouraged his investments in AI. “They actually said flat out to us, ‘don’t do AI startups like, don’t fund AI startups,’” he said.

Back to Newsom. Here’s his career: 

1997-2004: Member of the SF Board of Supervisors;

2004-2011: SF mayor;

2011-2019: Lieutenant governor of California;

2019-present: Governor of California.

If anybody is responsible for San Francisco’s blackouts, it’s him. Likewise for California’s electricity costs being so high. For December, according to EnergyBot, the average California residential price is 32.04 cents/kWh, 77% higher than the national average of 18.07 cent. And it’s nearly triple neighbor Nevada’s 11.95 cents.

During the weekend NFL games, my enjoyment was ruined by my hometown Detroit Lions losing and, worse, by ads for Tom Steyer for governor in 2026. The multi-billionaire oil industry oligarch blabbed: 

Californians pay about TWICE as much for electricity as the national average. The answer is to end utility monopolies. By introducing competition, we’re going to lower prices and improve services.

But Steyer himself, after Newsom, bears responsibility. As was reported by Susan Shelley, my colleague at the Southern California News Group:

It won’t help Steyer that the policies he has pushed to cut greenhouse gas emissions have led to higher electricity rates, higher transportation costs and an end to suburban single-family home construction (because commuting is blamed for climate change). He brags that he went after “Big Oil,” but now that anti-oil policies have led to the closure of two more refineries, he may want to take that off his resume before he’s blamed for $8-a-gallon gasoline.

At the national level, the Democrats are just as bad. Sen. Bernie Sanders ranted on X:

In the next two years, AI data centers will not only cause electric bills to soar, but are expected to generate the same emissions as driving over 300 billion miles — or 1,600 round trips to the sun from Earth. We need a moratorium on the construction of new AI data centers.

Below his words is a video of local citizens concerned about the noise from AI centers. That’s a problem that needs to be addressed. 

In the next two years, AI data centers will not only cause electric bills to soar, but are expected to generate the same emissions as driving over 300 billion miles — or 1,600 round trips to the sun from Earth.

We need a moratorium on the construction of new AI data centers. pic.twitter.com/ePCljSSseT

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) December 17, 2025

But the solution to AI using so much electricity is to build multiples new power plants of all sorts: nuclear, hydro, solar, windmill and, yes, coal. That’s what China is doing, as well as fellow giants India and Indonesia. Here’s a chart Bjorn Lomborg posted:

And Lomborg posted this chart showing global renewable generation today is just 14% of electricity. 

It’s increasing so slowly the 100% goal won’t be reached until 2392. That’s a century after Captain Kirk and the USS Enterprise begin their five-year mission in 2265 “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” By then, infinite energy will be derived from dilithium crystals.

Let me conclude by saying again: Either America builds and builds and builds electricity plants to power AI, or China will rule AI, and the world.