California power grid in crisis: warns of rolling blackouts, residents asked to stop charging electric cars the week after passing a law to ban gas-powered cars

California electricity regulators declared a “Flex Alert” on Wednesday, asking consumers to conserve electricity voluntarily between 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. due to a shortage of power, as the state faced the possibility of rolling blackouts over the next several days.

As Breitbart News reported earlier this week, the California Independent System Operator warned that there could be Flex Alerts through Labor Day due to energy shortages as a heat wave — with no particular end in sight — swept across the western U.S.

Residents were asked not to use major appliances and to refrain from charging electric vehicles — a particularly ironic instruction, given that state regulators had just approved plans to ban almost all gasoline-powered vehicles and require electric vehicles by 2035.

The state lacks sufficient energy during peak demand because the wind and solar power required by “green” energy mandates cannot keep up with demand, and the state has been closing natural gas and nuclear power plants without replacing the lost power capacity.