Your face may be dry, but it will be in the dark. There is quite simply NO KNOWN TECHNOLOGY that can cost effectively meet peak demands other than fossil fuel plants. The people that build the natural gas peaker plants that California will MUST have for grid stability will make a fortune, and be painted as the "bad brown energy guys" even though they'll actually be saving the entire grid from collapse.
Citation of how much quicker utility battery storage can react to frequency response needs: https://electrek.co/2018/04/09/tesla-giant-battery-system-pr... (Tesla’s giant battery system gets praised by energy market operator: ‘rapid, accurate, and valuable’)
In America, there is a perception that our self-worth is dependent on our jobs. To you, fossil fuels are filthy and environmentally dangerous (they are). To those who work in the industry, it's a way of supporting themselves, their families, and it's a craft (and associated skills) they might be proud of (roughnecks on an oil field, product pipe installers/maintainers, coal/steam/natural gas installers/maintenance techs/operators).
So, like all issues, it's not black and white, but many shades of gray. Our jobs are not who we are, and we need systems in place to help transition those who are in industries that are harmful and in their sunset period to industries that have a future, while ensuring these new jobs provide enough compensation that people can live.
> If my opinions applied to power production, I'd be proud to help decom a coal plant and install a brand spanking new nuclear or solar plant
Would you feel the same way if you went from making $100k /year to $50k/year doing this? That's part of the problem. You have to be okay taking a substantial paycut, or losing your job entirely, when you decomm the previous system. Not that same as doing so when you're a software engineer.
Single income in your family and having to start out from scratch? Of course people are going to cling to their chance at a middle class life by their fingernails in a fossil industry job.
