Posted on 01/14/2019 7:51:24 AM PST by C19fan
“PG & E caused these fires like Smith & Wesson caused somebody to shoot themselves.”
To a degree. The power lines that failed in the massive windstorms of 2017 and 2018 were pre-existing in the same form for decades. There was no state regulation requiring that they be upgraded, nor was there a rule for the utility to trim trees and vegetation to a greater degree than had been done over these decades.
The places that burned in Northern California were on the whole Republican rural or distant-suburb districts, traditionally Republican. Paradise CA for instance is in Butte County, which votes largely Republican.
THe article is very uninformative about how their equipment causes wildfires. I speculate in part it is because they are not allowed to cut trees and clear brush near their equipment, and part because as a california utility they are probably spending all their money on stopping global warming and making sure customers with solar panels can sell power back to the grid.
Good comments.
I think though that the preponderance of opinion amongst the 63 million Trump voters is that LIBERAL Forest Management policies, that in some or most cases are insane, is the primary culprit for these never ending California fires.
You know, on an airliner, if we passengers put a child in the pilots seat in mid flight we would crash and there is no doubt about it.
Enact insane forest management practices while electing a child (Brown) to be in charge and then move thousands of people into a forested area and your going to have a disaster...……...again, no doubt about it. It is just my hope that Trump slams the door on the Dims in California and makes “them” pay for it not “us”.
I thought it was Trumps fault?
“and then move thousands of people into a forested area”
Well, arguably the population of these counties has in recent history been flat or rising only very slowly.
Rural California hit a population wall in the 1990s, one reason, in the North, being the decline of the forestry business after regulation. More logging=more people most likely.
High voltage power lines in a windstorm over-spec for their design.
The winds will knock down poles, break lines directly, or blow branches and other debris into them. This will cause sparking and start fires. A very old problem in California. The current situation is just a matter of degree.
The problem is less about compliance with tree-trimming and brush clearing, which is regulated and inspected (and these and compliance with them have been a long-standing issue with the CA PUC), than it is that the level of trimming and clearing, the standards that were applied, was insufficient to prevent these failures under circumstances that were beyond previous experience.
And beyond that the vulnerability of the environment to a fire caused by power line failure was vastly greater than previously experienced. Once a fire was started it caused far more damage than previous experience.
So how does a grocery store owner afford to send his kid to U of M ,? and then afford to go onto nova southeastern? While not Ivy League schools both are very expensive! Maybe they had a little help from Uncle Sam.
So my kids can’t afford a local community college this person gets the benefits of our tax dollars.
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