Posted on 12/08/2019 3:33:15 PM PST by karpov
...
PG&E’s collapse has exposed the California Public Utilities Commission’s failure to hold the utility accountable on safety. The CPUC for years focused attention elsewhere, on setting rates and pushing for cleaner power.
Now, the agency tasked with regulating utility safety is struggling to refocus on the issue while also grappling with its failure to prevent the state’s second electricity crisis in two decades.
“The PUC is reactive,” says Janice Grau, a retired administrative law judge for the commission. Of the weather patterns that led to deadly power-line failures and blackouts, she says: “There wasn’t anyone at the PUC who had the idea to look at the Diablo Winds and say that maybe this is going to get worse.”
Behind the CPUC’s failure to ensure a safe PG&E lie a number of political mandates from California’s leadership, skimpy financial and personnel resources for safety, and an internal culture that ceded much safety oversight to the utilities themselves, say former commissioners, academics and industry experts.
The commission’s detractors say it has been excessively cozy with PG&E and the other companies it is supposed to regulate, with a revolving door of staffers shuttling between the regulator and utilities. The companies, meanwhile, have long been among the biggest political players in Sacramento, showering money on Democrats and Republicans alike and helping write the state laws that are meant to govern their behavior.
Utility commissioners, appointed by California’s governors, have focused much of the past two decades on implementing politicians’ increasingly ambitious goals to reduce the state’s carbon footprint by requiring utilities to buy more wind and solar power.
Those efforts were largely successful in pushing the utilities toward renewable power, turning California into a green-energy leader.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
The fires are a perfect storm of idiots.
The commission focused on their ideological climate follies and low rates. The pols on their socialist green agenda and pandering to their wealthy liberal owners. The green movement court battles to ensure their madness is forced on everyone even if it defies common sense and logic.
However none of them will take blame and they will continue to be egotistical selfish jerks and destroy California.
So, the Democrat politicians in California have been greedy and stupid.
Vote Democrat!
they are all so knowing that none of them will learn anything from this tragedy...
Low rates? We have some of the highest rates in the country.
Leftists make everything more difficult and dangerous.
In other words, it is not politically correct, like installing solar panels and turning farms into dust to save a few minnows.
“The commission focused on their ideological climate follies and low rates”
Surely you jest.
“The CPUC for years focused attention elsewhere, on setting rates and pushing for cleaner power.”
And failing in both while ignoring safety.
FINALLY
“Low rates? We have some of the highest rates in the country”
hey, just think how much higher rates would be if the CPUC wasn’t focused on low rates! ;-)
Hard to imagine a more corrupted agency imho. Awful just awful
Maybe they should try proper land management.
Actually, you might be surprised at how much of California’s electrical energy is supplied by renewables:
https://ww2.energy.ca.gov/almanac/electricity_data/total_system_power.html
According to the table at the link, solar and wind each generate slightly more electrical energy that either nuclear or oil.
Natural gas is well and away the largest single source of electrical energy generation at 35%.
But all renewable sources combined contribute 31%. The high percentage surprised me when I looked it up. I had wrongly assumed the percentage would be much lower.
These are government numbers, so appropriate caution in accepting/adopting them is necessary. (Especially when they don’t know the source of 10% of their power generation.)
“But all renewable sources combined contribute 31%. The high percentage surprised me when I looked it up. I had wrongly assumed the percentage would be much lower.”
About 10% of that is imported from out of state. As for nuclear, they’ve shut down most plants and forbid the building of new ones.
And we’re paying around 30cents per KWh (and going higher) once you get past the basic survival rate tier . Most other western states are paying around 10cents/KWh.
I have nothing against solar or wind, I’m for “all the above”, whatever works and is competitive. But here in California the environuts have taken the cheaper options out of the equation.
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