Posted on 10/13/2019 6:59:58 AM PDT by janetjanet998
AN FRANCISCO — It was a problem that California had come to dread. Weather models were signaling extreme winds and dry conditions from one end of the state to the other. The risk of wildfires was high.
Pacific Gas & Electric, the giant utility whose power lines and transformers have been blamed for a series of disastrous wildfires in recent years, was determined to prevent another one. Just before last weekend, the company informed state officials that it might shut off power to a large area of Northern California, potentially leaving millions of people in the dark — something no United States utility had done in recent memory. It made that news public on Monday.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Memory from my childhood. Did they not use to cut power in South Florida when the hurricane winds hit a certain speed back in the early 70s?
Not sure if I am remembering correctly.
Isn’t the term “investor owned utility” an oxymoron?
Yawn. California can cry for sympathy after they restore belts of cleared agricultural land to break up the maximum size of the fires and clear out the underbrush.
Thats a prerequisite, they’ve been told to fix their stupid for fourty years by people from responsible states, and their problems are largely self inflicted.
He should have had backup power. As should anyone where mains power is a life or death issue because mains power availability is not assured under any circumstances.
Out power company does a power outage prevention program for Ice storms. They will trim tree back from the power lines here. That has help us in SC a lot, since they started doing it.
It is such a lie.
“Keep your fuel tanks full”, unless you have a Tesla...
This company is guilty of premeditated murder. I believe that northern California is the conservative part of that state, is it not? Was this an exercise in how the coming civil war will be carried out? Cut off their power, isolate them, and then what?
Neither was forcing power generation out of your state but you did it anyway.
Untrue as a blanket statement, it depends on the state. With netmetering excess solar power production is either paid for or credited at the wholesale rate.
It’s corroboration for all of the research articles published in scientific journals that describe observations and add “because of climate change” in the discussion of what caused the observed phenomenon. Fungus killing bats in the northeast? Climate change. Bee colonies dying off? Climate change. Epidemic of cholera in South America? Global warming. (Hey, someone has to go against the tide.)
Try this in Texas and they would plow broad swaths in fields and pastures, backfire between them, and minimize the potential size of the fires.
Not that the fires could be so intense since we clear out the underbrush.
We have the dryness. We have the wind.
We don’t have the irresponsible lend management.
Well, except to the extent that California imports got the zoning laws changed in a lot of places so they can build developments of two story McMansions side by side so fire can leap between them. Welcome to Conflagration Acres.
Then what? They’ll light a match...
Many of the internet comments blame the family. Makes me sick. The man had a backup and they had a generator. Because the power loss was during his sleep by the time he awoke he was too feeble to get to the spare tank. It seems as though commenters are suggesting that this family should have been prepared for every contingency with alarms & automatic backup. That is akin to saying that there can be no reliance on the power grid or notification from central authority.
The other factoid that is ignored is that only the primary contact was notified so if you live in a condo, apartment complex etc, you got no notice.
Why do we try people for murder if they kill the terminally ill? Why don’t we say the person could have died at any time anyway? Because those arguments are fallacious.
The Governor caused this death and much misery by promoting his liberal agenda at the expense of Californians. They were misguided in electing Democrats who promised the world and gave them circles of Hell complete with streets full of feces, rat borne disease, solar panels & electric cars that are useless in a power failure.
California is a National disgrace and I hope there is push back from the rest of the Nation not just a helping hand. Screwing with the power grid & water supply is an assault on American citizens. As POTUS said fire management has been neglected against advise of the forestry department. The remedy is very simple. Only a fool protects smelts & owls and leaves people to burn in forest fires that could have been prevented or contained early.
This was a big moment for PG&E, which does not have extensive experience using what California officials refer to as a “public safety power shut-off.” Its previous wildfire shut-offs had been limited to tens of thousands of customers — and it was ill prepared for the task.
The old fake crisis/opportunity line comes up.
Every Cali pol from dogcatcher to the gov has a mope brother in law that needs a better job!
Then maybe, him the sister and kids can move out of the basement?
FReepers wanting to avoid a visit to msn.com, always a good idea, can read the original article here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/12/business/pge-california-outage.html
PG&E won the battle. Their customers will react in some manner that will bring about change.
The outcome of the war is presently undecided.
It was just bad timing that made a good story for someone who had no idea what they were talking about.
Four Pinocchio's...
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