Posted on 10/14/2019 5:59:41 AM PDT by karpov
...
California residents have come face-to-face with an uncomfortable new reality: Large swaths of the state—by itself the fifth-largest economy in the world, and home to the globe’s most technologically advanced companies—may be subject to the sort of abrupt blackouts normally associated with underdeveloped countries.
The state’s three big investor-owned utilities now have regulatory permission to cut off power to parts of their service territories during strong winds to reduce the risk of their electric lines causing wildfires, after at least 21 blazes linked to utility equipment killed more than 100 people and burned tens of thousands of homes in recent years.
PG&E, the troubled utility that provides gas and electricity to more than 16 million people across 70,000 square miles of northern and central California, is a lightning rod for public anger. The company trails its peers in technology to track winds and isolate the areas where equipment is at highest risk of sparking fires. It is also running far behind on several of its most important safety efforts, records show, including this year’s tree-trimming campaign, which is less than 50% complete.
“We are seeing the scale and scope of something that no state in the 21st century should experience,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said speaking Thursday in Mather, Calif. “What’s happened is unacceptable, and it has happened because of neglect.”
At a press conference Thursday, PG&E Chief Executive Bill Johnson said, “I do apologize for the hardship this has caused, but I think we made the right call on safety.” Mr. Johnson, who was named CEO in April, also apologized for the frustration customers faced as they tried to find out whether they would lose power on a website that kept crashing and maps that were inconsistent. “We were not adequately prepared,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Liberals. So stupid, they can ruin California.
Power outages. Problems with the homeless in many of its cities. Feces in the streets of San Francisco to the point where someone created an app to alert people as to where it is. A state government that controls and regulates everything (even the size of shampoo bottles in hotel rooms can’t escape its evil eye). And abortions for all!
Sorry, but California has truly become a hell hole (and it’s only going to get worse). I have no desire to even visit there anymore. And I say that as someone who spent some of his college years there. Unfortunately, the Left wants that for the whole country. That must be resisted at all costs.
Californicatia is not becoming “Socialist”... it’s “woke” Leftists are implementing a neo-feudalism! Like the middle ages, Masters live in the mansions, serfs in the tents and mud huts. Like all feudal societies, the Masters “own” the land, the serfs and their labor (strangling taxes and regulations)!
The “Masters” decide top-down what the serfs are permitted to do... every aspect of life regulated and controlled! To “save” the planet (ALL tyranny is done for the “common good”)! Energy, fuel, food, medicine and even water allocated and rationed by hyper-bureaucrats! All subject to removal if the “peasants” disobey!!! To accomplish this, the middle class must be destroyed... Tyrants despise the middle class (bourgeois)... for they tend to be independent and resist being ruled (as opposed to governed).
#RustyIrony for decades the Liberals warned us of the rise of the “corporate state”... and the possibility of its tyranny. Then the Big Tech, Nike, Amazon, big banks, Media, etc (the most mega-capitalists in history!)...corporate state learned and now embraces and uses the language of the Left... and those same liberals rush to embrace the very thing they warned us about! Marching into totalitarian Hell with a smile on their face! #OneWonders!!!
Many modern “Progressives insist now that anyone with political views they abhor can be refused service and chased from restaurants, but you Christian bigots sure better provide them goods and services. Or else… the new “woke” corporate state will seek your destruction. #RustyIrony
I'm no fan of PG&E, but must disagree. The electric co has been blamed by the state for causing fires. Maybe the shutdown was their chance to give a real life demonstration of the state's folly.
The big rate hikes will follow to recover the cost of anti-fire protections.
Miguel De Cervantes is laughing in his grave.
Yes. These rolling blackouts should not be effecting very many people at all. A Yuge percentage of the state is either solar or wind powered or both, so............
Progressives believe there will be always be “progress”.
That is a cargo cult.
Most of us in and around Austin don’t want Kalifornians.
You should’ve bought this
https://www.tesla.com/powerwall
oh wait, it only runs the house for a few days.
You should have bought this
http://www.generac.com/for-homeowners/home-backup-power
And this
https://www.menards.com/main/heating-cooling/fireplaces-stoves/wood-furnaces/c-12809.htm
I would think that an “all hands on deck” approach for the liberals in kali would be better than having NO ELECTRICITY.
Such an “all hands on deck” solution would be to REQUIRE 40 hours TOTAL of work trimming trees and brush away from power lines. This 40 hours of work would apply to every able bodied person over 18 in California including doctors, lawyers, bankers, legislators, CEO’s, CFO’s, Union Leaders, college kids etc etc.
Each such person, over a years period of time, would donate 1 day per month. Anyone not willing to cut, pile, stack and haul brush would have their electricity cut off for a year.
I'm betting PG&E execs were threatened by politicians NOT to sue.
Put a smile on my face.
Wonder how many folks, these days, even have a clue about the question?
Stop penalizing the utility company, which affects millions. Individual homeowners and insurance companies should be making a benefit to risk judgement about their own home.
Problem is Cali outlawed brush clean up some years ago where people would clear out all the old dry dead stuff, the presence of which now starts fires.
This has been proven multiple times in a court of law.
Where the state overreached is in making the utility liable even when their equipment/operations isn't the direct cause...the so-called doctrine of inverse condemnation.
Tree limbs snapping off usually take out the power lines.
“This power cutoff reduced California’s carbon footprint”
Not really, think of all the home generators running 24/7 fueled by gasoline, diesel fuel, natural gas and propane.
Running tens of thousands of these to generate electricity at your home is much less efficient/KWH than a big power plant.
As a BONUS of running back up home generators at least here in New England, there is inevitably someone that kills themselves and unfortunately their family with carbon monoxide fumes. It happens EVERY TIME we have a power outage around here in NH.
I bet a lot of golf carts have been stolen recently, or any electric cars.
I have a deep cycle battery bank and a pure wave inverter for emergency use. A weeks worth if i managed it.
The weather is deep freeze glacial ice.
Sabor tooth cats roam the towns seeking human victims.
New York is where you want to be.
I get allergic smelling hay.
I just adore a penthouse view.
Dahrling I love you but give me Park Avenue.
The enviros and courts made it near impossible to keep the trees trimmed back. Who would have thought that high voltage electrical lines touching trees would start fires? /s
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