Power shutoff instituted by PG&E because potential "Diablo" winds might bring down their transmission lines and trigger catastrophic fires.
Posted on 10/11/2019 5:57:06 AM PDT by NOBO2012
I’m so old that I remember when the prime responsibility of your state’s Public Service Commission was ensuring the public utilities under their jurisdiction were physically and financially capable of delivering the services they were chartered to provide. Accordingly, the PSC role was to balance citizens' need for reliable services and reasonable rates with the need for utilities to earn a reasonable return on investment.
When both sides of this contract begin to operate outside the parameters of their respective charters, i.e. the utility fails to provide basic maintenance services to maintain the integrity of transmission lines and the PSC to verify they have done so…
Public Utility budget line item: tree clearing of lines
and instead begin to pursue and promote a “green energy” agenda, this is what happens:
More than a million people in California were without electricity Wednesday as the state’s largest utility pulled the plug to prevent a repeat of the past two years when windblown power lines sparked deadly wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes. – AP
But goodness, don’t you love it when liberal worlds collide?
A Tesla charging station for electric vehicles is taped off along Devlin Road during the PG&E power shut-off in Napa. – SFChronicle
Who here thought they’d ever agree with Gavin Newsome? I know, but when he’s right he’s right: “California governor says broad power shutdown to prevent fires 'unacceptable.' Ya think?
You know how your liberal friends and relatives like to chide you by asking “what does ‘make America great again’ even mean?”? Now you have an easy answer…it means not operating like a third world nation where the streets are awash in human filth and the lights are unreliable. In other words, it means not being California.
At least we’re not Cuba!
Posted from: MOTUS A.D.
Driving California backwards was always the goal of leftists. This is why I’m moving to Texas after I retire, instead of going back home to CA.
I wonder if any clueless leftists who voted for these policies are beginning to see the light.
There are many former Californians who are currently very happy in Wyoming and Idaho.
Great news for Tesla and other EV owners.;-)
Bet this is the last straw for a lot of Californians. Move on over but leave ya’ll liberal views behind please.
On second thought Californians don’t even have a last straw anymore, at least not a plastic one.
I think there is something going on here that they are not telling us. There has always been a risk of fires caused by downed power lines, but they’ve never shut off people’s power to prevent that from starting a fire. And fires are way down.
Then again, they were held responsible for that last fire. This may be them “getting back” at the system for that. Maybe they are thumbing their nose at the people and saying, “hey, if you’re gonna sue us if a power line starts a major fire, than we’re going to do “due diligence” and kill the power to the at risk lines when we are in a dry spell.
What goes around, comes around.
But I thought the left loved electricity! They want to force everyone to buy an electric car and to give up their gas powered cars.
When your electric car runs out of charge, it must be towed by a truck powered by gasoline!
So now, you can’t charge your electric car and your refrigerator doesn’t work, and if you don’t want to lose your food you buy a generator which works off a petroleum product!
When elderly die in the cold and dark they will be seen by police, emergency crews, and/or undertakers in gas powered vehicles!
You don’t see CA elected officials being driven around in electric cars, do you?
Get used to it liberals. This is what your leadership wants for everyone in the U.S. To “save the planet”.
The message being sent by the utilities that are shutting off the power is that some agreement has to be reached on who pays damages if a spark from the transmission lines causes a damaging fire.
Do the utilities’ lines throw sparks because they are poorly designed or in disrepair? If so, how long has this been known and ignored, and ignored by whom?
Are the forests mismanaged to the point where they are tenderboxes? Are owners of properties in the forests negligent for not protecting their structures better?
Meanwhile I’m glad I no longer live anywhere in California.
I can’t wait for the state of California to nationalize PG&E. Let’s see them try to run the grid!
"A Tesla charging station for electric vehicles is taped off along Devlin Road during the PG&E power shut-off in Napa!"
When PG&E was sued for billions for the fires what do you expect them to do???
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/09/pg-and-e-settlement-california-wildfires.html
Due to the anti tree cutting nuts and money wasted on crazy "green" crap in CA, apparently the trees and brush aren't being cleared.
When the wind picks up, it is blowing trees into power lines, or power lines into trees.
You get a big enough short to cause a fire.
The power companies have no choice but to shut down the lines, otherwise they would be on the hook for millions more in fire damage.
Leftist idiots, enjoy watching them suffer from their own crazy ideas.
Nice 51’ Pontiac in the bottom photo!
Hahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. LIBs are a barrel of laughs. Bwaaaaahahahahaha.
I stated this on another thread.
Someone has to get a picture of a Tesla or Nissan Leaf plugged into a gasoline generator.
This is the funniest thing since all those Youtubes of the Left wailing because Trump won...
Remember a few years ago when Eversource/PSNH had not cleared the powerlines in 20 years?
We lost power every time there was a wind storm, ice storm or early wet heavy snow storm. Finally, the people screamed enough and the government made the utility clear around the lines. Now, they do it on a regularly scheduled basis.
This article is a bit misleading. The problem has very little to do power consumption, politics, or population.
Their major problem down there is the winds, not the politics. Mountain ranges block winds in some areas while winds howl elsewhere. Winds seek openings through the mountains, much like water would. Canyons and passes provide narrow openings that accelerate the winds like a nozzle on a garden hose does to water in route to the ocean.
Terrain can play a part in a fire’s progress. On hillsides with gullies or ravines, a chimney effect can cause hot gases to rise up these channels. The fire creates a draft, pulling oxygen in, and blazes roar up rapidly as if in a chimney. As fires rage and winds blow, hot embers may be carried far away from burning areas. They can touch off smaller spot fires well ahead of or behind a main fire, and these will turn into new wildfires.
There are three main ingredients to a fire: fuel, oxygen, and a spark source. The fuel and oxygen have been in California for centuries. Years of lightening strikes and later campfire or discarded cigarettes have been the culprit for the third piece.
But the ability to spread the fires is a little different this year with a high pressure north and east of California that is creating the unusual high winds that are channeling down through the Sierras and fanning the small fires that normally would be controlled quickly and with a lot less trouble to contain. And these fires have been a natural cleaning by nature for the unoccupied woodlands since long before man arrived.
So this has little to do with the political stance of California. It’s just nature displaying its strong arm tactics. And if the people leave the power on, and the wind blows a pole or line down that hits some dry grass, it could take out a town like Paradise and it’s 37,000 people that had to run for it of which some weren’t fast enough.
rwood
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