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California Can’t Keep the Lights On
National Review ^ | October 29, 2019 | Rich Lowry

Posted on 10/29/2019 7:53:29 AM PDT by karpov

California is staying true to its reputation as the land of innovation — it is making blackouts, heretofore the signature of impoverished and war-torn lands, a routine feature of 21st-century American life.

More than 2 million people are going without power in Northern and Central California, in the latest and biggest of the intentional blackouts that are, astonishingly, California’s best answer to the risk of runaway wildfires.

Power — and all the goods it makes possible — is synonymous with modern civilization. It shouldn’t be a negotiable for anyone living in a well-functioning society, or even in California, which, despite its stupendous wealth and natural splendor, has blighted itself over the decades with misgovernance and misplaced priorities.

The same California that has been the seedbed of world-famous companies that make it possible for people to send widely viewed short missives of 280 characters or less, and share and like images of grumpy cats, isn’t doing so well at keeping the lights on.

The same California that has boldly committed to transitioning to 50 percent renewable energy by 2025 — and 100 percent renewable energy by 2045 — can’t manage its existing energy infrastructure.

The same California that has pushed its electricity rates to the highest in the contiguous United States through its mandates and regulations doesn’t provide continuous access to that overpriced electricity.

California governor Gavin Newsom, who has to try to evade responsibility for this debacle while presiding over it, blames “dog-eat-dog capitalism” for the state’s current crisis. It sounds like he’s referring to robber barons who have descended on the state to suck it dry of profits while burning it to the ground. But Newsom is talking about one of the most regulated industries in the state — namely California’s energy utilities

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: cablackout; california; infrastructure; lowry; pgande; poweroutage
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1 posted on 10/29/2019 7:53:29 AM PDT by karpov
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To: karpov

This just in.

A Caravan of illegals from Central America and Mexico just arrived in California. They took a look around...

They left. Went back home.


2 posted on 10/29/2019 7:56:30 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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To: karpov

Good article.


3 posted on 10/29/2019 7:57:35 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (The line that separated satire, Democrats and Stupidity has vanished. (thanks to jonascord)!)
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To: karpov

Apologies in advance to beloved FReepers who live in CA.

Have they just enough electric power left for the corrupt Commie Governor Newsom to hold his palm up and ask for billions in aid from the US taxpayers to bail him out? Maybe a battery run flashlight?

“We were running as well as Venezuela and Haiti until just recently. We just need a helping hand up for the workers’ paradise dream to come true.”


4 posted on 10/29/2019 7:58:11 AM PDT by frank ballenger (End vote fraud & harvesting,non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we are finished.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

California Is America’s Green Deal future. This is what is in store for us if they implement it across the country.


5 posted on 10/29/2019 7:58:43 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Good one. Ripped from tomorrow’s headlines.

Newsom is probably asking for bond issues from Chile and Honduras. They’ll say no.


6 posted on 10/29/2019 8:00:41 AM PDT by frank ballenger (End vote fraud & harvesting,non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we are finished.)
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To: karpov

That old joke is becoming so very true for California.

What did socialists use before fire? Electricity!


7 posted on 10/29/2019 8:01:44 AM PDT by SES1066 (Happiness is a depressed Washington, DC housing market!)
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To: karpov

Welcome to CaliCuba


8 posted on 10/29/2019 8:02:09 AM PDT by RummyChick ("Pills, money .. this city is wicked. Your best friend will kill you here." Smoove about Baltimore)
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To: karpov

Liberals are incapable of understanding the damage they bring upon themselves, demonstrating how ignorance causes and proliferates human suffering. They are bringing on the Dark Ages, part II.


9 posted on 10/29/2019 8:03:04 AM PDT by Spok
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To: karpov

methinks someone is purposely planning to bankrupt, demonize, and then “nationalize” PG&E

Never let a perfectly good manufactured crisis go to waste.


10 posted on 10/29/2019 8:03:10 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: karpov

The economic consequences of the eco-terrorists/fire/electrical power cycle
in Kalifornia will be staggering.

This will impact the US economy in a very negative manner. I almost think that was the plan all along.


11 posted on 10/29/2019 8:06:13 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$ (Beware the homeless industrial complex.)
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To: frank ballenger

Don’t worry about CA Freepers, they don’t have enough electricity to use the internet.

Kind of like giving the finger to a blind person.


12 posted on 10/29/2019 8:10:14 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie (All I know is The I read in the papers.)
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To: mad_as_he$$

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk6aGg7iZ8M

This is what they need...It isdone in SE...

The company just started a big project in Ala..or Ark


13 posted on 10/29/2019 8:10:18 AM PDT by Hojczyk
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To: karpov

Not that California cannot keep the lights on. They won’t do what is necessary to restore the former glory days of the once-Golden state.

A high-speed railroad to nowhere is NOT going to do it. Diverting funds from really necessary infrastructure to fulfill some fantasy about a Disney Tomorrowland that never was and cannot ever be is poor allocation of resources, to say the least.

California was once fully self-sufficient in petroleum and electrical power generation, and the magnanimous dispensation from the revenue-rich coffers of state government proved to be an attractive hazard for the weak of spirit, who flocked there in record numbers in the years following the Second World War.

So now, too late, they slam shut just the wrong gates, and reap the whirlwind.


14 posted on 10/29/2019 8:13:57 AM PDT by alloysteel (Nowhere in the Universe is there escape from the consequences of the crime of stupidity.)
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To: Hojczyk

Except that deliberately burning wood is illegal in large parts of Kalifornia(BBQ’s excluded for now).


15 posted on 10/29/2019 8:18:03 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$ (Beware the homeless industrial complex.)
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To: RummyChick

Welcome to CaliCuba

_____________________

Calizuela.


16 posted on 10/29/2019 8:18:47 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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To: Spok
"Liberals are incapable of understanding the damage they bring upon themselves"

Not exactly. They will complain the loudest when it really occurs, shortly after blaming it on conservatives.

They ignore the fact that the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train, until it arrives at their location.

17 posted on 10/29/2019 8:19:01 AM PDT by HangThemHigh (Entropy is not what it used to be.)
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To: karpov

Power problems in Kali are not new. Back in 1998 or 1999, friends living there were complaining about rolling black outs in the Southern area as lines carrying power from Northern Kali were overheating.

I bragged that we in the Southwest Power Pool had so much excess power that we were opening electrical outlets and allowing the excess power to run out on the ground.

They were not happy.


18 posted on 10/29/2019 8:20:35 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: karpov
California Can’t Keep the Lights On
California Democraps Can’t Keep the Lights On
19 posted on 10/29/2019 8:21:04 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: Responsibility2nd

As someone living in California I am coming to believe that these power outages are being used as a political weapon.

How is it we have had power for a hundred years only now do they discover they need to turn off the power to a million customers because it is windy?

At one time there were Forest Fire Towers in wooded areas but they were phased out. Would it not be cheaper to create even on a temporary bases fire watches in populated areas?

Perhaps even having planes in the air on the look out for fires when they start and call in a strike team to put them out.

I am beginning to think that the power outages are going to cost more in damages then fires would.

PG&E is punishing the public by turning off the power.


20 posted on 10/29/2019 8:21:30 AM PDT by CIB-173RDABN (I am not an expert in anything, and my opinion is just that, an opinion. I may be wrong.)
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