Guest drive-by by David Middleton
PG&E Could Shut Off Power For Millions To Prevent Wildfires
February 7, 2019
MATTHEW S. SCHWARTZ
Pacific Gas & Electric could shut off power to more than 5 million customers when extreme weather conditions are ripe for wildfires to break out, the company said Wednesday. It’s an expansion of the company’s previous power shutoff program, which only let the company turn off power to about half a million customers.
Several power companies submitted their required “wildfire mitigation plans” to California regulators this week. But PG&E’s plan may be especially consequential, given that its power lines have been blamed for several Northern California fires over the past few years. The company filed for bankruptcy last month in the wake of billions of dollars in potential liability after two years of wildfires.
The company told the state’s public utilities commission that to address wildfire risk, “shutting off power will likely be necessary and may need to be performed more frequently due to the extreme weather events and dry vegetation conditions.”
“We understand the urgency of the situation, that lives could be at stake and that we need to move more quickly,” the company said.
[…]
Rather than actually addressing the problem, just shut off the electricity…
Who would have guessed that the solution to both climate change and wildfires was shutting off electricity? Apparently, these actual solutions are off the table…
Why California’s Best Strategy Against Wildfire Is Hardly Ever Used
Cal Fire Chief Blames Wildfires on Mismanaged Forests
Mismanaged, overcrowded forests provide fuel to historic California wildfires, experts say
Climate change is the new scapegoat for failed forest and water policy
Trump was right: California’s forests have been grossly mismanaged
I guess since California has ruled out proper wildland management, they’re left with blaming it on climate change and/or President Trump and shutting off electricity. Even if climate change is partially to blame, there’s nothing that can be done to “fix” the climate on a human (or any other) time scale. So… I guess it’s Back to the Pleistocene! (AKA the Green New Deal)… “Turn out the lights, the party’s over”…
https://youtu.be/CtGxusvUT3k
This just in… The automotive industry just unveiled the first Green New Deal compliant automobile…
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Governments, of all kinds and at all levels, are in the best of circumstances, temporary, corrupt institutions who will inevitably self-destruct due to the inherent moral turpitude, ineptitude and incompetence of those people who seek to occupy positions of power in government. Honesty and integrity in governments will forever be consigned to a minority position.
But then in most cases those who cause and precipitate the various government caused disasters will have moved on to another part of their lives so they will not have to pay directly for their malfeasance.
PG&E’s mistake was in filing Chapter 11, they should have gone with Chapter 7 and liquidated the company, like Sears and Toy ‘r’ Us. That would have gotten AOC’s attention, for about 10 nanoseconds……
All the info provided about the crazypants stuff in California is very helpful in deciding to stay away from there. Until a whole generation of ecohippies croaks, you’re stuck with those people on a hillside singing about buying the World a Coke and keeping it company.
I do not envy anyone who lives there. Maybe sanity will return some day.
I think it is a great idea. Californians should learn what Socialist paradise is really like.
“Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.”
Edmund Burke, Letter i. On a Regicide Peace. Vol. v. p. 331.
http://www.bartleby.com/100/276.41.html
Seems the only way left for California: regulation of de-regulation.
https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-samsung&q=shut+off+rules+CPUC+Enron+advice+2000+%E2%80%98deregulation%E2%80%99+fiasco&spell=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiTkrSQ_LjgAhUylYsKHW1hCYEQBSgAegQICxAC&biw=360&bih=560&dpr=2
What does a warmist call turning off the power to millions?
A start.
According to many advocates, activists, “good” people, and their representatives: “progress” (i.e. monotonic change).
Turn off the lights. Let them tilt at windmills. Isolate the risk with local energy converters/producers.
Socialism eventually fails when it runs out of other people’s money to steal. Those with money will continue to leave California. Without the ability to devalue currency and inflate their way out of debt, the state will eventually declare bankruptcy. Millions will suffer, most of them the will be the ones who voted the idiots into office and support their programs. So I for one won’t shed many tears. California will become America’s Venezuela. The challenge will be preventing those who flee from trying to do the same thing in the other states. And it WILL BE a challenge. What is the Socialist mantra when Socialism (and lunacy) fails? “True Socialism/Communism has never been tried.”
It will probably take two generations, but eventually California will experience a more conservative revival.
Many have fled to other states and Californication is already a thing in the Northwest US, Nevada and Arizona. Those California pensions allow for a good lifestyle and plenty of leisure time to work on all the problems in their adopted states.
One threat to the rest of the states from California attempting to go green is the threat to their farmers. Calif. farms are a major food producer for the rest of us. What will happen to our food supply/costs when Calif. farmers can’t get diesel for their farm equipment?
I hope California’s self destruction will merely result in booming production in other states.
SR
No mention of the alternative of burying power lines. Yes it is more expensive per mile, but it is a permanent solution. The biggest difficulty I can think of is that there is a lot of granite, but it should still be looked at as a permanent alternative. No more trimming, minimal fire risk due to high winds, etc. Granite is your biggest obstacle.
There is no permanent solution. Underground lines degrade and require maintenance also.
This is classic “Atlas Shrugged” stuff! I would love to read a re-written version of Atlas Shrugged where CO2 and Climate Change was the focal point rather than steel production. I guess steel production could still be a component as it does produce CO2. It would make a great read, and probably predict the near future very well.
Yabba dabba doo!
Having been raised on a ranch back when telephones could be used as a scull cracking weapon, we took precautions when extreme bad weather surrounded us. That the current spoiled generation believes themselves to be invincible to bad weather is a life lesson waiting its turn to be learned. Those that didn’t learn about these precautions back in the day tended to lose their ranches.
Bet some people will eventually chalk this up to climate change (i.e. Christian conservative capitalist white males) and leverage whenever this happens as a way to ‘sway’ people to ‘fix’ the weather with a carbon tax that get’s rich people off the hook for funding social programs.
Since green dream folks refuse to match what they do with what they say, a little imposed austerity may be just what is needed to stop this silliness and get back to what they are paid to do: Entertain. Besides, of the two areas they think they have something worthwhile to contribute, only one is worth any kind of Grammy, Tony, or Dizzy June award. The other is poorly acted and not worth a Twitter.