Chris White Tech Reporter
October 12, 2019 9:50 PM ET
- Wildfires might be the least of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s concerns as his state’s citizens struggle with power blackouts.
- A previous California governor who struggled to deal with rolling energy blackouts was recalled in 2003.
- High gas prices, rolling blackouts, and wildfires are weighing on California citizens.
Recent history might explain why Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is lashing out at the public utility company responsible for rolling blackouts in his state as citizens wrestle with increasing gas prices.
California’s public utility Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) began a days-long power shutoff to curb the risk of wildfires in the northern part of the state. Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco, is dealing with several problems as he struggles with PG&E’s move.
“What’s happened is unacceptable. And it’s happened because of neglect,” he said at a news conference Thursday, referring to the decision to shutter power across the state. “This current operation is unacceptable. The current conditions and circumstances are unacceptable.”
Power went out for 513,000 northern California homes and businesses Wednesday morning, USA Today reported, and roughly 234,000 customers were expected to lose power later Wednesday night.
A previous Democratic governor in the state to confront similar blackouts was recalled in the early 2000s. (RELATED: Here’s Why Californians Pay Way More For Gasoline Than Everyone Else)
Former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis of California was recalled in 2003 after increasing the state’s car registration fees and for the perception that he didn’t do enough to forestall rolling blackouts across the state. Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger won the election November of that year.
California’s blackouts at the time hurt many businesses that were dependent upon a reliable supply of electricity. Newsom is also confronting blackouts, though his situation is considerably different from the one Davis faced.
Thousands of people have lost power in California as PG&E enacted preemptive shutoffs, a move the bankrupt public utility thought would prevent potential wildfires. The company pursued bankruptcy protection in January after its CEO stepped down after fallout from the utility’s wildfire debt.
Investigators determined PG&E’s power lines and converters sparked at least a dozen major fires in 2017. California officials are still investigating the causes of several major 2018 fires, including the Camp Fire that killed 86 people and all but destroyed the town of Paradise.
PG&E is also still dealing with the taint of being convicted of violating safety regulations in 2016 after one of its natural gas lines exploded.
Wildfires are still reeking havoc in the state despite PG&E’s best efforts. California officials ordered the evacuation of roughly 100,000 people from their homes Friday as a wildfire plows through the northern edge of Los Angeles.
Newsom, for his part, took over $200,000 from PG&E to help buttress his 2018 run for governor, ABC 10 reported in July. The company allegedly gave $58,400 to his campaign and another $150,000 to a group called Citizens Supporting Gavin Newsom for Governor 2018.
The blackouts won’t help the governor’s already poor standing in the polls.
The Public Policy Institute of California found in a September survey that more likely voters disapprove of Newsom’s job performance than approve, with 43% approving, 44% disapproving and 13% who didn’t know. Nearly 15% of Californians who were surveyed listed “homelessness” as a top concern and 11% named housing, both of which are big problems aside from high gas prices and electricity outages. The survey was conducted between Sept. 16 and 25 among 1,705 adult California residents with a margin of error at ±3.2%, but varied among subgroups of the poll.
To make matters worse, the price of a gallon of gas in California is slowly increasing. The average cost in the state has skyrocketed to $4.18 while drivers in other areas are paying as much as $5 per gallon, CNN Business reported Tuesday. California’s gas taxes are already some of the highest in the country, so the price increases are a double-whammy.
Newsom has not responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s multiple requests for comment. A response will be added should one be received.
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I place the blame for the blackouts in California square in the lap of the legislature that was so busy catering to the green lobby that they couldn’t bother to refer to their common sense.
Newsom signed laws banning fur coats, circus elephants and tigers, and trying to collect on unpaid school lunch fees.
You gotta wonder what’s next.
well the PETA mobs got gluetraps for ratcatching banned as “animal cruelty” in Sth Aus
did Cali manage to miss that?
im considering buy em up for online sales into SA
Cost of housing and energy are key topics in elections – any elections not just in California.
Get rid of the complacency. Action against the totalitarians is needed-
Newson should get re-elected. He is presently trying out the excuse, blaming the private sector company for the problems. ie; it is those greedy capitalists. So his solution will be either the government will take over, or just keep blaming PG&E and SDG&E for the problems to the grid, where it really is the green policies of prioritizing solar and wind, and de-prioritizing safety.
The blame will also be C02 and global warming, and the voters and politicians that don’t give them complete control over us all.
So my former company installed over 185 Large gas turbine generator packages in states bordering California. A lot of them are just across the border from California. These units are providing power to California while they reside in these other states so the power crosses a state line to access the California market. That means there is a inter state tariff involved for a higher power price to the Californian consumers.
So how did this trickery happen? The former Governor Gerry “Moonbeam” Brown forced these units out of state to reduce California’s emissions while still having them installed to service the increased load demands on the system. At the same time they shutdown Diablo Nuclear plant in southern California which made the demand problem worse. So these 185 units emissions are charged to the state of origin and California gets clean power. Governor Brown was even quoted “About how California’s emissions had plateaued while the other states around him had increased”
Now these units have a relatively small foot print and they can be sited almost anywhere near cities and towns. The beauty of the units is the are fully remotely operated and need only minimal human on site inspections so they could have been situated anywhere there is a gas supply and power lines. We set 19 of these units up next to a switching yard at a local utility and it took only 2 acres of land to bring 105 MW to the local area.
If California had not been so stupid they could have had all of these units situated where the loads are rather than taking the losses in long transmission lines to these same loads. Now with the power lines shutdown there is no power to a lot of remote centers. Just think if the local utility could “Island” their towns and still supply power to the towns how much better it would be than just shutting the whole dam thing down. Just to look good on paper for exhaust emissions even though they are still creating them But Not in California.
There is action to recall Newsom. It may not help California, but it might derail Newsom’s ambition for national office. https://ranaf.org/
Unbelievable. The richest state in the richest country on Earth, is shutting down its primary energy source because they have concerns about the supply lines starting fires!!
Just a simple question.
Having looked at past wild fires in California via Tony Heller, there is a clear down trend in wild fires over the past 80 years. That period coincides with the growth in electrical power and the reduction in open flame heat sources. It is also worth wondering, how did the wild fires got started before the PG&E company decided it was the prime source?
The world is clearly going mad. The logic of what is safe and sensible in California has disappeared altogether.
” Hey honey that electricity stuff has stopped again” “O lord, fire up the barbecue then, and see if we have any of that oil left for the lamps”. ” We will just have to get a generator if this carries on” I will check out if that nice Mr. Clampett has any more black gold bubbling up in his lower paddock”…..
Newsom has singed laws that mostly ban any new energy generation in any meaningful manner from developing resources in CA to pipelines to pushing the Greenie mythical sustainable cheap forever energy. Next up will be passing a bill that allows CA to become a State of VZ since they share so many things. Any bets on when CA residence will be hunting dogs for food as the VZ folks are now doing?
Expect the State Department to being issuing travel warnings for CA (and likely Portland OR as well).
“Newsom has singed laws ”
If he’s not professionally trained, I won’t buy that album.
I don’t know about albums, I’m just wondering where his arsonist streak came from and which laws he’s been burning.
The good news is blackouts do not cause cancer in California. The bad news is political leadership on forest management, energy, transportation, and housing can kill you.
The good news is blackouts do not cause cancer in California
If so, you’ve just found the only thing that California has not determined as being cancer causing. But give them time, I’m sure they’ll remedy that diagnosis soon enough 😉
I guess blaming melting in Antarctica has run its course in California—right Jerry?
Come on now, Californians love high gas prices, carbon taxes for unrelated budget needs, and high speed rail to nowhere. They also love high electricity prices when they can get it. The world’s sixth largest economy is sick.
I’d say the one silver lining is that Californians will be saving on energy costs this year, but knowing California, they’ll probably find a way to still charge for the energy that wasn’t used.
Probably quite a bit of CO2 reduction too. A win win. I’m sure with a little sober effort that they will learn to live without electricity . Electricity is just a social construct of old white males you know.
For both water and power, the PUC approved higher rates after the citizens reduced consumption. Yes, we were told to reduce our use of power and water in the hot summer months (DROUGHT! BLACKOUTS!). When we did, the utilities revenue went down. The utilities complained to the PUC, who then approved rate hikes so the reduced consumption would produce the same revenue. Now the caps are lifted, but we can’t afford what we used to.
So look, free capacity to supply more residents. How did that happen?
Isn’t it so that PG&E never planned ahead of time, and never did the investment needed?
During 1998 and 2000 I often flew (sorry GT) from Netherlands to Santa Clara. During my visits there, the colleagues told me that they were at risk of brownouts due to too little generating capacity. I was totally baffled back then: Here you come to Silicon Valley, which is super dependent on quality electricity 24/7/365.25 providing the state with an awful lot of profit, and then the state cannot make sure to do a bit of planning and investment in the future!
Mary Greeley News:
Trump Right? Hack-and-Squirt the Forest. Created the Huge California Fire Hazard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEOETb7ttaY
On average, the cost of thinning forests through hack-and-squirt while leaving the dead trees standing is about $250 per acre, said Greg Giusti, a forest advisor with the University of California Cooperative Extension. The cost of cutting and leaving them on the ground is about $750 an acre, while cutting and hauling them away is about $1,000 an acre.
http://marygreeley.com/?p=77654
Andrea Sharp
Absolutely Trump is right! My father-in-love and one of his sons had a logging company that went through California forests daily to cut down and haul away trees. Legislation came in from the left that decided that it would be much more eco friendly to leave almost all of the trees in the forest. NOT a good idea as you can clearly see from all of the forest wild fires in Cali. That is a direct result from not thinning out the forests and removing the wood completely.
Some of the trees (redwoods) require limited fire for good health & growth,
Better use the carbon tax fund to patch the budget, again. Using carbon tax money to pay for gasoline generators for the poor is reasonable. Give them some EVs that don’t work also.
If you want to vote towards people who think “Old Soviet”, you’re gonna get an economy that works “Old Soviet”.
Welcome to your future … six hours of power four times a week (maybe)
Boogie like it’s Bulgaria 1954