Topic: 800,000 Californians To Lose Power After Midnight (Read 711 times)

PG&E is under investigation as blackouts roll across California, leaving many residents in the dark for an indefinite amount of time. The blackouts are the power giant's solution to dangerous sparking power lines caused by high winds. These sparks have been blamed for many of the wildfires that have devastated California and caused billions of dollars in damage.

PG&E is in the position of being held responsible for its power lines starting the fires that have devastated California and caused over 80 deaths. As a result, they have instituted blackouts. Their solution to the "problem" of burning down homes with sparks from their power lines is to simply shut off power to thousands of their customers in California. This major inconvenience comes without much recourse for their customers. As blackouts stretch for hours and even days, their customers are without basic utilities such as water, household appliances, phones, and even running water. They have low cell phone batteries with no way to charge them, no way to wash their clothes, and – significantly – no way to keep their food in their refrigerators from spoiling.

Blackouts are causing outrage from citizens experiencing unreliable services. And even as PG&E cuts off the power, which in some cases results in cell tower malfunctions, the fires continue to rage.

"PG&E has been turning off power across vast parts of its service area during high winds because fallen power lines are a major cause of wildfires. The blackouts have drawn widespread criticism. But if PG&E, fearful of the backlash, limits the scope of its power cuts, there could be more fires," The New York Times reports.

Here's what PG&E's CEO had to say about the rampant food insecurity.

As the state struggles, the most vulnerable of its citizens suffer as their hard-earned money gets thrown in the garbage in the form of rotten food from fridges without power. To say that PG&E is not sympathetic is an understatement.

Dan Noyes of ABC News asked PG&E President and CEO Bill Johnson some tough questions about the strain the blackouts are putting on families:

Noyes: "What do you say to people who just can't afford to restock their fridges and are losing all this food they've had in their households after these shut offs?"

Johnson: "These events can be hard on people, really hard on people, particularly people who have struggles anyways and there are community-based things you can do, food banks, these kind of things. But for us, you know the main thing is we didn't cause any fires, we didn't, for these people we didn't burn down any houses, the Kincade fire is still under investigation, I got that, but one of the things we did was give them the opportunity to actually refill their refrigerator 'cause their house is still there." (source)

These out-of-touch comments from PG&E CEO Bill Johnson – who earns over $2 Million per year – have sparked outrage.

Here are some social media comments shared by ABC 30:

I guess the democrats are responsible for fire, mudslide, and earthquake risk too. 

This is what happens when you give greedy capitalists control over a basic utility that everyone depends on.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/11/us/california-power-outage-friday/index.html

Why Americans continue to elect Democrats, whose policies are tyrannical and economically destructive, is a mystery.

That is especially the case in California, which is a case study in authoritarianism when one political party possesses a super majority.

Recently, California – an arid state despite the fact that it has a large Pacific coastline – suffered through several very destructive, deadly wildfires that many experts blamed on the Democrats’ goofy, nonsensical environmental policies.

In particular, environmental policies that prevent energy companies from clear-cutting dead brush and trees away from power lines.

“California has a lot of public land, federal land and state land, and there are strict restrictions on a lot of that regarding logging and even removal of dead and diseased trees,” notes Bonner Cohen, a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research. “You have tinderboxes brought to you courtesy of either the federal government, or the state government, or – tragically in some cases – both.”

But rationality isn’t something that guides Democratic environmental policy-making in California. As such, the state’s residents suffer.

As reported by Fox Business, because of the increasing instances of wildfires in the state, hundreds of thousands of residents are losing their fire insurance:

Insurance has become a serious problem in California as wildfires — past and present — wreak havoc on the state.

After last year’s devastating wildfires, insurance companies are balking at fire coverage policy renewals for more than 350,000 residents in high-risk areas.

California governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Sonoma and Los Angeles counties

He said of PG&E: 'They simply did not do their job. We will hold them accountable. This cannot continue'

The utility company say up to 2.1 million people in Northern and Central California could lose power

A PG&E high-voltage power line malfunctioned minutes before a Northern California wildfire broke out

2,000 people have been evacuated, 49 homes have been destroyed and 21,900 acres have been burned

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said just five per cent of the fire had been contained 

There are currently nine active wildfires in California including the Cabrillo Fire, Kincade Fire, Muir Fire and Nelson Fire in the north; and the Mines Fire, Saddle Ridge Fire and Tick Fire in the south.

I don't care whether you walk or fly or stumble around or slither.

Jet fuel is an extract from oil, and it should remain that way. That's due to various aspects of airplane operation that you really have no clue about.

Babble your green nonsense on other topics, where the debate actually has some level of merit. Cars, for example.

Clearly the problem is that one of the richest places on the planet most socialist places in the USA cannot afford to build power lines. 

I think your insults are iconic and use them back to acknowledge how clever they are.  I would still rather see you focus more on content though.

I prefer to walk and take public transportation.  My compact car stays cold 25 days per month.  I do fly a lot though so I'm not going to pretend I'm fossil fuel free but I'm evidence of why the GND is so important.  Well intended people can't be tasked with curbing global emissions individually because we don't have the means. 100 companies are responsible for 71% of the emissions.  

GND would incentivize the airline industry to switch to a low/neutral carbon fuel and allow people to travel around the world without contributing to its destruction.  We have the technology but the market is never going to incentivize it over fossil based jet fuel in time.

If we couldn't see the world we wouldn't know what we are fighting so hard to protect.

Burying the lines would wipe out profits but benefit everyone.  This is why a big utility that everyone relies on should never be private.

Very very expensive to go to underground wires after it's been done. It's something that they're most likely going to think about doing for certain areas (if the power lines have already burnt out) but I don't think all of Cali is going to go underground as the cost is VERY VERY EXPENSIVE.

And even at a certain point there does have to be exposed wires. Most of Europe isn't exposed due to when they got the power cables built and put in -- very different time compared to the US.

The fire in the Sonoma County wine region north of San Francisco grew to more than 15 square miles before dawn and authorities ordered evacuations near the small community of Geyserville.

There was no immediate information about what caused the fire, but wildfire risk was extremely high as humidity levels plunged and gusty winds up to 70 mph hit the region.

The Pacific Gas & Electric Co. utility on Wednesday began rolling blackouts stretching from the Sierra foothills in the northeast to portions of the San Francisco Bay Area in a bid to keep the electrical grid from causing fires due to wind that can send power lines toppling, starting fires.

The blackouts impacted a half-million people — or nearly 180,000 customers — in 15 counties, and PG&E warned that a second round of outages could occur over the weekend when winds return to the region.

"800,000 Californians To Lose Power After Midnight"

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/800000-californians-lose-power-after-midnight

It's something that they're most likely going to think about doing for certain areas (if the power lines have already burnt out) but I don't think all of Cali is going to go underground as the cost is VERY VERY EXPENSIVE.

Wow, it's just been 2 weeks and they're going to see another blackout. I've known for a long time that California have a high fire risk but it seems it got worse that they have to cut power.

If this is the new "normal" they should probably consider changing the way they supply power. Like maybe underground? We don't see exposed cables in Venice, they managed even with the risk of flooding.

I mean they're doing things for a reason though, it's not like they're just shutting off the power to save money. They're shutting off the power due to the fact that dangerous winds could cause another Forrest fire, which is the reason they're shutting off the power.

I'd much rather have no power for a few days then see my home burnt down.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-21/power-outages-california-pge-and-southern-california-edison-shutoffs-fire-weather

I think your insults are iconic and use them back to acknowledge how clever they are.  I would still rather see you focus more on content though.

I prefer to walk and take public transportation.  My compact car stays cold 25 days per month.  I do fly a lot though so I'm not going to pretend I'm fossil fuel free but I'm evidence of why the GND is so important.  Well intended people can't be tasked with curbing global emissions individually because we don't have the means. 100 companies are responsible for 71% of the emissions.  

GND would incentivize the airline industry to switch to a low/neutral carbon fuel and allow people to travel around the world without contributing to its destruction.  We have the technology but the market is never going to incentivize it over fossil based jet fuel in time.

If we couldn't see the world we wouldn't know what we are fighting so hard to protect.