Why have I asked if PG&E is now like the stormy, long-term renter you somehow invited into your rental house years ago but, now, because you’ve recently found out that they’ve managed to destroy a good portion of your property, the neighbors are complaining and your property values are subsequently plummeting — you’ve got to get them out?

Because PG&E, I’m positing, may be acting like those bad tenants right now. By destroying your house and your property values. Purposely and with knowledge of their actions.

If you’ve been a landlord or you know one, you realize what I’m talking about. The tenants that, upon receiving the eviction notice, decide to punch holes in your walls, steal your appliances, rip down doors, break windows and then leave because, after all, they can’t be in your house any more.

So if you’re kicking them out, boy are you gonna pay!

PG&E doesn’t really like its customers any more because they’ve had the temerity to try to sue for 85+ deaths — a feat they won’t yet be able to accomplish as PG&E filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January of this year (the largest utility bankruptcy in US history), facing $30 billion dollars in wildfire liability — so PG&E (never faced with such animus before in its corporate life) has decided to, as it begins to exit, rip your house apart. Because it can.

How? By cutting off your power whenever the hell it feels like it under the guise of “we’re just helping you avoid wildfires.” Except that, yeah, that’s not working either.

Have you ever heard another utility say “in order to save you from electricity, we’re going to have to cut your electricity”? It would be similar to saying “in order to save you from water, we’re going to cut off your water.” Or your air, if they could.

And oh yes, they’re cutting off power to areas that aren’t really subject to wildfires. But PG&E doesn’t care. It’s going to shit on your bed for as long as you allow it to.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, its managers and CEOs are having a wonderful time at your expense. And they’re really enjoying watching you suffer. What fun! More champagne!

As Fires Ravaged California, Utilities Lobbied Lawmakers for Protection

by Ivan Penn, 1-5-19

LOS ANGELES — As California’s deadliest wildfire was consuming the town of Paradise in November, some of the state’s top power company officials and a dozen legislators were at an annual retreat at the Fairmont Kea Lani resort on Maui. In the course of four days, they discussed wildfires — and how much responsibility the utilities deserve for the devastation, if any.

If any. Pass the Laphroaig! Great luau! More rotisserie pig! More leis!

But get this:

It is an issue of increasing urgency as more fires are traced to equipment owned by California’s investor-owned utilities. The largest, Pacific Gas and Electric, could ultimately have to pay homeowners and others an estimated $30 billion for causing fires over the last two years. The most devastating of those, the Camp Fire, destroyed thousands of homes in Paradise and killed at least 86 people.

Realizing that their potential fire liability is large enough to bankrupt them, the utility companies are spending tens of millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions. Their goal: a California law that would allow them to pass on the cost of wildfires to their customers in the form of higher electricity rates. After an earlier lobbying push, legislators have already voted to protect the companies from having to bear the cost of 2017 fires, and utilities are seeking the same for 2018.

What a great world that would be! Feed the pig! Pass the pig!

But public interest groups say the utilities are effectively seeking a bailout for mistakes made by well-compensated executives. The utilities have been frequently criticized, for example, for not trimming trees along power lines. Some policy experts and lawmakers say it might be better to break up PG&E, replace its board and management or convert it into a publicly owned utility.

Uh oh. This doesn’t sound good. But that wouldn’t hurt customers, would it?

People on both sides fear that the state, which prides itself on being a leader in the fight against climate change, could be on the cusp of an energy crisis — its second in less than two decades. In 2000 and 2001, California was roiled by blackouts, soaring electricity rates and the bankruptcy of PG&E after the state made missteps in deregulating the power industry.

Energy crisis? Again? Hold that thought. Did you folks know this:

Just two months before the Camp Fire, PG&E seemed to have solved its most pressing problem: protecting its shareholders from footing the bill for the 2017 wildfires. On the typical bill of $100 a month, the company estimates, a customer would pay an additional $5 for every $1 billion the utility borrowed to cover damages.

Perfect. Ratepayers footing the bill for the homicidal PG&E’s incompetence.

The companies waged a multimillion-dollar campaign to secure that protection. In the first nine months of 2018, the three investor-owned utilities collectively gave $5 million to the campaigns of state lawmakers, as much as $1 million more than they had in any full year since 2011, according to Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy organization in California.

That’s cash that should have gone to the customers and the people injured or killed.

PG&E stepped up its lobbying effort, too — spending $8.4 million in just the first nine months of 2018, compared with $1.6 million in all of 2017 and $1.1 million in 2016. The company’s spending in the first three quarters exceeded 2017’s top spender, Chevron, which spent $8.2 million that year, according to Consumer Watchdog.

“Money talks in Sacramento, and big money talks loud enough to buy a big bailout,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. “There is no legislator of either party, even those who don’t take money from the utilities, who doesn’t worry about bucking the utilities.”

Consumer groups say the efforts to protect utilities are particularly galling because Californians already pay more for power than people in other Western states. The state’s residential electricity prices are between 19 percent and 40 percent higher than in neighboring Arizona, Nevada and Oregon.

Remember I mentioned another Kalifornia energy crisis? Keep reading.

For starters, PG&E was one of the prime backers of the catastrophic law that deregulated California’s energy sector, which led to rampant fraud, manipulation and speculation in the electricity market by energy-trading companies like Enron, causing artificial electricity shortages, massive black-outs, 20-fold increases in electricity rates and, ultimately, to PG&E’s own bankruptcy.

That didn’t go well. I was here. Rolling brownouts in the summer and skyrocketing rates.

Instead of letting the deregulated market do its magic and let a more competitive company step in, PG&E lobbied California’s pliable legislators for a 40% rate increase and two rounds of bailouts that came to a total of $16 billion, courtesy of PG&E customers. In fact, the utility’s 5 million ratepayers are still paying for the company’s mistakes through mandatory fees. By the time PG&E’s bankruptcy-related debts are paid off in 2012, ratepayers will each have dished out around $1,500 to keep it from collapsing.

Whoa, us lucky Kalifornians! But was it a real crisis in 2001? No, of course not. Listen:

But how is PG&E acting like bad renters?

Because they realize that shutting off your power hurts you personally and sometimes physically, and they know that the process of de-energizing the lines and re-energizing the lines and the concomitant neglected equipment is having a deleterious effect on all the infrastructure.

Transformers, high voltage power lines and associated heavy electrical equipment is designed, as you would suspect on any average electrical grid, to work constantly and dependably. It was designed to take high loads, some occasional power spikes and the occasional outage when lines break and power is diverted.

It wasn’t designed to be started and stopped like the engine on your car.

None of it was engineered to be de-energized and then re-energized with any kind of regular frequency. That’s not the job of that equipment. Its job is to carry big voltage. You recall how PG&E has consistently made something of a “big deal” about re-energizing its equipment and the subsequent checks they must make prior to restoring power? Apparently there is an excellent reason for that.

Because this easily-ignored and likely bypassed tidbit exists six paragraphs down:

PG&E said inspectors found 55 instances of damage to their equipment statewide.

PG&E “inspectors.” People whose job it is to monitor lines and apparatus following de-energization. Does PG&E know — or do other electrical equipment and transformer manufacturers know — what kind of damage is done when you place such stress on these systems under these circumstances with, now, regularity?

I think I could make an excellent argument for saying there is an even greater stress being placed on PG&E lines and equipment already in questionable shape by bringing the system up and down — to the point where one must ask: is doing this jeopardizing customers with an even greater risk of arcing, flashing and resulting wildfires?

Smart people will want to have answers to those questions.

And smart people will realize that the PG&E management recognizes its days are numbered, that they’re soon to be torn apart and thrown to the wolves. So fuck it. If they can’t have their bloated-pig PG&E, then you won’t have it either.

I can hear the sound of holes being kicked in drywall from here.

BZ

 

 

Because of one company: PG&E.

PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric), in its frenetic mix of homicide and greed, has hammered home one of the final few nails remaining in the coffin of California — not that the state required much help in that sense.

The state was doing a lovingly-wonderful job by itself in the form of Governor Gavin Newsom and the rest of the Demorat supermajority in the capitol building at 10th and L Streets in Sacramento, coddling criminals, excoriating law enforcement, and offering Free Cheese to every illegal who can possibly motate to the state — ahead of its own homeless and its own veterans. But that’s a story for another day.

You know: this Sacramento.

Ably assisting PG&E, I must note, have been decades and decades of California and federal forest mismanagement which has forbidden the removal of dead trees, almost all forms of logging, the clearing of forest loam and deadfall (dead tree branches, dead bushes, scrub, continuous seasonal pine needle accumulations and more which, in some forest locations, can be literally one to two feet thick), the proscription of controlled burns, and the complete and utter failure of any form of coherent water resource management or water management infrastructure (dams, reservoirs, penstocks) creation whatsoever in the entire state.

Not to mention additional decades of EnviroLeftist policies which have served absolutely no purpose in California save that of killing people, animals, plants, and decimating thousands and thousands of acres of trees, buildings and family homes. Not to mention the reliably-annual fouling of our skies which impacts the young, the elderly, and those with various medical breathing conditions.

But who cares, right?

PG&E lines and equipment were already determined to be responsible for the Camp Fire in 2018, a conflagration that razed the town of Paradise, destroyed 19,000 buildings and killed 85 people as of last count.

PG&E CAUSED CAMP FIRE THAT DESTROYED PARADISE AND KILLED 85, CAL FIRE SAYS

by Tony Bizjak, Sophia Bollag and Ryan Sabalow

It’s official. Pacific Gas & Electric caused the Camp Fire.

State fire officials announced Wednesday a six-month investigation has determined what many already thought: PG&E power lines in the high hills of Butte County ignited the devastating blaze that destroyed nearly 19,000 buildings and killed 85 people, almost all in one frantic November day.

PG&E, which is now in bankruptcy, due in part to pending wildfire legal costs, acknowledged several months ago there were power line problems at the site of the fire ignition point, citing a faulty hook on a tower.

Amongst many other things.

Now perhaps you have an understanding of why, on my radio show and social media I portray the company as the “homicidal PG&E.” That is my opinion. The company has not yet been found guilty of murder. But what other conclusion can you reach when the company has consistently placed maintenance and critical equipment replacement far behind the needs of shareholders and the needs of the PG&E officers and board? Not just this year or last year. But for decades.

With long-lasting, catastrophic and deadly consequences.

Governor Newsom had the temerity to smile during a press conference. Because he has great teeth? Perhaps; but mostly because he is:

• ENTIRELY.
• 100%.
• UNAFFECTED.

Here is a reminder about the Newsoms and the other Demorat elite California Families:

Let us not forget that those 85 persons were literally burned to death and likely ended up in what is termed the “pugilist’s position.”

The Pugilistic posture:.When subjected to fire, the human body initially takes on the pugilistic posture, also called the boxer’s pose, where the fingers, wrists, elbows, and knees flex. This posture occurs because fire makes the muscles shrink, which in turn causes the joints to flex.

Lives were destroyed. People were killed. All because of one company. The fault has already been documented as indicated.

Fast forward now.

I just finished speaking to a Kalifornia couple who went to the city of Fort Bragg (Fort Bragg is a coastal town of about 7,300 people, roughly 137 miles north of San Francisco) for a 10-day vacation on Friday, the 25th of October, just two weeks ago.

They planned to stay at a recently-renovated hotel overlooking the Noyo harbor, having beautiful rooms replete with gorgeous wood walls, cabinets, furniture, big tubs, fireplaces and balconies. They’d stayed there before and were impressed with the new hotel and its amenities.

Furthermore, they have customarily stayed in Fort Bragg or that general area because they loved the ocean, liked the people, the town and, moreover, it didn’t cost three arms and five legs to stay there as opposed to San Francisco, San Diego or Monterey.

To the point where, for at least the last ten years, Fort Bragg and that area was usually their go-to choice for vacations twice a year — when they could afford it — usually in the winter when there were fewer people, better rates, bigger waves, storm clouds, rain and heavy weather. They disliked the heat and enjoyed the cold and rainy days.

Until PG&E shat on their vacation. And will continue to shit on every other vacation in California for at least the next decade. More on that in a moment. Keep reading.

PG&E admitted that their faulty equipment started the recent Kincade fire in Sonoma County on Wednesday, October 23rd — a fire which is still blazing as of this writing, but is roughly 82% contained — but still has some evacuation warnings in effect.

High-voltage PG&E power line broke near origin of massive fire in California wine country

by Reis Thebault, Kim Bellware and Andrew Freedman

A fast-spreading wildfire, spurred by powerful winds, continued to rage in Northern California on Friday and forced thousands of people to evacuate parts of Sonoma County — the rural wine country 75 miles north of San Francisco that is still recovering from a deadly 2017 blaze.

As the Kincade Fire cut a destructive path across the pastoral, vineyard-dotted area, Pacific Gas & Electric, the state’s largest utility, told state regulators that a jumper on one of its transmission towers broke close to where the fire started, near Geyserville.

But wait; it gets better.

In the report it filed with the California Public Utilities Commission, PG&E said it became aware of the transmission tower malfunction at 9:20 p.m. Wednesday. The fire began at 9:27 p.m., according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

So because of that fire, PG&E decided that it was going to cut power to thousands and thousands of additional customers.

PG&E first thought the power would be cut that Friday night at around midnight, October 25th. By that time the couple had driven to and arrived at their beautiful hotel overlooking Noyo harbor. They had completely unpacked quite a number of suitcases and bags in anticipation of enjoying the next ten days carefree. No one had mentioned anything about cutting the power to Fort Bragg when they left for their vacation.

And, oh yes: it took them five hours to drive there. So yes, they had been and were committed over the years to the town of Fort Bragg. They ate out at the local restaurants. They shopped at the Safeway, Purity and Harvest Markets. They purchased their gas in town, went to the local theater, solicited the local massage therapists, went to Roundman’s, North Coast Brewery and many other businesses.

That Friday night, hotel management called and said there was a chance power would be lost by midnight. They dropped a “lantern” off at the door which, truly, on a good night, illuminated about a six-inch circle. But hey, points for trying.

They didn’t lose power at midnight. But the couple heard the entire area would be losing power for a minimum of three days, beginning Saturday, October 26th at 5 PM. Everything they could find on the internet said the same thing. Power might be restored by Monday. Might. But that’s if all the inspections required prior to the re-energization of the lines checked out.

So the couple had a decision to make. And they decide to leave. Why? What were the elements of their decision? Why would they leave such a beautiful coastal area?

Saturday morning at 8 AM they checked out, after having spent only one of ten days at the beautiful hotel. They delineated their reasons to the manager and wished her and the hotel the best of luck but that, sadly, they wouldn’t be returning to their hotel or any other in the region. Not for quite some time. Or perhaps ever. They also wished their town and region the best of luck because, boy, would they need it.

The manager, much to her credit, tried to get them to return. “We’ll be having our own generator shortly,” she said. They just didn’t have one now. “And the Safeway will have its own generator. So will one of the delis.”

That’s all well and good, you see, the couple pointed out. But when people take a vacation, they do so in order to relax thoroughly. Planning a vacation can be stressful enough. But to attempt to foresee weather and power and the complications inherent from those variables is too much to ask of most vacationers.

Including the couple.

Yes, the couple agreed, they could go to the Safeway and get food. But they couldn’t cook in their room, could they? No microwave in the room. No kitchen. And soon one would tire of eating at the same deli, though it had power.

Luckily their car was gas powered. But what if they had a Tesla? Or what if they failed to fill up, after arrival and notification, their gasoline powered car? Where could they quick-charge a Tesla? Priuses and hybrids require gas. Who can pump gas when the power goes out? Who can charge a Tesla when the power goes out?

Do you understand the difference between Level 2 and Level 3 charging stations? You’d better. Because that now becomes another factor in planning your vacation to California.

From CAPoliticalReview.com:

Blackouts: California’s Electric Car Dream Is Turning Into A Nightmare

by Stephen Frank, 10-29-19

Imagine you have to evacuate your home due to fire—but you can’t because for the past five days you had no electricity, none to recharge your electric vehicle?  Your tax dollars and private dollars went to “save” the planet, and now you can not even save yourself.  Guv Newsom is telling us this is going to be the normal—government controlled energy that is unstable and totally reliable.  California energy is as reliable in the former Golden State as it is in Cuba or Venezuela.  Both Third world countries.  How soon before businesses and families flee the State to save themselves?

“The blackouts—which one might expect from a third-world or mismanaged nation such as Venezuela or even Pakistan, which leads the world in the number of annual blackouts—are life and death for some California residents, and the problem isn’t expected to be resolved anytime soon. But it also may mean life and death for California’s plan to encourage residents to adopt EVs.”

Which is why the couple realized they had to fill their car with gas before anyone else, if they wished to get back to their home near Sacramento — an area which never went dark because its power was provided by SMUD — the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, which has its very own separate sources of power and doesn’t rely on PG&E for anything.

They discovered: it’s somewhat about getting into your vacation spot. And perhaps more importantly in the new California, it’s about getting out.

Let’s say you’re in an area that isn’t under the immediate assault of a wildfire in Kalifornia. Wildfires are a topic for another day, another post.

But let’s say you’re anticipating entering into an area, on your vacation, where PG&E may fear wildfires.

If you’re planning a vacation to Kalifornia, you’d better understand the areas affected by the electric utility PG&E.

PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to most of the northern two-thirds of California, from Bakersfield and to the north side of the County of Santa Barbara to near the Oregon State Line and Nevada and Arizona State Line, which represents 5.2 million households.

So now, in terms of preparing your vacation to Kalifornia, you’d best consult a PG&E coverage map in order to determine if you’re subject to mandatory power cutoffs on the whim of PG&E.

The first thing you should now ask is: okay, what territories in Kalifornia are covered by PG&E?

PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to most of the northern two-thirds of California, from Bakersfield and to the north side of the County of Santa Barbara to near the Oregon State Line and Nevada and Arizona State Line, which represents 5.2 million households.

PG&E is the largest utility company in the state, serving 16 million people across a 70,000-square-mile service area in northern and central California.

Figure 1: PG&E Service Territory. Please note that this includes the bulk of California coastal areas ranging from Southern California up to almost the entire Northern California coast. Want to see the California coast in the summer? Beware. On the other hand, the Southern California desert is always a great place to be in the summer.

PG&E is one of four regulated, investor-owned utilities (IOUs) in California; the other three are PacifiCorp‘s Pacific Power, Southern California Edison and Sempra Energy‘s San Diego Gas & Electric.^[8]

You are invited — no, you should demand — to examine, know and realize which portions of California are not controlled by or subject to PG&E coverage. It’s in your best interest if, frankly, you plan to do essentially anything in California either short or, in particular, long term.

PG&E, as you may or may not know, declared bankruptcy in January of 2019 because of $3 billion dollars of liabilities from 2018 wildfires. PG&E — otherwise known as Pacific Gas and Electric — has a choke-hold on California. It is literally a monopoly in terms of power availability for locations less than major population centers.

Other areas, however, conjured they were somehow inviolate and never thought about the ramifications of laboring under the PG&E label, like Berkeley and Oakland and certain other high dollar areas like Marin and Sonoma and Napa.

Here’s one thing we do know: these power shutoffs didn’t occur until after PG&E was sued to within an inch of its life — though the weather conditions hadn’t changed. They haven’t changed for years. Decades.

Let’s be honest. The Santa Ana winds occur every year in Southern California. High winds can occur in Northern Kalifornia at any time.

Power shutoffs only occurred after PG&E was held responsible for various wildfires due to negligence in terms of infrastructure, line, tower, and transformer maintenance.

Another reason you should never vacation in California? You are extraneous baggage as a vacationer during a PG&E power shutoff. You are not a member of whatever community you’re visiting and, quite frankly, your presence and that of your family is an unnecessary,unneeded and unwanted drag on whatever resources are available for actual residents.

You are going to be either 1) In the way, or 2) Another drain on the finite number of solutions to the overall problem(s) required. Let’s be blunt: actual residents need the resources first.

That was another reason my friends left Fort Bragg. They realized they were soon to become a liability to the community and likely an obstruction. Thank God they had the common sense to leave and become less of a burden upon the needs of locals.

So what is the future of vacationing in California? Again I say: consult the most recent electrical power map available before you take a chance at booking a room most anywhere in the state, save major population centers.

And in Los Angeles and San Francisco you now have the appealing issue of having to wade through piles of human poo, puddles of human piss, hypodermic syringes and the return of lovely medieval-age diseases like leprosy, with an enticing helping of tuberculosis and hepatitis.

My; now that’s a vacation to admire.

Kalifornia “wildfire season” can range from mid-summer to October and into November or beyond, depending on the weather forecast. This is nothing new. Kalifornia has always had cyclical droughts. Moreover, pretty much the entire region of Southern Kalifornia is built upon a desert. But hey. No one ever tells you that.

So what’s the future? NPR says:

Are Blackouts The Future For California?

by Lauren Sommer

After millions of Californians endured a power shutdown earlier this month, state officials are demanding that utilities find ways to reduce the impact of outages. Blackouts are almost certain to happen again to prevent devastating wildfires. In fact, power company Pacific Gas & Electric now says customers can expect outages for at least a decade as it upgrades its systems.

Clue in, Kalifornians: “Pacific Gas & Electric now says customers can expect outages for at least a decade.”

Wired.com wrote:

Power Shutoffs Can’t Save California From Wildfire Hell

by Matt Simon

A staggering 800,000 customers will lose power across the state starting Wednesday. But that won’t fix the mess California’s made.

On Wednesday and Thursday, high seasonal winds will tear through California, drying out vegetation and fanning wildfires. The conditions could easily spell a devastating, deadly conflagration. In preparation, early Wednesday morning the utility PG&E—whose equipment sparked last year’s Camp Fire, which killed 86 people and destroyed the town of Paradise—will begin preemptively shutting off power to a staggering 800,000 customers.

Those customers are not happy, and for good reason: Losing power is a hassle for anyone, but it’s potentially deadly for those who rely on electrical medical devices. Businesses lose business, food spoils in warming fridges, and critical infrastructure goes offline. But this is no shot in the dark—meteorologists can predict where and when those winds will grow dire, so PG&E can target their shutoffs. It’s a calculus that climate change is making increasingly familiar. But blaming the climate alone would be letting California off the hook. Its policies and building habits are also responsible for the darkness that must now descend on northern portions of the state.

BINGO. And this is a perfect description heretofore avoided due to its accuracy.

California’s wildfire problem grows from a clash of contrasts. In the atmosphere at this time of year, pressure builds up in air masses over the Great Basin, east of the state. At the same time, a low pressure region takes shape near the coast. Because air tends to move from high- to low-pressure areas, winds start accelerating from the northeast toward the coast. The greater this pressure gradient, the stronger the winds.

Read on and ask yourself: why wouldn’t you have wanted to minimize the fuel available in the entire state of Kalifornia? You knew of its problematic existence for decades.

At ground level, the warm air screaming through the mountains sucks away whatever moisture might be left in the vegetation—which is increasingly little as the climate warms in California and autumns grow increasingly dry. What’s left is a parched landscape that’s primed to burn, and winds of 60 or 70 miles per hour can speedily turn a spark into a fast-moving wildfire. Such was the case in last year’s Camp Fire: Winds picked up embers and blew them perhaps a mile ahead of the main conflagration, setting a multitude of small fires throughout the town of Paradise, overwhelming firefighters.

California is experiencing the perfect trifecta of wildfire disaster; a “perfect storm” if you will. PG&E is smack dab in the middle of it.

PG&E bears outsize responsibility for this mess; its dismal safety record includes 17 major wildfires in 2017 alone. Miles upon miles of electrical lines criss-cross the landscape, providing ample opportunity for ignition. A solution might be to bury the lines, but that’s expensive and often not feasible in rocky regions. In an ideal world, all of these mountain towns would operate on their own self-contained, solar-powered microgrids, but that too is wildly expensive.

Then, I recently discovered, there is this critically-important little sentence buried in the midst of the following article which, inadvertently I believe, tells you much about PG&E and the condition of its lines. From ABC7News.com:

PG&E says ‘essentially all’ customers restored after outages

Friday, November 1, 2019

PG&E has restored power to essentially all customers impacted by the Oct. 29 Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS).

Currently, 1,400 total PSPS-impacted customers remain out of power.

That’s good; power was being restored.

But did anyone consider this: transformers, high voltage power lines and associated heavy electrical equipment is designed, as you would suspect on any average electrical grid, to work constantly and dependably. It was designed to take high loads, some occasional power spikes and the occasional outage when lines break and power is diverted.

It wasn’t designed to be started and stopped like the engine on your car.

None of it was engineered to be de-energized and then re-energized with any kind of regular frequency. That’s not the job of that equipment. Its job is to carry big voltage. You recall how PG&E has consistently made something of a “big deal” about re-energizing its equipment and the subsequent checks they must make prior to restoring power? Apparently there is an excellent reason for that.

Because this easily-ignored and likely bypassed tidbit exists six paragraphs down:

PG&E said inspectors found 55 instances of damage to their equipment statewide.

PG&E “inspectors.” People whose job it is to monitor lines and apparatus following de-energization. Does PG&E know — or do other electrical equipment and transformer manufacturers know — what kind of damage is done when you place such stress on these systems under these circumstances with, now, regularity?

I think I could make an excellent argument for saying there is an even greater stress being placed on PG&E lines and equipment already in questionable shape by bringing the system up and down — to the point where one must ask: is doing this jeopardizing customers with an even greater risk of arcing, flashing and resulting wildfires?

Smart people will want to have answers to those questions.

Well look, there have to be some mitigating factors to all of this power stuff, right? Solar power? Generators? Lots and lots of flashlights? That should help when the juice shuts off, right?

[“I know!” say many smaller jurisdictions most recently. “We’ll start our own power companies!” Hold that thought, Gaylord.]

And oddly enough, just at a time when California has so righteously mandated that electric vehicles become absolutely endemic in, what, just a few years in the future? Anyone besides me see something of a potential conflict here?

Blackouts: California’s Electric Car Dream Is Turning Into A Nightmare

October 29, 2019 By Stephen Frank

Imagine you have to evacuate your home due to fire—but you can’t because for the past five days you had no electricity, none to recharge your electric vehicle?  Your tax dollars and private dollars went to “save” the planet, and now you can’t even save yourself. 

Governor Newsom is telling us this is going to be the new normal — government controlled energy that is unstable and totally reliable. 

California energy is as reliable in the former Golden State as it is in Cuba or Venezuela.  Both Third world countries.  How soon before businesses and families flee the state to save themselves?

Oh trust me, people have been fleeing California for quite some time. This just happens to be the electric blue icing on the proverbial escapist cake. ClimateDepot.com wrote:

“The blackouts—which one might expect from a third-world or mismanaged nation such as Venezuela or even Pakistan, which leads the world in the number of annual blackouts—are life and death for some California residents, and the problem isn’t expected to be resolved anytime soon. But it also may mean life and death for California’s plan to encourage residents to adopt EVs.”

But wait; California already is, on many levels, a third world country replete with disease and festooned with poop. My, how appealing.

Actually, this may be a good thing—billions will have to be spent to retrofit gas stations for EV chargers, homes will spend thousands to create personal rechargers—and the government owned utilities will raise the price of electricity. 

Stop. When you depend on a commodity (just like petroleum and fossil fuels) because of your lifestyle and that of most everyone else, does that mean prices will simply plummet? Oh gosh no. The electric companies will have you by the low hanging fruities.

And let’s use this as another example: all throughout the United States electric utility companies were and have been telling you to conserve, conserve, conserve. You think your rates will go down because, well, you’re using less electricity, right? Wrong. In cases like that those utilities had to increase rates because, after all, they weren’t making as much money, were they?

Billions In tax incentives to get the economic illiterate to buy a car that government will control.  Watch as people become aware of the EV scam by government trying to end car use in this State.

So let’s recap about our potential vacation in California:

• If it’s summer, in PG&E territory, and on through fire season up to and including November and possibly December, you’re going to lose power. “Hello darkness, my old friend” doesn’t work so well on vacation.
• Are you guaranteed there won’t be, now, PG&E blackouts in the winter with their already-challenged and stressed lines and equipment?
• Experts say the current electrical provider issues with PG&E will likely — and I see no reason necessarily why this will change — continue for the next decade.
• You can’t “solar” yourself out of a power blackout — unless you’ve gone the extra expensive mile and purchased your own commercial-grade battery backup set.
• Don’t bring your electric car. You won’t get out.
• Don’t bring your laptop, iPad, cell phone or other electrical devices you so love on your vacation.
• You’d best hope your petroleum-based vacation vehicle always has sufficient fuel to escape PG&E territory and get to gas stations whose pumps are actually working.
• The restaurants, theaters and various local attractions don’t look so inviting when they’re dark.
• And oh yeah: there won’t be nearly enough generators to go around in California because, well, everyone wants one now.

Do yourself a massive favor.

Go vacation in Cuba or Venezuela or beautiful downtown Mogadishu.

It’ll likely be more reliable, cheaper, safer and cleaner than California.

BZ