The elites that run California like to pretend that they have a better way. [.…snip…]
But this summer, in the wake of disastrous wildfires sparked by poorly sited and maintained power lines, the deep thinkers running the state have come up with a plan that can’t be papered over: to stop the wildfires when the wind blows, just shut off the juice.
Bloomberg reports:
A plan by California’s biggest utility to cut power on high-wind days during the onrushing wildfire season could plunge millions of residents into darkness. And the vast majority isn’t ready for it.
The plan by PG&E Corp. comes after the bankrupt utility said a transmission line that snapped in windy weather probably started last year’s Camp Fire, the deadliest in state history.
While the plan may end one problem, it creates another as Californians seek ways to deal with what some fear could be days and days of blackouts.
Hapless Californians will have to lay out a lot of money if they want to try to insulate themselves from going back to life before electricity:
Some residents are turning to other power sources, a boon for home battery systems marketed by Sunrun Inc., Tesla Inc. and Vivint Solar Inc.
But the numbers of those systems in use are relatively small when compared with PG&E’s 5.4 million customers. Meanwhile, Governor Gavin Newsom said he’s budgeting $75 million to help communities deal with the threat.
“I’m worried,” Newsom said Thursday during a budget briefing in Sacramento. “We’re all worried about it for the elderly. We’re worried about it because we could see people’s power shut off not for a day or two but potentially a week.”
Newsom should stop sending good money after bad and completely abandon the ongoing expenditure of billions on the high-speed rail system, just to save face for Jerry Brown’s pet project.
Nobody is going to want to take a half-fast train from Merced to Bakersfield, which is the plan now that running from LA to SF is obviously financially impossible.
That money could go to an emergency plan to safeguard power lines in wooded areas.
While the rich Californians right along the coast may not experience a lot of hundred-degree days, the inland parts of the state do get extreme heat in the summer, and now may have a week or longer without electricity.
And without television, charging stations for cell phones, and of course, for medical devices that are powered by electricity.
A stable, reliable electric power grid is one of the essentials to be regarded as a First World County.
So now, in addition to the vast gap between the wealthy and the poor and beggars everywhere (San Francisco is now like Calcutta, it seems, in that respect), the state will face Third World electricity supplies.
My spidey sense tells me that Silicon Valley and San Francisco will continue to be supplied, along with Sacramento and LA and San Diego.
But for the folks laboring in the agricultural fields of the Central Valley, life will get a lot closer to Bangladesh.
Read rest at American Thinker
The Golden State thanks to the stupidity of the Eco-Freaks the State is a mess and the mess Moonbeam left behind Newsom makes it worst
Not even batteries the size of a warehouse and with high explosion and fire potential can bridge this power canyon.
Just more excellent planning by those who are so far-seeing and intelligent that they can deride the ignorant masses..
If you are ignorant enough to live there; you get what you deserve.
This one caught me by surprise. I have long predicted that we are headed for major power outages in certain areas due to relying on low density, expensive, and unreliable wind and solar power. The power outages that may occur to avoid fire are something that could happen even if man made climate change had never been an issue.
We have a lot of experience with power outages and people are more adaptable than the article implies. In 1993 while living in Bellevue WA we had a 5 day outage in January. We did better than most with a wood stove and plenty of firewood. However, even those that were less prepared got through it, though I’m sure they were not comfortable. An inconvenient true for the climate alarmists is the hottest weather in the United States was in the mid 1930’s before air conditioning was common. People often slept outside some times in wet blankets. Wet clothing or a minimum of clothing is something that anyone can do adapt to the heat. We now live in the cascade foothills where power outages are common. This experience shows that as time goes on people take measures to adapt. Most homes where we live have generators large enough to take care of the essentials such as power for the well. For the general population the biggest issue requiring preparation is power for medical important medical devices.
Listen up Greens if you want to live in a primative way you go right ahead and do it just quit trying to force the rest of us from living like you do by forcing all of America to abide by the Junk Science inspired Paris Accord and Green New Deal i don’t want to live as you do