A blueprint for the deindustrialization of the U.S. is being revealed even now in (you guessed it) California.
Beginning early yesterday morning, a series of total power shutoffs by Pacific Gas & Electric began in every county of the Bay Area, along with a number of others to the north (the number of counties involved total 34). The sole exception — as you might have guessed — is San Francisco.
The power cutoffs are complete, with no exceptions for hospitals, emergency services, phone networks, etc., the purpose is to eliminate all power flowing through overhead power lines in the affected areas in a clumsy, ill-considered effort to prevent wildfires.
The vast areas of central California will be returned by fiat to the conditions of the 19th century. Something like 800,000 PG&E customers will be affected.
The duration of the shutoff is effectively arbitrary and may extend up to five days or more. (I would guess that it depends on particular conditions of humidity, dryness, and windiness, but it may not be even that logical. It seldom is with environmentalists.)
The reason that this is “necessary” is due to yet other environmental laws preventing California power companies from adequately trimming back brush and undergrowth near their power lines, for fear that this may annoy a rare species of mountain toad or something similar.
As a result, brush grows adjacent and underactive power lines, where it is believed that sparking from the lines can set it ablaze, though, to my knowledge, this has never been definitely determined either.
There is nothing particularly novel about this. In 2007 the Fish and Wildlife Service effectively shut down farming in the Central Valley – one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world – by curtailing irrigation on the grounds that water pumps might inconvenience a fish the size of an average little finger called the delta smelt.
No evidence existed that a single delta smelt had ever been killed or mangled by an irrigation pump, but that didn’t matter. The decision was affirmed by the 9th Circuit court in 2015, leaving the area in a permanent state of economic depression.
Little or no evidence of planning is evident regarding these shutoffs. They were announced only hours before being put into effect, with little advice apart from tips to stock up on candles and batteries.
Not surprisingly, next to nothing was heard from local or state government on the matter – they doubtlessly prefer that the entire responsibility and blame fall upon PG&E.
Further evidence of poor planning appeared on Wednesday afternoon when a state trade association, the California Fuels and Convenience Alliance, reported that gas stations in the blackout districts had been “overwhelmed” by desperate customers (either hoarding or seeking enough fuel to flee) and pleading for drivers to “continue a normal fueling routine, without any immediate overreaction.”
These are the first signs of a panic that may continue to build. Even if California avoids riots and other public disturbances, damage from these blackouts will be large-scale and permanent.
Economic activity will dwindle to next to nothing. Schools, offices, and plants will shut down. People will be killed, including the elderly who depend on electrical-powered health aids and those in the high country who adopt desperate methods to heat their homes.
No matter what the result, the exercise will be hailed as a “success” by environmentalists, state bureaucrats, and their allies, and a “model” for efforts elsewhere.
The truth is that the wildfire premise, which could be easily addressed by a few thousand people with brush cutters, is no more than a pretext.
The end goal of the modern green movement, clearly expressed by Paul Ehrlich, John Holdren, and Dave Foreman among many others is deindustrialization followed by depopulation.
This has been something carefully omitted from the argument both by the greens and their opponents, who are much more comfortable with arguing direct financial costs of fractions of a cent.
Most of the public continues to cling to the deltas smelt and spotted owl version of the green movement, unable and perhaps unwilling to grasp that the ultimate goal is to turn them, their families, and their communities into fertilizer.
It has commonly been projected that the first move would look a lot like this. Californians should value the short period of civilized living they have left. Someday soon, the power will go off, and it will never come back on again.
Read more at American Thinker
When I traveled to third world countries on business back in the eighties, this was the norm. Kill power from ~1300-1700. People and businesses coped by shifting working hours and not doing much during the afternoon.
You can’t really blame PG & E for taking a preemptive measure to lower their fire liability, given the past cases in California. Folks around the country need to take note of the “perverse” results you get when you no longer have rational approaches to environmental protection. Looking forward…Keep an eye on the Northeast U.S as the next “test vehicle” this winter. If conditions are harsh, you are probably going to see blackouts & natural gas curtailments as a result of pipeline blockages over the past 2-3 years. There are consequences for poor (short sighted) decisions. Americans need to start waking up that keeping our electrical grid stable & reliable and fuel readily available & affordable is a lifestyle BONUS that several BILLION people around the world don’t enjoy on a daily basis. Sometimes you have to be reminded to have a little more GRATITUDE…
So the third world (with banana republic thrown in as seen w/ San Francisco unaffected) has arrived to California. Wonder how those Teslas are going to work w/o any electricity.
I would also be surprised if the big hi-techs in the area will be w/o power. Companies like Google and Apple.
California run by the Stupid Jackass Party(Liberal Democrats)is a mess because Newsom is a total jerk no different then Moonbeam Brown and i live here in Northern California what we like to call The State of Jefferson in Siskiyou County a Red County in a Blue State
Dem’s would like a recession heading into the 2020 election. The economic euphoria that President Trump ‘owns’ would be gone. Why not start the downturn in California? These deliberate power outages could be the spark.
The real threat to the nation is not from poor foliage management under power lines. It is the effort to transition to non-nuclear renewable energy that can not sustain our society. Consider the process in Australia. They decommissioned coal power plants on the theory that renewables would pickup the load without the new energy being available. The result is less power available and a system that is likely to collapse.
Groups working for de-industrialization have been around for a long time. In the 1970’s the general consensus was that we were running out of fossil fuels. Those seeking de-industrialization significantly augmented the anti-nuclear power movement because with fossil fuels thought to be running out and nuclear power suppressed, the lack of energy would force de-industrialization.