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+--- Thread: PSA: California - Wed midnight PG&E shutting off electric power in 34 counties (/showthread.php?tid=233129)
PSA: California - Wed midnight PG&E shutting off electric power in 34 counties - RgrF - 10-09-2019
High winds expected - residents with medical needs requiring electricity told to relocate.
A major utility has infrastructure so obsolete and unmaintained it has to be shut off to prevent loss of life and property. Guess some Californians are going to find out what it's like to live in a second or third world country.
Re: PSA: California - Wed midnight PG&E shutting off electric power in 34 counties - GGD - 10-09-2019
I'm in a zone on their map that is supposed to lose power, its 12:20 AM and the lights are still on.
The winds aren't even supposed to pick up until Wed night, as of now, the leaves on trees aren't even fluttering.
Re: PSA: California - Wed midnight PG&E shutting off electric power in 34 counties - RgrF - 10-09-2019
I read the PG&E notice to mean midnight tonight (Wed), if the winds don't show up they may rescind the decision. Hopefully there will be weather shift between now and then.
Re: PSA: California - Wed midnight PG&E shutting off electric power in 34 counties - vision63 - 10-09-2019
RgrF wrote:
High winds expected - residents with medical needs requiring electricity told to relocate.
A major utility has infrastructure so obsolete and unmaintained it has to be shut off to prevent loss of life and property. Guess some Californians are going to find out what it's like to live in a second or third world country.
You're diminishing the true experience of living in 2nd and 3rd world countries. I'm sure we will survive. They claim mine is going off at noon Wednesday. We shall see. I hope not. The game comes on around 5.
Re: PSA: California - Wed midnight PG&E shutting off electric power in 34 counties - RgrF - 10-09-2019
I'm certain you will. I'm also not so certain that word has gotten out to where it needs to be. Much of the area is rural and a lot of those folk depend on available elec for health device support of one sort or another.
The 3rd world jibe was aimed at a utility that has cause untold death and suffering because of it's failure of mission. It's teetering on bankruptcy and it's hard for me to envision stockholders returning the dividends they reaped over those misspent years so the surviving entity will then have to rebuild on the backs of ratepayers.
Re: PSA: California - Wed midnight PG&E shutting off electric power in 34 counties - vision63 - 10-09-2019
RgrF wrote:
I'm certain you will. I'm also not so certain that word has gotten out to where it needs to be. Much of the area is rural and a lot of those folk depend on available elec for health device support of one sort or another.
The 3rd world jibe was aimed at a utility that has cause untold death and suffering because of it's failure of mission. It's teetering on bankruptcy and it's hard for me to envision stockholders returning the dividends they reaped over those misspent years so the surviving entity will then have to rebuild on the backs of ratepayers.
People talk but nobody really cares and nothing is really going to happen to them. Bankruptcy would help them out by getting rid of pesky creditors. PG&E's coverage schematic is too vast, too rugged and too old. Plus there are millions of dead and dying trees in forests they don't own ready to be sparked. Mostly by reasons other than them. The shut offs are just to cover their asses. For show. Punishing them only makes my bill higher. They pass it all on to me. My place in L.A. is SoCal Edison. They aren't any better. Their footprint is much smaller even though they have about the same number of customers. Then there is L.A.'s DWP. They're no better either. Smaller footprint, easier terrain.
Re: PSA: California - Wed midnight PG&E shutting off electric power in 34 counties - NewtonMP2100 - 10-09-2019
......power......to the people.....
Re: PSA: California - Wed midnight PG&E shutting off electric power in 34 counties - RAMd®d - 10-09-2019
PG&E's CHECK YOUR ADDRESS page doesn't load.
I'll have to try another Mac and browser.
Re: PSA: California - Wed midnight PG&E shutting off electric power in 34 counties - Markintosh - 10-09-2019
Fortunately, we live in an area that is serviced by a local public utilities district that does not get power from PGE. So we are not currently expecting a shut down. But general panic is spreading for sure.
As much as PGE is a monopoly, there are soooo many other factors at work here, and I believe that PGE is the scapegoat for a world of other problems.
The officials
I spent 18 years as a volunteer firefighter in a very fire prone county. During that tenure, I responded to one wildfire caused by a down power line in a November wind storm. I responded to hundreds caused by other causes: campfires, escaped burn piles, off highway vehicles, vehicle malfunctions, target practice, lawnmower, chainsaws, lightning and arson are the primary causes that come to mind.
Following the Tubbs fire and then last year's Camp fire, people were looking for someone to blame. Ultimately the source of the Tubbs fire was electrical, but not attributed to a PGE line. The Camp fire was due to PGE. But the terrible outcome of the Camp fire had much more to due to poor planning and allowing far too many people to move into remote areas in the "urban interface". There was also extremely poor education and enforcement on keeping safe clearances between combustibles and homes. Don't even get me started on the lack of planning for emergency evacuation routes. Those private citizens, cities and counties involved bear just as much responsibility for the disaster as PGE, yet PGE became the deep pockets scapegoat.
So yes, PGE now has to use the shutoffs as a way to avoid further liability. There's probably some truth to the idea that the shutting off power to 800K customers, as many as 2.5M people, is a way to point out that we can't do this as a solution. Millions of dollars will be lost due to these outages and you can bet that the public outcry will mean that Californians will be forced to look at better ways to deal with fire dangers.
Re: PSA: California - Wed midnight PG&E shutting off electric power in 34 counties - numbered - 10-09-2019
Markintosh has hit the nail on the head. The main problem is that our tort system seeks the deepest pockets. And many of the victims were poorly prepared and very underinsured. Between the victims seeking someone to blame and the big insurers wanting shed responsibility, PG&E is left holding the proverbial bag.
But the politicians cannot blame the victims, so they are insisting that PG&E somehow fund a massive replacement of infrastructure to ensure perfect safety with no money. The shareholders are wiped out--that may be appropriate--but as Vision says, the results will be that rate payers will subsidize the victims and the insurance firms.
My brother jokingly said that if the catastrophe were the results of an earthquake, there would be nobody to blame. I responded that they would blame the utility anyway because no on has earthquake insurance either.