Posted on 10/12/2019 4:05:16 AM PDT by karpov
...
[PG&E] told its bankruptcy judge that eliminating trees and vegetation from around its power lines would cost up to $150 billion and require 650,000 employees. PG&E’s customers already pay twice the national average for electricity. An alternative plan would be to radically decentralize its system so power cutoffs could be more “surgical.” This would also be expensive and, in PG&E’s sprawling territory, would still mean widespread blackouts.
More equitable solutions are easy to envision, if only they were politically acceptable. Utilities could be relieved of their blanket fire liability, transferring the risk to homeowners and insurance markets. Utilities could be allowed to charge higher rates for customers in fire-prone districts. They could be allowed to refuse to extend their networks into such areas.
But the least rational outcome is also the most likely. Households will continue to be sheltered from the financial consequences of building in wildfire areas. The costs will be opaquely divided between ratepayers and the state’s taxpayers, amid much rhetoric about the evils of climate change and corporate greed. Here’s the kicker: The imposed blackouts then will be able to stop even though the fire risk remains unchanged.
In fact, missing is any data showing that today’s blackouts meaningfully or cost effectively reduce the public’s risks.
After all, 90% of fires, according to the California Public Utilities Commission, are caused by something other than power lines. Power outages can only impede fighting these fires or alerting neighbors to their existence. Thousands of dubiously competent homeowners will be firing up gas-powered generators in tinder-dry areas at the moment of maximum risk. How is this helping? When the lights go dark, the candles come out—a major source of house fires. Then there are the thousands of citizens dependent on home medical devices that stop working
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
We have a variant of the same problem in the DC area. We do love our trees and our leafy green neighborhoods. But at some point, the local utility does need to trim trees around power lines, or the inevitable will happen. Out in suburban lala land where the Starbucks addicts defend their cul de sacs like the French at Verdun, it is almost impossible to cut trees. The more upscale the suburb, the harder it gets. Every few years, we get a severe ice storm and major blackouts from crashing limbs. This, of course, is invariably held to be the utility's fault.
whose fault is it when my neighbor fires up a generator and burns down the neighborhood? Eliminating a minor risk and creating a million
Public risk?
The public is the enemy that deserves the risk. The public is directly responsible for fires resulting from enviromental laws that encourage massive firees.
The electric company is concerned with controlling their oen risk perpetrated by the public which are the customers.
California is the proximate cause of the fires. The power company is the scape goat
My thought was to revive the CCC Camps. My dad and his brother both went to Montana. They sent the money home and worked their young butts off. Pretty much like being in the military.
Interesting comments BUMP!
What a concept!
Why is northwest North Dakota all lit up??
I live in the country and it only took the SECOND power outage for me to realize that I needed a backup generator.
It’s not big enough to run the ELECTRIC range or oven; but it does handle everything else.
Just have 4-5 propane tanks available for the grill, and you’re good to go!
I have about 7 gas containers continuously filled. It only took once to run out before I said, "Ooops!"
(My best bet would be a generator that runs on propane, as I have a quite large tank of that for house heat primary - fireplace secondary.)
Quit ‘trimming’ and FELL them!
No.
I would call the broad fields in Kansas and Nebraska maintained since tree stands separated by fields were laid out and required of homesteaders in the eighteen hundreds a heck of a firebreak.
Did you have some fantasy that someone from a long line of farmers would not know the history of the land and be able to bring it up on a forum?
Well, you failed. I do know.
The proper width of a fire break is (as I have repeatedly stated, and which you have completely ignored) determined by the normal maximum wind velocity. On the plains that is around seventy miles an hour, and in parts of California it is just as high.
Did you have some fantasy that someone from a long line of farmers would not know the history of the land and be able to bring it up on a forum?
I live the fantasy of having a retired California firefighter who fought these types of fires for 34 years.
You can keep your wifi on all the time with a battery. I have several large AGM batteries which are pricey plus solar panels to keep them charged, but I can keep my small fridge cold and wifi and other electonics going indefinitely.
And so you never even learned how firebreaks are made in other states.
Living in one area, you have assumed that the inadequate measures enforced in your area are the norm in other parts of the country which have just as severe wind and dryness as where you live and work, but only a fraction of the wide ranging fires and who get them put out with only a fraction of the personnel.
I don’t care how long you did the fighting job, that doesn’t change mathematics.
I live in Maryland, not so far from DC. When I drive around, I can’t help but notice the weirdly shaped trees under power lines. I wonder why they are not just cut down, instead of being trimmed in bizarre shapes. I frequently see crews trimming the trees.
In my neighborhood, the power lines are buried. I like that.
Nope - it serves the purpose of forwarding the Globull Climate Change scam....
I love the fact that the electric car owners are “shocked...shocked I tell you” that a blip strands them.
Also hope the guy who died has a family that can sue their asses off.
***...can they see the Milky Way for the first time in their lives?***
How true! years ago my nephew brought a friend from Arlington TX, between Dallas and Ft Worth, for a visit.
He stood outside in the dark, here in the Ozarks and said...”I have never seen so many stars in all my life!”
I’ve been to California and Arlington. Too much light pollution.
Illegal aliens have set fires but Kali wants more of them so they can illegally vote for the Democrat party.
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