California utility to shut off power for nearly 1 million customers due to wildfire risk

Dan Robinson

Dan Robinson

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Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) will cut power to large swaths of California starting tonight in an outage that could last several days. The unprecedented step is an extreme measure to prevent the utility's poorly-maintained power lines from sparking/arcing during a period of high winds, heat and low humidity during this year's wildfire season peak.

The utility filed for bankruptcy earlier this year after its equipment was judged to be the cause of for several major and deadly wildfires in 2017 and 2018, making them liable for damages.

www.usatoday.com

Lights out? PG&E plans to shut off power for more than 800K customers in California to reduce wildfire risk

Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison may shut off power for nearly a million customers in an effort to prevent wildfires.
www.usatoday.com www.usatoday.com

https://twitter.com/x/status/1181736982801784832

Some of the impacts:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1181731740366200832

https://twitter.com/x/status/1181745827292704768
 
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They really should have maintained their ROW better. If my utility did that, we'd be put out of business. No bankruptcy. Just total divestment and sale of assets.
 
In many cases the locals prohibited them from maintaining the ROW. Even after an ice storm here that was far worse than it should have been, there's one city that won't let the utility trim trees hanging over their wires...
 
rdale said:
In many cases the locals prohibited them from maintaining the ROW. Even after an ice storm here that was far worse than it should have been, there's one city that won't let the utility trim trees hanging over their wires...
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If this claim is factual (a quick search did not turn anything up, but please feel free to back up your claim), one unnamed city does not overshadow PG&E’s totally negligent misappropriations of funds dedicated to trimming trees where necessary used instead to issue dividends to shareholders, nor does it negate the tens of millions of dollars it has paid out in performance-based bonuses to their executives while they allowed their infrastructure to fall into disarray - all while under strict probation for past violations that caused deadly explosions earlier this decade.

www.kqed.org

Judge: PG&E Paid Out Stock Dividends Instead of Trimming Trees | KQED

A federal judge in San Francisco ruled Tuesday that if PG&E doesn't meet aggressive goals aimed at preventing future wildfires, the utility won't be able to pay dividends to shareholders after it emerges from bankruptcy proceedings.
www.kqed.org www.kqed.org

PG&E needs to be forced to sell their assets, and the leadership of such an overtly evil and corrupted company need to be personally held accountable for their negligent behavior toward life and property.
 
I'm not sure what that means. Many states have issues with wildfires and ROW. Plus that silly "global" word in "global warming" means it's not just confined to California :)
 
I think the joke is that all the other states that have wildfire issues tend towards preventative maintenance amd things like prescribed burns and insurance company mandated clearing for homeowners. California just says "electricity causes fires! Electricity is evil!" and here we have hundreds of thousands of people losing their fridge contents and countless people in home hostice getting their lifelines turned off.

Its not global warming, its the state and PGE trying not to repeat Camp, but instead of mitigation, its by all means necessary despite the impact to the population.
 
Marc R. O'Leary said:
California just says "electricity causes fires! Electricity is evil!"
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I'm not sure that's what "they" say :)

Its not global warming, its the state and PGE trying not to repeat Camp, but instead of mitigation, its by all means necessary despite the impact to the population.
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Well, that's all wrong too but I think it's clear most everyone has given up using facts in this thread when imaginary boogie-man lines are funner.
 
rdale said:
I'm not sure that's what "they" say :)

Well, that's all wrong too but I think it's clear most everyone has given up using facts in this thread when imaginary boogie-man lines are funner.
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Well...

Overreaction is their way of solving issues as opposed to allowing or requiring the little bit of work to mitigate problems.

As for "that's all wrong?" What exactly is wrong with that statement? PGE has taken the stance of shut down the power in case it starts another massive and destructive fire due to windy and dry conditions. Obviously CA is ok with this tactic. Here in CO, they don't shut down the electricity during fire season. But we can also use lead bullets, so I guess we're just a bunch of rednecks denying global warming.
 
Marc R. O'Leary said:
Here in CO, they don't shut down the electricity during fire season.
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There would have been allot of power outages (especially lately with all those 'red flag warning' days)
But I also see lines here and they've cleared out all the trees underneath...yes powerlines are kinda ugly, and certainly that empty-space is, (especially going up the side of a mountain) but I'd way rather see that than the forest on fire (or be having constant power outages).

If in California they(be it PG&E neglecting things, or cities/counties laws) aren't doing the same clearing, maybe someone needs to re-think things.
 
Marc R. O'Leary said:
I think the joke is that all the other states that have wildfire issues tend towards preventative maintenance amd things like prescribed burns and insurance company mandated clearing for homeowners. California just says "electricity causes fires! Electricity is evil!" and here we have hundreds of thousands of people losing their fridge contents and countless people in home hostice getting their lifelines turned off.
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News flash, Marc, they do have prescribed burns in California. And if you are going to claim that the state, as opposed to PGE's management, is responsible for the lack of preventive maintenance, please post a link to some evidence for that claim.
 
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