Possible power outage for next two days

Kex wrote: »

Not a single official from the Fire Department cited bad clearing as a contributing factor. 60% of such forest areas are managed at the federal level, not at the state or local level.

That right there is the problem.

Every state out here has a state forestry service that manages all forests in addition to the federal parks services that handle the national parks.

Every independent and mostly out-of-state surveyor/analyst after every major fire in California has repeatedly stated that lax management is a contributing factor. Not contributing in how the fires start but in how fast they spread. The more ignition material on the ground near potential ignition sources the faster a fire can spread, especially in dry conditions. The faster a fire spreads, the more difficult it is for a fire fighting crew to get ahead of it and stay ahead of it to limit the advance of the flame front and minimize damage.

Clearing power lines of extraneous debris and plant matter is a good idea no matter how you cut it. The management in California and, since you're blaming the feds 'cause it can't possibly be the management of the state's fault, is too lax. Improving management of the areas of potential fire sources is of utmost importance to management of a fire out break.

If your transmission lines are hitting each other in the wind and causing big enough sparks to set stuff on fire then the two questions to ask here are:

- Why are vital transmission lines so slack and placed so close together that wind gusts are causing them to interact with each other and start fires?
- Why is there enough combustible material building up around the transmission wires that fire is a major concern?

nooshinjohn wrote: »

California also sues the Fed in court using bogus environmental regulation that prevent them from doing their part. CA may not have announced a succession from the United States, but everything they do and say demonstrates they want little to do with the rest of the nation, except they will take all money they can get from Uncle Sam...

I don't blame the power company for turning off the power and limiting their liability. One of their power lines blew down in a storm last year. And they get sued for 12 billion dollars forcing them into bankruptcy.

This wasn't an intentional act. Trees fall over and power lines go down everywhere. But only in California do the courts give these insane judgments against the "evil" power companies. And the residents were all applauding. Let them stew on reality now.

I've talked to people that moved here (Colorado) from California. See a lot of California license plates too. Hey, let's everyone move to Colorado and wreck their housing market and traffic too.

nooshinjohn wrote: »

tonyb wrote: »

Ok then, if the current power company is that frickin' bad, why are you still using them ? Nobody else available to supply power for the state ?

I mean, it's not rocket science here, if they're doing such a horrible job, get rid of them or make them improve by regulations set onto them. Having power lines on the ground....is just unacceptable.

...and California needs to get their heads out of their rear ends and allow the forests to be cleaned up a bit. Again, it isn't rocket science on why that needs to be done.

California hasn’t allowed any new infrastructure to be built(power plants, refineries, etc) in the last 50 years... in fact, government has forced many that exist to shut down through regulations and stopped others from being built through red tape and endless environmental lawsuits. Now, if they need to take a refinery down for maintenance, gas prices spike to absurd levels overnight.

Bottom line isn’t there is no backup plan here. CA is a house of cards waiting for the next disaster....

John, do you have future plans to leave the state or are you there for the long haul?

https://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org/resource-sharing/state-pubs-blog/whos-moving-into-and-out-of-colorado/

A lot of Californians and Texans moving here.

According to a new report from the State Demography Office, “each year between 2011 and 2016 between 235,000 and 250,000 people moved into Colorado, and between 160,000 and 190,000 people moved out of Colorado.” That means our state’s population grows by about 60,000 to 75,000 people per year.

The states that have the largest numbers of people moving to Colorado are California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, and Illinois, followed by New York, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Missouri, and New Mexico. Arkansas, West Virginia, Vermont, and Maine had the fewest migrants into Colorado.

Utility issues are becoming common all over.
Local power company asked for a modest rate hike to fix the grid again.
And it was voted down by city council again.
Every time it rains, power goes out all over.
None of the lines are buried, and trees hit the lines all the time.
We have a LOT of big trees. And they are all next to utility poles.
They did come out and finally trim back stuff last fall in my area and
my subdivision doesn't have as many issues since.

I dunno man, every other state has transmission lines up in the air, separated and secure enough to withstand some real gusty winds. Here around the Chicago area, you see them all over, and never have I heard of them blowing down, and we get some pretty gusty winds from storms in the 60-70mph range. Trees fall over before the lines do....so that tells me it can be done even in California.

Maybe, the environmentalists don't want to see big towers dotting the landscape like in other states. I get it...but, you have to put the needs of the people first, not just the few.

As for the comment about "saving lives" with this planned power outage, maybe we should get rid of cars too for periods of time, save thousands of lives. Oh, we need cars you say ? We need electricity too.

Again, this is something that can be done, and the state needs to assist the power company in finding a solution other than cutting power on windy days. It's not hard, we have the know how, just help them fund the solution instead of funding other B.S. stuff. We grown ups like to call that prioritizing, or is that not acceptable anymore.

mhardy6647 wrote: »

It gets a little drier and hotter in (much of) California than it does in Chicago.

Doesn't matter Doc, it's the wind that supposedly is knocking down the wires onto the dry ground. Since we can't control the weather, we can control how stable we built towers to hold those lines. Make sense ?

If you bury the lines, yeah it's gonna cost more, but you still have earthquakes to contend with....and they get a few from time to time.