Shame on California

This is simply embarrassing.

For the third straight Autumn in a row, California is experiencing severe wildfire events up here in NorCal and simultaneously down south in Los Angeles county. Thankfully, the destruction is not nearly as catastrophic as last year’s fires in Paradise and Malibu, but three consecutive years of this is not a good look for the State’s proactiveness towards mitigating such disasters.

Indeed, for what would be the 7th largest economy on this planet on its own, with the highest State income tax in the country, and the crowning jewel that is Silicon Valley, it is a spectacular shame on California that all of this is happening yet again this year. If ever there’s a State with the resources to combat and prevent wildfires, it would be California (on paper, at least). Unfortunately, in reality there remains the same incompetence, and it seems the people in charge are unwilling to lift a finger to solve the underlying issues that are causing these wildfires.

Oh, and new for this year: rolling blackouts! PG&E - the beleaguered utility company - in its infinite wisdom have deemed shutting down power to the grid in at-risk areas during the fire season ought to stop these massive fires from happening. Well, the outages have and are occurring, and yet much Sonoma county is currently burning, so the strategy’s efficacy is suspect. What’s even more laughable is that PG&E said these power shutdowns are the new normal to stop wildfires; an absurd position for an electric company to be unable to deliver electricity.

The obvious solution is to spend the massive amount of money necessary to upgrade the aging electric infrastructure. If falling power-lines are the culprit of these fires, then let’s start putting the grid beneath terra firma. For sure that’ll be a slow process, so in the meantime we should clear away the dry brushes and plants surrounding power poles and towers that are at high potential of igniting. We can’t change the weather, but we can make certain the power grid is able to withstand the many dry and windy season undoubtedly to come after this particular one.

These rolling blackouts cannot be the answer, because there’s vulnerable people who are dependent on electricity for their survival.

I’m not against having a private, for-profit company like PG&E (though the company is publicly-held) as the sole utility provider, but because electricity is one of the important public goods, there has to be tremendously strict oversight by the State government. Constant improvements to the grid must be made, and if PG&E isn’t up for that, then it’s time for California PUC to takeover operations. Electricity is critical to societal functions, and we can’t leave it to the negligence of a company that seems to care more for shareholder’s profit than ensuring a secure power infrastructure that won’t burn down homes every time Fall season comes around.

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Selling this lovely set of Grado sr80e headphones because I’ve scarcely used it. AirPods have completely taken over my music listening procedure.

PG&E is shutting it down

Starting today, PG&E is shutting off power to different areas of California, affecting some 800,000 households. According to the company, this is a necessary preventive measure to avoid a repeat of the devastating wildfires that have afflicted the state these past few years.

Imagine that, an electric company is unable to provide electricity.

Vast swaths of the Bay Area are effected by the scheduled blackout: the Caldecott Tunnel, one of the busiest thoroughfares in the region, will be shutdown due the lack of electricity to run the ventilation system; UC Berkeley and other colleges have cancelled classes for at least a day (must be nice); residents in affected areas are battening down the proverbial hatch: filling up the car and buying emergency supplies. It’s as if we’re preparing for a disaster event, but one that’s self-inflicted.

People are finding it entirely dubious (me included) that PG&E must resort to such tactics, endangering essential services and affecting the everyday lives of people in over half of California. It truly asks the question: why aren’t they instead spending resources towards overhauling the supposed old and frail electric infrastructure? Again, it really rings it home to say it again: an electric company is currently unable/unwilling to deliver power to its customers; I feel like we’re all made to suffer for PG&E’s own incompetence.

At least the company has setup “resource centers” to help people in a pinch when the power goes out, though according to the pictures, the accommodations look like it belongs at the Fyre Festival.

I have to be clear that I am definitely not advocating or showing nonchalance towards future wildfires: I think it’s important to be proactive in preventing the next big one. However, what PG&E is enacting the next few days just doesn’t seem like an appropriate solution, for the short and long term. No doubt bankruptcy proceedings is hampering the company from investing the huge amount of capital required to overhaul the grid, but either them or the state government will have to take on that challenge sooner or later.

Having to resort to rolling blackout, that we don’t even know for sure is preventing anything, is downright embarrassing.

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Baby steps, baby steps.