power to the internet

Fri Dec 27 02:38:50 UTC 2019

> This time it’s PG&E all alone, but still fallout from back then. Too much liability and they’ve not maintained the infrastructure and so they decided that to reduce the liability costs it’s cheaper to blackout. Same story again different colors. PG&E making a mint while people get screwed (PG&E was mostly at the getting screwed end in 2000-2001)

PG&E has been the one in the news, but SCE appears to have been making the same choices with about the same effects. The Thomas Fire was briefly the largest wildfire in state history, and the source (well, with the rain) of the Montecito mud flow a few weeks later. We're told that SCE seems to figure in that one and several others before and since.

I go back and forth on who might be responsible. The electric utilities bear blame for their infrastructure; it should be underground, not strung from poles. I would put some to the state and the management of the various national forests and national parks in the area - one of the outcomes from a fire in 2007 or thereabouts was that the ecology folks had been protecting foliage, and that foliage burned and clogged streams, with all sorts of results. Surprise! If you're worried about ecology, you should support management of it. In California, there are also laws holding home-owners responsible for "defensible space" around their homes.

https://www.google.com/search?q=california+brush+clearing+laws
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Fire <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Fire>
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/montecito-before-after/ 
https://www.edhat.com/news/10-homes-destroyed-in-holiday-fire 
https://www.edhat.com/news/cave-fire-now-100-contained
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