This one doesn’t pull any punches!
Knowing this history helps to understand why a state with an economy larger than most countries in the world, is swiftly heading towards total collapse. The people running California today are the same ones who for decades believed they could change the world with music and sit-ins but are joined now by millions of young “progressives” even less-anchored to reality than their hippie mentors.
Full article, HERE.
I do remember working out of Fullerton in the late 90s on a Navy program and there were brownouts in SoCAL due to power problems. Diablo Canyon and San Onofre were both still online, and the decision was made to bring the third unit online at Diablo Canyon to help alleviate the problem.
The hippies and econazis drove up to the gates in their Volvos, blocked the gates for a bit and protested the third unit being brought on line because it would ‘destroy the environment’… Sigh…
And it would kill the whales that came into the little bay. Funny thing is, the whales ROUTINELY came into the bay to enjoy the warm outflow from the plant. And they would spy hop to spot the opening, then leave the bay on their way north or south, depending on the time of the year.
Now, San Onofre was closed in 2012 due to excessive wear on the piping, and NOTHING was done to replace the lost power output.
Diablo Canyon’s 2200 megawatt output will go away in 2024. PG&E determined it was too costly to continue operating the plant and that cheaper sources of energy could be developed to replace it. Of note, this is 8.6% of total California generation and 23% of carbon-free generation.
Of course nothing has been done to actually develop those ‘cheaper’ sources, much less get them installed.
There should be a ban on Californians in Texas.
Man if you don’t like them now just imagine when all of Hollywood moves to Austin.
They’re already there and infesting Hill Country as well.
“PG&E determined” my a$$.
Lessee now–
Oroville dam spillway gives way. Over in front of the emergency overflow, erosion comes within FEET of causing the world’s largest man made toilet bowl flush. Why? Lack of maintenance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lake_Oroville_Spillways_February_12,_2017.webm
PG&E power lines arc and burn down nearly half the state. Why? Lack of maintenance.
Hmm.
@jetcall. Point taken. Wife and I escaped Kalifornia for Texas in 2015. Here in Arlington along highway 20, there are signs declaring it the “Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway”. When I was a young lad in California, Ronald Reagan was governor. We didn’t leave California, it left us.
I have had occasion to get acquainted with a few folks who escaped from communist countries. At the time, I thought I understood. Now, I get it.
Oroville was due to state negligence (they ran the dam) and I actually had an inside source on what was going on back then.
The PGE thing was because the state FORCED PGE to take the maintenance money and spend it on ‘green initiatives’. Even then, from what I heard it wasn’t the PGE lines that started the fire, but they had the money (and the idiot who started it didn’t) so they railroaded PGE. Not sure how true that last bit is, but knowing california? I can believe it.
The State also did not allow PGE to clear the distribution lines of vegetation. No maintenance on lines was bad. No clearing of vegetation very bad. Combine the two, very very very bad.
And, of course, the bureaucrats and legislators that decreed no maintenance and no vegetation management weren’t the ones forced to fall on their sword.
The power distribution industry was talking about this in the early 2000’s in their trade magazines.
This. The environmentalists objected to clearing the right-of-ways, and clearing of dead wood in general, and to controlled burns . . . So the fuel load was looking for an excuse to burn. Powerline spark, arson, lightning, any could have done it.
And people back there wonder why I left…
I worked for CalISO for a brief (very) time. (I wonder how many of the managers I knew are in jail now? Jail always seems to happen to ISO bosses). ANYWAY, I was tasked for 3 months to do the 7am ‘briefing’. This briefing is me telling everyone in the room (who is basically from the utilities and the state) just how much power there is today and where it’s coming from.
(The guards at CalISO carried machineguns – not kidding – wonder if it’s still running things?)
The number of stupid laws involved in California’s electrical grid and power generation are shocking. I also know how to black out the entire state now with a 4×4 and a couple of tow chains after giving this brief so many times. Seriously, a handful of people with primitive weapons could take the entire place down in ten minutes. It’s just sad (and it’s been tried – thankfully the people trying it weren’t very bright).
California didn’t have the power to support its population 20 years ago. It doesn’t have the infrastructure to import the power it needs currently (seeing as it makes less power now than 20 years ago).
But they keep electing morons who have NO idea how ANYTHING works to be governor. The crash, when it comes, will be glorious. I just think we need to build the wall now, so nobody in California can leave California. I watched them destroy Oregon, don’t want to see that happen again here.
Dear God, please protect us from California.
Yeah, enraging.
Native/domestic model, these people use words, and figure that is the whole of education and intelligence, specifically they are innumerate and a form of scientifically illiterate.
When I was a child, there was enough material available that wasn’t contaminated that someone who read a fair amount, and developed a bullshit detector, could filter out some of the issues in newer textbooks.
Now, there are a bunch of things happening that I can’t tell if is stupidity or malice.
Foreign model for what is wrong in California is PRC influence.
Toasty’s Corollary to Hanlon’s Razor: any sufficiently destructive stupidity is indistinguishable from malice.
We in Colorado have been californicated for decades. Grrrr.
PG&E has basically been put in a Catch-22 situation.
They can’t increase power generation or maintain existing lines because the ecoweenies keep interfering. But they’re perpetually blamed when things go wrong.
(And this isn’t all California, either. U.S. Forest Service has also been interfering in Cali forest management and wildfire control.)
If I worked for PG&E I’d have exited to somewhere, ANYWHERE else, a long time back.
I lived in California, just uphill from Riverside, from ’80 to’84, when I was in the AF at 15th AF. Saw plenty of smog.
We lived in Monterey for a little while. The billing structure for electric was what you would expect. If you were in a part of the state that didn’t need much power (like the Bay Area), they charged you through the nose for what little you needed. Basically, we were subsidizing the power for other parts of the state. I really hate PG&E.
All- Thanks for the comments, and yes, California power is a fluster cluck. One interesting note from an email I received, apparently SoCal Ed and LA own roughly 20% of Palo Verde nuclear in Arizona.
Yeah, Palo Verde ownership varies by until, or at least it did when I worked there, but those are about right for the overall plant. Also, power not immediately used by the other ownership partners is sold at a premium rate to Southern California users. If/when the eco-nazis decide that importing nuclear power is evil, the Cali economy will suffer greatly (dare I say collapse?). It’s tough to run a server farm, run port facilities 24/7, or run industrial facilities on wind and/or solar power.
I want to know where the defensive lines will be drawn to keep Californians in California when this happens?
I would argue they should be placed as far west as practicable, based upon terrain and local sentiments. I’d pick Sierra Nevada for the north and the Transverse and Peninsular Ranges for the south. It provides defensible terrain and puts most of the “red” counties on the east side and most of “blue” counties on the west side, though there are a few that end up on the wrong side. It also puts the defenders of America atop much of the water supply to the wretched hives of scum and villainy.
The defensive lines should be placed around the cities of LA and SF. Otherwise, you’re puting a lot (A LOT!) of Constitution-believing Americans behind the lines.
I hear tell there are many patriots even within LA and the SF metro area. Why they remain is beyond me. It isn’t the land.
NRW- Yes, that was what the email I got alluded to. Also, there was a ‘significant’ increase in fees over their 20% allocation of output. And we all know that wind/solar will not work… Bakersfield is a classic example of that.
Wind and solar work well… as supplemental, secondary sources.
But let’s say you have a hospital. A nice, modern hospital, all the amenities of a 21st century American place where chances are better than average that if you wind up there, you’ll walk out again rather than leave in a body bag.
That sort of facility needs a constant power source. Not ‘well, it’ll run when the sun shines/wind blows’. Constant. Or people die.
Battery storage? You’d need huge battery systems. And a way to replace as needed. And, again, power source to CHARGE those batteries.
But I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.
Toast- Excellent points!
a) additionally, if you haven’t already, look into the realistic assumptions for land area to power everything off solar. Look into the similar for the energy density of wind.
b) batteries lose a small amount to heat when charging and when drawing. At scale, averaging solar and wind, you will have a certain amount of heat to deal with. Which takes power to manage.
Does not work, will not work, advocates are ‘danger to themselves and others’ level crazy.
PG&E recently doubled the cost of electric during the hours of 12 noon to 8pm, IIRC. Lovely management of resources, eh?
I lived in San Luis Obispo County for more than three decades. It is where Diablo Canyon is. The nuke plant would have been online at least ten years before (all sides agree with that) if it weren’t for the constant protests and legal actions from econazis. The home grown Mothers For Peace were the headliners. A friend’s sister-in-law was head witch of that project. She was absolutely lulu and giddy with power. If there was one person responsible for sharp increase in energy costs, construction delays, labor costs overruns, and premature retirement of the plant, she is it.
The head honchos at PG&E, notably Richard Brown, were a pack of liars who were in serious need of an effective PR consultant. Still, none of the much ballyhooed eco-disasters never materialized. Imagine that.
Though I lived in the area I was more knowledgeable than my neighbors. I had a keen interest and still have various white papers, bulletins,, mail correspondence, and PG&E internal memos gotten from FOIA and community meetings.
SCE (Southern California Edison) just upped the rates too. Its reason; there’s not enough “green energy” production in the evening. Gee; I guess solar panels really DON’T work at night! This is a case of “Create a problem so we can raise the rates.” Newsom is completely in bed with the power companies. Hell; who else would sleep with him?…
I have no problem with alternative sources of power. SoCal gets more sunlight than just about anywhere else in the country. Why not install solar panels for power and hot water if you can, and can afford to? The issue I have is with the nanny state forcing it down our throats!
Too, when the plant does go offline, the flora and fauna which bloomed in the presence of the warm water outflow will die off. They have found species which exist nowhere else along that coast.
This will probably create the hugely ironic condition where bleeding hearts will argue for keeping the outflow in operation. This is reminiscent of how various eco- groups used the courts to get Standard Oil to remove various piers and artificial islands south of Santa Barbara. Then they argued that a pier slated for destruction should instead be saved due to the marine life which found their home on the pier. Who knew that structure provides habitat for marine life. What buffoons. And we pay for it in the form of increased energy costs plus taxes.
I am curious what project the Navy ran out of Fullerton. I reckon either Hughes or Beckman were involved. Probably the former. Hughes was/is diversified across many fields.