California planned power outage

[ForceGhost]

Ok, so I have to ask, are people still working out there? I mean is this affecting industries too? If your people cant go to work, they cant pay their mortgages, then they move away, then the state cant collect taxes, you see where I'm going with this.

[AmericanSteam]

Some pockets have power. Generators at a premium. If you had a hundred you could sell them in a day. No power for the majority means no work. The economy is loosing hundreds of thousands of dollars. I am retired. But do ocassionly go back to help. Keeping food from from spoiling is a bit of an issue. But I have plenty of ice and essentials (see my previous posts). At least I am not on a well as so many are. Municipal water supply on generators.

[AmericanSteam]

Dark until Thursday.

[cnwfan]

Dark until Thursday.

I feel for you, and I shake my head in bewilderment and disgust. The power outages even made the local morning talk show here. Pretty much the overall opinion is that PG&E is sticking it to the state because they keep getting blamed and billed for any and all fire damages. If it makes you feel any better, we had 3 inches of snow last night, and more is on the way tomorrow night.

[ET44C4]

Just throwing this out there... Environmentalists, along with the politicians, are the ones to blame for the fires....

"Why our national forests are burning. And it is not "climate change":
From arizona....court records and Forest Service documents reveals that in the past decade almost every major forest-thinning project in Arizona has been blocked by a near-constant chain of lawsuits brought by environmental groups. When successful, the lawsuits have halted any action on forest-thinning projects that would reduce fire danger.
From Utah....Two conservation groups have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for Utah to stop the U.S. Forest Service from permitting logging within 8,300 acres of the Dixie National Forest.
From Idaho....Friends of Rapid River and Friends of the Clearwater filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Idaho’s Federal District Court in an effort to stop the Windy-Shingle Project.
The timber sale is designed to reduce mortality from forest pests like pine beetles, root rot and mistletoe, and thereby reduce fire danger in the area west of the Little Salmon River. The project would log about 2,500 acres and produce an estimated 14 million board feet of timber.
From California.......The Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson-based environmental group, this week filed lawsuits against the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in seven California counties to halt logging plans for 5,000 acres across the Sierra Nevada and Cascade regions. The group contends that the agency approved the projects without properly analyzing carbon emissions and climate consequences under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Just to be crystal clear......a lack of water, and rising temperatures, do not cause trees and brush to become overgrown.
A lack of logging and grazing causes overgrowth.
This is not complicated!

What do you want to bet, that next year, the same failed policies, lawsuits, and hand wringing about wildfires will happen again?

The only "climate" that is causing these fires, is the political climate."

-Bob Golden, "My Job Depends on Ag"

[ForceGhost]

I hate seeing tracts of land and old growth trees logged as much the next guy. In my area, large tracts are being cut down. However, if you quell the knee-jerk reaction, you realize that a.) these woods were selected years ago for this purpose, b.) it is being allowed to grow back so it can be harvested again, c.) it is removing fuel for large fires. Yes, we do occasionally have fires here - a large one (for this area) burned to about a mile of my house a few years ago. But these fires are usually man made (a wet haystack catches fire or someone burning a trash pile), but they dont get up in the tree canopy and generally just skirt along the ground.

The hippies out there would lose their minds out here, because every fall the Forestry Service selects thousands of acres of forest land and does preventive burns to deny fuel for larger fires.

From the outside looking in, it does look like PG&E are simply being d***s about this. It doesn't seem to be preventing any fires.

[buzz456]

I hate seeing tracts of land and old growth trees logged as much the next guy. In my area, large tracts are being cut down. However, if you quell the knee-jerk reaction, you realize that a.) these woods were selected years ago for this purpose, b.) it is being allowed to grow back so it can be harvested again, c.) it is removing fuel for large fires. Yes, we do occasionally have fires here - a large one (for this area) burned to about a mile of my house a few years ago. But these fires are usually man made (a wet haystack catches fire or someone burning a trash pile), but they dont get up in the tree canopy and generally just skirt along the ground.

The hippies out there would lose their minds out here, because every fall the Forestry Service selects thousands of acres of forest land and does preventive burns to deny fuel for larger fires.

From the outside looking in, it does look like PG&E are simply being d***s about this. It doesn't seem to be preventing any fires.

I don’t think it’s pg&e I think it’s the regulators.

[Fireexplorer249]

I hate seeing tracts of land and old growth trees logged as much the next guy. In my area, large tracts are being cut down. However, if you quell the knee-jerk reaction, you realize that a.) these woods were selected years ago for this purpose, b.) it is being allowed to grow back so it can be harvested again, c.) it is removing fuel for large fires. Yes, we do occasionally have fires here - a large one (for this area) burned to about a mile of my house a few years ago. But these fires are usually man made (a wet haystack catches fire or someone burning a trash pile), but they dont get up in the tree canopy and generally just skirt along the ground.

The hippies out there would lose their minds out here, because every fall the Forestry Service selects thousands of acres of forest land and does preventive burns to deny fuel for larger fires.

From the outside looking in, it does look like PG&E are simply being d***s about this. It doesn't seem to be preventing any fires.

It definitely is not PG&E. I'm not saying they are not at fault, but the State of California has begun allowing people to sue them because of these fires. PG&E is just trying to protect the last bit of their company they have left. And as far as I'm aware, prescribed burns rarely happen anymore. At least with my region and the departments here. Again, like many have stated and have been correct about, the wildland management in California is nonexistent and the government is beyond corrupt here. USFS and Cal Fire have their hands tied and are unable to actually manage the lands and clear brush. It is literally adding fuel to the fire.

[GSkid]

I encountered a blackout on my trip to Cajon Pass to film Big Boy. I was at the truck stop at Hesperia, which is about 10 miles down the highway from Cajon Summit. The power to them and a gas station across the street went off as I was parked there. The traffic lights still worked and everything about a mile down the road still had power.

I don't have to really worry about blackouts. I upgraded almost a year ago from my Goal Zero Yeti 1400 solar generator to their biggest model..... the Yeti 3000 w/WiFi ...



I originally bought the 1400 (along with 650-watts in solar panels) for my railfan camping trips into back country spots to film my YouTube videos. But with it's 3075 watt-hour lithium battery, my new Yeti 3000 would keep my refrigerator/freezer at home powered for days in the event of blackout. I don't live in an area that's affected by the power outages, but I'm prepared for it if one ever happens. You can even monitor and control the unit via WiFI over the internet.. or directly in person... from an app on your phone. It has a 12-Volt powerport.....USB-A, USB-C, USB-PD power outputs.... and 2 conventional 120V power plug outputs with a 1500-watt continuous/3000-watt surge power inverter built-in. With all that, you are pretty much set to power just about anything you throw at it. I highly recommend getting one if you are prone to power outages.

BTW... wait until their 20% off sales though. Usually in Spring and Black Friday. It dropped it from $3000 down to $2400. There are smaller models (as well as cheaper deep cycle lead-acid models) if you don't need one that big. They also sell refurbished units on the site as well at some decent prices. Keep in mind that the lead acid battery models are about twice the weight of the more expensive lithium battery models of around the same battery capacity.

Speaking of my trip to Cajon Pass.... it was great. Got video of Big Boy at Afton Canyon, Daggett, Cajon Pass and Beaumont Hill on 5 separate days. Got all the videos edited and ready to go. But for right now I've been uploading my Echo Canyon videos (all the non-Big Boy clips of regular freight traffic) from my trip to Utah in May. I'll give a heads up when they are uploaded and available for viewing.

[buzz456]

Excuse me what has that got to do with the power outages?

[GSkid]

Excuse me what has that got to do with the power outages?

It has to do with suggesting a temporary non-gas powered solution to those that may be affected by these power outages or to those that may be affected by them due to hurricanes in the eastern half of the country. Having your entire refrigerator of food spoil is no fun. Neither is it fun for those that may depend on a breathing machine to live.

I could have joined in on this discussion and simply reiterated the criticisms that others have already said. Instead I decided my contribution to the thread was to offer a solution to the topic at hand.....Power outages. So I don’t see how suggesting a power backup solution In a thread about power outages is somehow off topic. I’d say that’s directly on topic. Power outage...power solution.

If you mean my big boy trip paragraph? I apologize to those that may have been bothered by it.

The bottom line is the power companies were between a rock and a hard place. Option #1: Risk burning thousands of acres of trees, many houses and killing many people. Option #2: Turn the power off and have no trees burned, no houses destroyed, very few deaths and simply inconvenience the public.

It was a no brainer. That’s why I’m not mad at them. And given those 2 choices and the lawsuits that can follow from them... most people would pick option #2.

[AmericanSteam]

Thank you all for your support. They have an all-clear and have started enabling power. This process can take a while.we may have power later today or tomorrow. Unfortunately, this is the most expedient way to provide safety at this time. This is my new reality. Looking forward to participating here when my internet is restored.

[AmericanSteam]

UPDATE: We are back up. Hopefully, all the RWA, TS and TSW fans affected in California will be back up and online soon and that nothing unfortunate except this disruption has happened to them.