Electric Pipedream

A government takeover of New York’s power grid would be a recipe for disaster.

Ike Brannon September 1, 2020 

During Tropical Storm Isaias last month, more than 2 million households in the New York metro area lost power. Most got their power back on within a day, but 10,000 households went without power for over a week. Complaints about the slow return of service have led elected officials to call for investigations.

In New York City, the perceived tardiness of the response has served as a pretext for proposing a radical solution. Advocates on the left propose a government takeover of the energy grid, a process referred to as municipalization. New York City public advocate Jumaane Williams released a report recommending this step the day after Isaias dissipated, explaining why the city should add oversight of a complex electrical grid to the list of complicated systems it already mismanages.

Municipalization is a bad idea. It is predicated on the notion that utilities want to cut corners in order to create a profit for their shareholders, and that government, with no shareholders, would be immune to such pressures. Only government, with no profit motive, would thus have incentives to do the job properly and efficiently. Cost savings would be passed along to ratepayers.

The reality is quite different. 

Democratic Socialists may spurn the profit motive, but it motivates people to do their job. A utility that underperforms can fire its chief executive and anyone else who messes up—or it can reward them for doing a good job. When utility workers become government employees, however, they invariably get the government protections that go along with that. It becomes much harder to reward good performance or punish poor performance.........To Read More....

The new green era dawns in California

October 10, 2019 By J.R. Dunn

A blueprint for the deindustrialization of the U.S. is being revealed even now in (you guessed it) California.

Beginning early yesterday morning, a series of total power shutoffs by Pacific Gas & Electric began in every county of the Bay Area, along with a number of others to the north (the number of counties involved total 34). The sole exception — as you might have guessed — is San Francisco.

The power cutoffs are complete, with no exceptions for hospitals, emergency services, phone networks, etc., the purpose being to eliminate all power flowing through overhead power lines in the affected areas in a clumsy, ill considered effort to prevent wildfires.

Vast areas of central California will be returned by fiat to the conditions of the 19th century.

Something like 800,000 PG&E customers will be affected. The duration of the shutoff is effectively arbitrary and may extend up to five days or more. (I would guess that it depends on particular conditions of humidity, dryness, and windiness, but it may not be even that logical. It seldom is with environmentalists.) .........  To Read More

Democrats turning California into a third-world hellhole: Going without electricity edition

Democrats are turning California into a third-world hellhole without electricity, water, and freedom.

By Tom Trinko October 10, 2019

Due to Democrats' love for trees, at least 800,000 Californians will be without power for several days. Instead of properly managing California forests to reduce the chances of big fires, Democrats are saying Californians have to go without lights, refrigerators, and air-conditioning.

 Democrats could also avoid this by not making the power company financially liable for all forest fire damages, but since PG&E is a company, not an illegal alien, the Democrats couldn't care less about doing what's best for California.

While they try to blame climate change and the infrastructure, the reality is that neither of those has caused any significant changes in the last ten years — but now, suddenly, due to Democrat policies, Californians have to start living in the 18th century.

The Democrats who run California also refuse to build more water storage capacity even though the state's population has dramatically increased, ensuring that water has to be rationed during droughts.

Democrats are turning California into a third-world country economically. The income inequality between the über-rich Silicon Valley workers and the rest of Californians is huge, just like in third-world countries, while the elites live in luxury and the rest live in squalor............... To Read More

My Take - Okay, isn't this what Obama wanted?  Change how America works in order to become Venezuela!  Right?  I certainly hope Californians appreciate what Obama and his socialist myrmidons are doing for them!