By Robert Wenzel
The blackout created by monopolist power provider PG&E has reached the campus of UC Berkeley.
PG&E informed the university that power would be cut to most of the core campus by 11 a.m on Wednesday. Classes have been canceled.
“During the power outage, many campus areas and buildings may be dark, which could make navigating the campus more difficult and raise personal safety concerns,” according to a campuswide email sent by the administration. “For that reason, we encourage members of the campus community to not make unnecessary trips to campus during the power outage.”
According to the message, the campus will not be closed, although services will be limited. Parking areas that are below ground will be closed. The email recommended avoiding elevators and also discouraged staff members with mobility concerns from going to work on campus. All employees are encouraged to stay home “unless they are critical employees.”
The Los Angeles Times reports that over 2 million people over 34 California counties are now without power.
The people are angry.
PG&E has erected barriers around its San Francisco headquarters.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the California Highway Patrol was investigating whether someone shot at a PG&E truck Tuesday night.
The solution? It's time to open California to power service options that will break the government protected PG&E monopoly and result in firms entering the market that will install the proper kind of equipment that isn't vulnerable to wind gusts.
Hell, California still is part of America, not North Korea or Venezuela, I think.
Robert Wenzel is Editor & Publisher of EconomicPolicyJournal.comand Target Liberty. He also writes EPJ Daily Alert and is author of The Fed Flunks: My Speech at the New York Federal Reserve Bankand most recently Foundations of Private Property Society Theory: Anarchism for the Civilized Person Follow him on twitter:@wenzeleconomics and on LinkedIn. His youtube series is here: Robert Wenzel Talks Economics. More about Wenzel here.
Sure they aren't testing to see how much people will push back using wind gusts as the excuse in an effort to slowly normalize people to unreliable rationed energy?
ReplyDeleteThis smells of something much deeper than government monopoly incompetence.
Or it's just payback for holding them responsible for the damages resulting from the Paradise fire sparked by their lines.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't some of the problem have to do with California's ridiculous policies regarding land use? By that I mean aren't the utilities somewhat restricted in what they can cut or remove from around their power lines?
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