It may be hard to fathom, but California rivals a lot of third world countries in their approach to keeping the lights on. Many less developed countries turn off the power at certain times in order to “keep people safe.” In these countries, the grid can be dangerously overloaded because insufficient infrastructure exists to carry the required power loads and the grid has not been maintained to the necessary standards of safety.
Pacific Gas & Electric has cut power to millions people to prevent the chance of sparking wildfires. The nation’s largest utility said it could black out customers in 38 counties—including most of the San Francisco Bay Area—when weather forecasts call for a return of bone-dry, gusty weather that carries the threat of downing or fouling power lines or other equipment that in recent years have been blamed for igniting massive and deadly blazes in central and Northern California.
The problem in California is that the state government has required the electric utility companies to spend huge sums of money engineering and putting in place solar and wind resources for energy generation. This has led to less maintenance and, as a result, to a more faulty network. Combined with extremely poor forest management, (Native Americans did a much better job long before technology showed up), this has created conditions that are fraught with danger during the dry season.
The power shutoff has been shut off five times this year. The state government has failed the people of California. They simply cannot keep the lights on.
Is this what we have to look forward to if Joe Biden becomes President?