Not Just Paradise Lost

A Facebook friend in the hills northeast of Sacramento said she has been through two bouts of PG&E power outages. She and her husband had moved to this state from the East for her health and his job opportunity. She woke up one morning this week with no heat and temperatures in the 30s. Another of her friends suggested she pack it in and move to Florida. She responded that it sounded like a good idea.

Florida, of course, has its own set of issues. But we Californians may have some decisions to make. Do we want to live in a state where every fall there are multiple fires, blackouts and precautionary evacuations? Are the home prices, rents,  and taxes worth it?

I have a couple of other friends who have recently pulled the plug. One who had a mortgage on a modest home here sold it for a profit and now lives in a four-bedroom house he owns free-and-clear on an acre of Tennessee land. He is surrounded by great natural beauty, has courteous neighbors, and the traffic is light. There is snow, but usually not too much. It gets cold enough for reminders that there are seasons. No earthquakes and no direct hits from hurricanes, and it is not really tornado country like the Midwest. Yes, bugs and humidity are issues, but the trade-off seems worth it, at least for him.

Look, I’m not going anywhere and am not suggesting anyone else do so. That said, while these power outages may save lives, if they continue at this pace, I’m sure more than one resident will be doing the calculations to see if it really pencils out to stay here. And those considering moving here from elsewhere might think twice about it.

If  that happens, the good news is, the crowds will thin out and housing prices and rents may become semi-reasonable again. That’s bad news for property owners, who will likely see values fall. The best news, of course,  is for those selling solar systems and generators.

It’s cathartic to rail against the big utilities whose lack of foresight has helped put us in this position, but woulda, coulda, and shoulda accomplish nothing. I am confident, though, that better safety tools than these clumsy mass outages may be found, or at least the power companies will come up with more efficient ways to carry them out, simply because they have to.

How long will some Californians wait around for those changes? The grass may seem a lot greener elsewhere right now. And this time of year, it’s probably wetter.

The Right Target

The once-golden state of California has a giant black eye right now. The seasonal winds and low humidity have elevated the fire danger to the point where drastic preventive measures seem necessary to protect lives and property, like PG&E’s massive Northern California power shut-off. It was a mess.

At its San Francisco headquarters, the utility put up barricades around the building to shield its corporate personnel from angry customers. But that didn’t protect company field workers. In one case, a PG&E truck driver was shot at – fortunately, not hurt.

Not only was that expression of anger inappropriate; the PG&E line personnel shouldn’t be the ones targeted. But the utility’s spotty track record has exposed the company to crippling legal liability.

We did not lose power at our house, but we were expecting an extreme wind event, which didn’t live up to its billing in all areas. PG&E’s customer communication system generally failed, and even the shut-off itself was haphazard, as was the restoration of power. PG&E tried to comfort us all by talking about the disaster that didn’t happen - a hard sell to those with refrigerators full of spoiled food.

It’s fashionable to hate PG&E and to rail against the investor-owned-utility model for its apparent focus on profits over forward-thinking. But does that mean a government-run operation would necessarily be better? You can blame PG&E for not maintaining every single inch of power line through every rural acre of an enormous part of this state. You might also blame the local governments that allowed people to build  in certain areas, and those who chose to live there.

The blame game, though, has done nothing but divide us into victims and perpetrators, or plaintiffs and defendants. But where do we go from here? If there’s a bright side, the shutoff was good disaster training, and could spur the drive toward a sustainable electric power system to face climate change.

Microgrids are one potential solution, but progress can start at the individual homeowner level right now. If you can afford it, don’t just put solar panels on the roof. Pay the extra money and have your solar installer connect them to a battery storage system that can power the house whenever commercial electricity is cut. Batteries will only get better with time, and someday, homes may be self-sufficient, power-wise.

We can either submit to a depressing “new normal,” or we can start to shape it. We may have to be dragged into the latter kicking and screaming, but we will get there.