Utilities have focused on the transition over basic maintenance and it's causing problems
Utilities have focused on the transition over basic maintenance and it's causing problems By Jason Hayes
Utilities have focused on the transition over basic maintenance and it's causing problems
Fox News article describes spiking rates for basic electricity services
Photo by Kelly on Pixels.co
A little light reading for everyone’s edification today. I saw this Fox News article as I was preparing for a presentation later tonight and it struck me, once again, that our energy policies are becoming self-destructive as they deliberately design high costs and instability into our electric system.
None of this makes any sense when you realize something as basic as what Lars Schernikau and William Hayden Smith explain in their book “The Unpopular Truth” that, “Electricity is to modern civilization what blood is to the human body.”
Just like you care for your body to avoid health issues, we should be caring for our energy systems to ensure that the cost of maintaining them doesn't spiral out of control. When you grasp that basic reality, headlines and opening sentences in news articles like this, should cause you to pause.
Some California residents are "stunned" by the high cost of their latest electric and gas bill, after a major utility company raised prices for millions of customers last month.
“It’s almost like you’re getting punished,” 90-year-old Dorothy Lovell told The San Francisco Chronicle. The Santa Rosa resident's utility bill was $696.64 in January.
As you read through the story, you see that the utility is justifying the rate increases with arguments like...
PG&E said it would be making improvements to power lines and gas pipeline safety after years of devastating wildfires…
PG&E customers could see their bills skyrocket even more this year, as the utility commission considers approving additional proposals from PG&E to recover costs from last year's storms. If approved, customers could see their bills go up an additional $14-15 a month, the report said.
They point to wildfires, pipelines, and distribution line maintenance. However, the state is having these problems because California’s utilities have spent the past few decades prioritizing the transition to solar and putting off maintenance of their transmission (and other) infrastructure.
I described the real reasons for California’s wildfire woes in several articles and blog posts.
In The Hill
In the case of the Camp Fire — as in many other cases — dead and dying trees on federal land, as well as dense shrubs and grasses, threaten adjacent state and private land. During dry seasons, this unmanaged land becomes an extreme fire hazard and can be an entry point for disease and insect infestations. “If human managers cannot or will not reduce fuel loads in federal forests,” the report concludes, “then age, wildfire, disease and pest infestations will do it for them, often with substantial costs for both national forest budgets and adjacent property owners.”
In the Mackinac Center blog
But their professed concerns for the natural environment are belied by their apparent refusal to recognize some basic ecological realities. They attack essential forest management prescriptions, claiming that stopping climate change is the primary — or only — means of addressing the issue. Even if one conditionally accepts the theory that climate change is the reason for the massive fires, reducing the dangerous buildup of dead or dying trees, shrubs, and grass on public lands still remains the best method of reducing fire risk.
Rather than addressing real causes, California regulators chose to focus on hood ornaments and feel-good spending, pushing the transition to unreliable and expensive solar, and now their “chickens,” as the saying goes, “have come home to roost.”
But they’re not alone. We’re seeing similar cost increases in utility rates in Michigan...