Electric-Car Owners Hard Hit by Massive California Power Shutdown – IOTW Report

Electric-Car Owners Hard Hit by Massive California Power Shutdown

Car and Driver

  • Nearly a million Californians are now without power as the electric company deliberately shut it off this week, fearing high winds would spark wildfire.
  • The affected area in Northern California surrounds Fremont, home of Tesla, and a great many electric-car owners who can’t charge their vehicles as usual.
  • Tesla’s Elon Musk is swapping in battery Powerpacks and solar power for Superchargers in the region as fast as he can get permits, he claims on Twitter.

Nature built California to burn. And there’s only so much Elon Musk, Pacific Gas & Electric, or anyone else can do to diminish that.

“All Tesla Supercharger stations in regions affected by California power outages will have Tesla Powerpacks within next few weeks,” Elon Musk tweeted this morning in response to PG&E’s shutoff of power to several California regions in order to minimize the risk of wildfire from high winds. “Just waiting on permits.”

Fire is a natural part of the California ecosystem. What’s not so natural is running high-tension power lines across a populous state that’s often done a brilliant job putting out fires to protect property and lives. But those efforts leave behind growth and brush that is still prepared to burn—making the next fire there even more intense.

It’s also the state with mandated solar installations for new construction, another mandating the sale of zero-emission vehicles, and yet one more planning to replace conventional electricity generation with renewable technologies many doubt can reliably handle the demand.

California is experimenting with its power-generation future. And right now, that experiment is hurting. Particularly those electric-car owners with dead batteries.

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ht/ hot salsa

24 Comments on Electric-Car Owners Hard Hit by Massive California Power Shutdown

  1. When there’s no electricity, there’s no gas either since the stations can’t pump it.

    You’re stuck with what’s in your tank and what you have stored (not necessarily a good idea in a fire to have a lot stored).

    Without electricity, everything comes to a halt pretty quickly. Our entire way of life is based on reliable electric power to keep it functional.

    12
  2. San Francisco hired people to pick up other people’s dukes on the street.

    Why can’t the state of California hire people for a great salary to clean up the dry tinder in the forests?

    14
  3. The California “pubic” was informed of the shutdown. There is nothing most of them could do except get 1 last charge and look at posters of Al Gore on their walls by candlelight.

    With liquid fuel you can easily buy 5 gallon fuel tanks & “Top up” with as many jerry cans as you need. In case you have to Bug out.
    Generators can easily power pumps but I doubt that any homes with backup generators are powerful enough to charge a “testicle”
    Natural gas pipelines have generators that kick in during power failures, that is why most generators are natural gas in cities. (Diesel in the country)
    So, the overall worst choice you can make is being 100% reliant on electricity.
    When the east coast grid went down years ago I cooked on propane & charcoal, loaded 7 rounds of Buckshot, and lived my life normally.

    Therefore, Fuck Em!

    9
  4. Environmentalist stopped the controlled burns years ago. PG&E diverted funds away from infrastructure upkeep to support “green” programs.

    Now GP&E is turning off the power. I wonder what the politics behind the areas selected for the power shut off. Amazing what a liberal controlled economy will accomplish.

    9
  5. More proof {as if it’s needed} of the impracticality of electric cars.
    The inconvenience of owning one of these stupid cars has to give a great sense of satisfaction to eco idiots because that’s about all they’re good for.

    5
  6. Regarding natural gas generators… F-Y-I

    Local utilities shut off the gas lines in certain emergencies to prevent explosions and fires. Just one reported leak, no matter how far from your home, and the gas is off… and your big ol’ 20Kw sits quietly smiling at you.

    6
  7. The company needs more gas lines to serve the population. The Progs don’t want them to install them.
    BTW, there have been plenty of fires started by pot heads falling asleep in the forest and illegals with campfires (Both latino and chinese). So good luck with that.

    7
  8. Almost all of the wild fires around here are started by homeless people . Official cause: “Illegal Campfire”. Millions of acres, dozens of lives and billions of dollars gone, because of a permissive attitude towards the homeless.

    5
  9. When Lazlo was a Sprout he was in the California Conservation Corps. Their slogan was: Hard work, low pay, miserable conditions. Clearing power lines from overgrowth is just what we did. We got every nasty job there was. They should triple their budget and get to damn work
    I remember walking power lines with my Homelite and brush bar and hauling the debris way into the woods to burn it.
    Shining times.

    5
  10. Sylvia:

    Gas gets shut off usually due earthquake and sometimes heavy flooding. Gas leaks aren’t really the same thing. I am a gas tech for about 32 years now. Hydro routinely gets cut but in Canuckistan where I live, I have never had the gas shut off in 49 years at my house.

    Tsquared is correct:
    Controlled burns were performed by native peoples to prevent massive wild fires and to help with hunting, travel, and security.

    I quess the Natives were not green enough for the new enviros.

    3

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