4 ms·

Did we all just as a society completely forget about Enron? Enron did rolling brown outs to help boost pay, and used the excuse of demand. Now PG&E has stepped

Did we all just as a society completely forget about Enron? Enron did rolling brown outs to help boost pay, and used the excuse of demand. Now PG&E has stepped it up by doing blackouts and claiming its because of fire risk.

danans 7y ago
> Now PG&E has stepped it up by doing blackouts and claiming its because of fire risk. Well, they are going bankrupt because of the liability they bore for the massive fires their equipment triggered the last two years, so it's not too far fetched a claim. What ulterior motive could they have for doing blackouts now? This is not to absolve PGE of the responsibility. They apparently asked the PUC for ratepayer money, and received it, to do fire prevention maintenance, but then supposedly didn't do it, at least not enough [1]. All this while paying handsome dividends to investors (including our 401ks and pension plans). If true, that would be the bigger scandal. 1. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/18/business/pge-california-wildfires.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/18/business/pge-...
harshreality 7y ago
The systems effects resulting from a combination of free markets and well-intentioned government regulation can be tricky. Enron's problem was obvious, though. They controlled both the distribution lines and the generation facilities, and were allowed to participate in an energy derivatives market too. And either no caps on profits or no meaningful caps. And California let that happen. It's like letting wild cats live on your ranch and then being shocked, shocked when they start killing your cattle. Except in this case I think California was actually shocked, because the politicians were too clueless to realize what could happen.
- ncmncm 7y ago
  Governor Gray Davis was acting to contain Enron and their ilk, so they arranged a recall, and installed Schwarzeggar. Who turned over $80B of state money to them, as apparently prearranged.
rtkwe 7y ago
They were ordered to do this by the court. [0] Until the power lines have been reinspected and the maintenance tasks remediated they legally can't roll the dice if the wind gets over a certain level for runs that have only been deemed safe for a lower level of wind. [0] http://s1.q4cdn.com/880135780/files/doc_downloads/2019/Alsup-PGE-01.09.19.pdf http://s1.q4cdn.com/880135780/files/doc_downloads/2019/Alsup...

danans 7y ago

> Now PG&E has stepped it up by doing blackouts and claiming its because of fire risk. Well, they are going bankrupt because of the liability they bore for the massive fires their equipment triggered the last two years, so it's not too far fetched a claim. What ulterior motive could they have for doing blackouts now? This is not to absolve PGE of the responsibility. They apparently asked the PUC for ratepayer money, and received it, to do fire prevention maintenance, but then supposedly didn't do it, at least not enough [1]. All this while paying handsome dividends to investors (including our 401ks and pension plans). If true, that would be the bigger scandal. 1. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/18/business/pge-california-wildfires.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/18/business/pge-...

harshreality 7y ago

The systems effects resulting from a combination of free markets and well-intentioned government regulation can be tricky. Enron's problem was obvious, though. They controlled both the distribution lines and the generation facilities, and were allowed to participate in an energy derivatives market too. And either no caps on profits or no meaningful caps. And California let that happen. It's like letting wild cats live on your ranch and then being shocked, shocked when they start killing your cattle. Except in this case I think California was actually shocked, because the politicians were too clueless to realize what could happen.

ncmncm 7y ago
Governor Gray Davis was acting to contain Enron and their ilk, so they arranged a recall, and installed Schwarzeggar. Who turned over $80B of state money to them, as apparently prearranged.

rtkwe 7y ago

They were ordered to do this by the court. [0] Until the power lines have been reinspected and the maintenance tasks remediated they legally can't roll the dice if the wind gets over a certain level for runs that have only been deemed safe for a lower level of wind. [0] http://s1.q4cdn.com/880135780/files/doc_downloads/2019/Alsup-PGE-01.09.19.pdf http://s1.q4cdn.com/880135780/files/doc_downloads/2019/Alsup...