California Is Fucked

[trysail]

The general public has absolutely no idea just how big a clusterfuck the PG&E bankruptcy is (yet).

The dumbass politicians, at the behest of the superstitious climate hand-wringers and crazies deluded by pseudoscience ordered PG&E to enter into a whole bunch of insanely expensive "renewable" energy-generated electricity supply contracts known as Power Purchase Agreements ("PPAs"). They were long term contracts extending, in some cases as far as 20-25 years in tenor.

As a result of PG&E's bankruptcy filing, all those high-cost PPAs are going to be rejected. They are executory contracts and the federal Bankruptcy Code (the "Code") allows just that. There are fundamental conflicts between delusional California state law and the Bankruptcy Code that will end up being litigated— and that will be interesting because there aren’t legal precedents. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that state law will be adjudicated to preempt the Code and Federal law.


It wouldn’t surprise me if it takes five years or more for PG&E to emerge from bankruptcy.


It is just dawning on a few of the numbskulls that California has shot itself in the foot and fucked itself up the ass by allowing the stupid, corrupt politicians and the climate nutters to dictate where and how PG&E generates and sources the critical electricity the state relies on.

Here's How PG&E's Bankruptcy Might Hurt California's Ambitious Climate Goals

...PG&E filed for chapter 11 protection because of potentially billions in liability over recent wildfires. That has solar and wind companies concerned that the utility will be paying them less, or even nothing in the future...PG&E is one of the nation's largest buyers of renewable energy, driven by California's ambitious climate change goals.

In 2002, the state passed a law requiring utilities to get 20 percent of their electricity from sources like solar and wind. Last year, the state put utilities on the hook for 100 percent clean energy by 2045...

...PG&E's solar contracts date back more than a decade, when the technology was relatively expensive.

"The contracts that PG&E signed were some of the richest and highest price contracts we've seen for clean energy to date in the U.S."...

...PG&E is still paying out those contracts, which can last 15 to 20 years. The bankruptcy judge could potentially seek to change their terms or prices...

This was an entirely predictable outcome. It happens whenever morons meddle in shit they know nothing about.


By mandating high-cost, unreliable and intermittent electricity supplies the politicians and climate lunatics were major contributors to the PG&E clusterfuck.


All of this helps to explain why California electricity is so expensive to consumers. The people who were really fucked over were California ratepayers. They've been hoodwinked into paying rates that are almost 2× the national average for electricity.


The corrupt politicians and the climate nutters tried to hide the cost of their crackpot climate pseudoscience.


No one in their right mind will expose capital to the risk of (constructive) expropriation by the California collectivists, climate nutjobs, corrupt politicians, believers in perpetual motion machines and zanies. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I ever put a dime anywhere near a California public utility.





Own goal:
California is fucked




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[von_Bismarck]

How much were you paid for this post?

 

[RoryN]

As California continues not to be fucked, I wonder how often us Californians should bump this thread?

Once every 6 months? Once a year?

 

[BotanyBoy]

https://i.imgur.com/vp7qZj8.jpg

 

[DeluxAuto]

How much were you paid for this post?

As I thought, he continues to lie about California's energy costs. Once you realize that he perpetuates the lie, the rest of his post is garbage.

 

[Salacious_B_Crumb]

https://i.imgur.com/vp7qZj8.jpg

Sadly not far from the truth but it's what they want. I don't get it but whatever.

 

[Salacious_B_Crumb]

California and power have always had a sketchy relationship but again, it's what they want. I don't worry much about states I will never live in. Kinda fun to think about them breaking off into the ocean and being turned into a maximum security prison but that's at least a decade or so away. Hopefully anyway. Snake needs some work.

 

[BotanyBoy]

Sadly not far from the truth but it's what they want. I don't get it but whatever.

I'm cashing in on it and getting out while the getting is good.

Leverage that money into a considerably cheaper but still nice midwestern town....set for LIFE

Won't have the mountains anymore but a high degree of financial security resulting is going to feel really good, get to that building toys and playing part of life after bustin' my ballz for 30 years.

 

[jaF0]

PG&E should have been prosecuted criminally and dissolved after San Bruno.

 

[trysail]

by Brian Melley

Los Angeles (AP)
"...The bankruptcy also could lead to higher bills for customers of PG&E, which supplies natural gas and electricity to 16 million people in Northern and central California..."​

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[rae121452]

and not only that:


Mama Cass – California Earthquake Lyrics
I heard they exploded,
The underground blast,
What they say's gonna happen,
Gonna happen at last,
That's the way it appears.

They tell me the fault line runs right through here,
So that may be,
That may be,
What's gonna happen gonna happen to me,
That's the the way it appears.

They tell me the fault line runs right through here.

Atlantis will rise,
Sunset Boulevard will fall,
Where the beach use to be,
Won't be nothin' at all,
That's the way it appears.

They tell me the fault line runs right through here
So that may be,
That may be,
What's gonna happen gonna happen to me,
That's the way it appears.

They tell me the fault line runs right through here.
Songwriters: JOHN HARTFORD
California Earthquake lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

 

[trysail]

by Paul Rogers
Bay Area News Group

...In stacks of court documents, PG&E asked the bankruptcy court to allow it to potentially cancel up to $42 billion in contracts that it signed over the past 15 years to buy electricity from other companies. PG&E has signed 387 such agreements, it said in court papers, and the majority, or 298, commit PG&E to purchasing solar, wind or other renewable energy to meet California’s environmental goals.

Many of those deals, which are called “power purchase agreements,” are for 15- to 20-year periods...

...Three weeks ago, S&P Global Ratings cut the credit rating of Berkshire Hathaway’s Topaz Solar Farm, a massive, 550-megawatt project in the Carrizo Plain of San Luis Obispo County, to junk status. The ratings company noted that the plant, one of the world’s largest solar facilities, relies on PG&E for all of its revenue...​

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[Oblimo]

Trick Question. Let me guess, "They didn't rake."

Trysail,

You said it was an entirely predictable outcome.

The cause of the bankruptcy is the worst outbreak of wildfires in California's history.

Please answer: how were such unprecedented wildfires predicted?

 

[OldJourno]

by Paul Rogers
Bay Area News Group

......Three weeks ago, S&P Global Ratings cut the credit rating of Berkshire Hathaway’s Topaz Solar Farm, a massive, 550-megawatt project in the Carrizo Plain of San Luis Obispo County, to junk status. The ratings company noted that the plant, one of the world’s largest solar facilities, relies on PG&E for all of its revenue...​

​

Good to see Warren Buffet participating in this circle jerk. No wonder he's such a fan of green energy. When people who know nothing about practical energy policy and aren't focused on delivering a competitively priced product to consumers are in charge, Buffet is all over it.
Doubt me? Well, wouldn't his Topaz Solar Farm have dozens of other eager buyers waiting in the wings?

 

[von_Bismarck]

Trysail,

You said it was an entirely predictable outcome.

The cause of the bankruptcy is the worst outbreak of wildfires in California's history.

Please answer: how were such unprecedented wildfires predicted?

Global warming.

 

[Oblimo]

Global warming.

No, no, no. Bad forest management. They didn't rake the forests like the Norwegians do.

 

[trysail]

First and foremost, there is the diversion of scarce financial resources from maintenance to compliance with insane political mandates.

"...CARB effectively ended the ability to perform control burns. This applies to the whole of California including federal forests...

...Underground lines are impossible for distances greater than about 20 miles. Powerlines through mountainous rocky terrain are expensive and difficult to maintain...

...Major high-tension lines run in clear-cut swaths. Low-tension distribution lines do not. It would be impossibly expensive and require clear-cutting huge areas. Generally only branches quite close to the lines are pruned back. This decreases the risk of damage and arcing, but does not eliminate it. To eliminate it all trees out to one tree-heighth and then some (wind!) on both sides of the line must be cut down.

And to make things worse, the increased light in this swath will cause a massive sprouting of new trees, so the swath has to be re-cut at fairly short intervals..."

​

by Planning Engineer

"...Utilities are criticized and chastised for not embracing renewables and face additional scrutiny and demands which hurt their bottom line. Over time with pressure study assumptions begin to fall in line more with those of the regulators. Perhaps against better judgment – alternative technologies are credited with higher performance, lower maintenance and/or greater longevity than is warranted. Existing technology does not receive similar benefits and may be penalized. Fuel prices for conventional technology are projected to steeply escalate. High compliance costs are associated with conventional technology. Extra costs to the transmission system associated with intermittent resources are ignored or minimized. The strategic value of experience with new technology is given a high value. Individually most any of these study decisions may be reasonable; collectively they skew the results tremendously. Planners who buy into the benefits of renewables are more likely to participate in forums with environmental groups, industry renewable task forces, and PR opportunities because it matches their perspectives and their presence helps the utilities image..."​

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[trysail]

Balance And The Grid

by Planning Engineer and Jill Tietjen

...The price of energy has tremendous direct and indirect costs on society. Energy costs make up more than one-fifth of the after-tax income of America’s lowest income quintile. Higher energy costs for agriculture and manufacturing production are passed on to consumers in higher prices for products, thus lowering overall the standard of living. To the extent that energy costs are high in a region, the less economically competitive that region will be with likely correspondingly lower wages and higher unemployment.

Affordable energy provides greater comfort, health and safety while allowing machinery to improve lives and reduce drudgery. Higher energy costs limit these benefits to smaller segments of the population. Affordable energy is associated with high standards of living, improved health and better environmental protection. Third world countries see a dilemma. Low cost energy greatly increases the value of manpower. But, unfortunately, although low cost energy would help spur economic growth and development, many of these countries cannot yet afford the needed energy systems.

Reliability

Reliability of electric service is a critical factor in most modern societies. Power outages have serious socioeconomic impacts. Businesses in the US lose billions of dollars annually and, in addition, outages disrupt lives and threaten health and safety...​

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[SpeareChucker]

Fucked? Don't know.
Hypocritical? I think so.
Playing a little loose with the numbers? I know so...

... California currently imports about 33% of its electricity from outside of the state. Of that 33%, 6% is from coal. This is compared to the 25% of energy imported into California in 2010 from outside states and it's clear California is headed in the wrong direction in this category. California will need to flip the trend in energy importing and begin to produce enough energy to become self-sustaining. Not an insignificant task.

California is also the third largest oil and gas producing state, despite what Californians may tell you. California produced on average 500,000 barrels of oil per day in 2014, third to Texas and North Dakota. While the bill does not necessitate a specific reduction of oil and gas production within the state, it will limit oil and gas use for energy production within its electricity grids. In 2015 the state of California derived 44% of its electrical energy generation from oil, coal, and natural gas. In addition, 30% of California's electrical energy generation was from outside of the state sources with undetermined percentages of renewable vs. non-renewable energy sources....

https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevor...ercent-renewable-energy-by-2045/#1d62bf35570f

 

[trysail]

PG&E has been repeatedly looted by the political cronies who cashed in on the insane CARB and state mandates. The tort lawyers have been allowed to run amok.


Do you think all this is free of expense?


Paradise was burnt; people are dead.

The shareholders of PG&E have been destroyed.

PG&E customers/ratepayers have been and will continue to bear the cost.



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[oO00Oo]

But what about chicago?

 

[von_Bismarck]

Is trysail the most tedious, pretentious fuck on the GB? Besides Que, I mean.

 

[DeluxAuto]

PG&E has been repeatedly looted by the political cronies who cashed in on the insane CARB and state mandates. The tort lawyers have been allowed to run amok.


Do you think all this is free of expense?


Paradise was burnt; people are dead.

The shareholders of PG&E have been destroyed.

PG&E customers/ratepayers have been and will continue to bear the cost.



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At least get the town that burnt correct. It was "Pleasure" that burnt, not Paradise.

 

[trysail]

At least get the town that burnt correct. It was "Pleasure" that burnt, not Paradise.

Will you tell him or should I?




______________________________
Here's a "Thank you" to the anonymous poster who alerted me to that post.


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[colddiesel]

Is trysail the most tedious, pretentious fuck on the GB? Besides Que, I mean.

Why would you want to distinguish between a louse and a flea?