Millions of Californians may have just suffered an unprecedented, induced blackout by the state’s largest (and bankrupt) utility, PG&E, just so it isn’t blamed for starting even more fires causing it to go even more bankrupt… but at least the price of gas is soaring.
According to Fox5NY, citing figures from AAA and the Oil Price Information Service, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in Los Angeles County was $4.25 on Wednesday, 4.5 cents higher than one week ago, 57.6 cents more than one month ago and 37.1 cents greater than one year ago. It has also risen 86.4 cents since the start of the year. What is more troubling is that as California gas prices reached the highest level in the state since 2015, some Los Angeles area gas stations are charging more than $5 a gallon.
The gas price spike started last month after Saudi Arabia oil production facilities were attacked, and accelerated after three Los Angeles-area refineries slowed or halted production due to maintenance issues and no imported gasoline was available to make up for the shortfall, according to Jeffrey Spring, the Automobile Club of Southern California’s corporate communications manager.
Only in California… ? pic.twitter.com/7BiLAF8oHv
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) October 2, 2019
The shortage was made worse after local refineries cut back production of summer-blend gasoline in anticipation of switching to selling the winter blend beginning Nov. 1.
But wait, there’s more: America’s most “environmentally conscious” state got a harsh lesson in electrical engineering when many of the tens of thousands of people hit by this week’s blackout learned the hard way that solar installations don’t keep the lights on during a power outage.
That, as Bloomberg reports, is because most panels are designed to supply power to the grid, not directly to houses. During the heat of the day, solar systems generate more juice than a home can handle. However, they don’t produce power at all at night. So systems are tied into the grid, and the vast majority aren’t working this week as PG&E cut power to much of Northern California to prevent wildfires.
Of course, the only way for most solar panels to work during a blackout is pairing them with batteries, however as Tesla has found out the hard way, that market is just starting to take off and even so it’s having a very difficult time making headway. The largest U.S. rooftop solar company, Sunrun, said hundreds of its customers are making it through the blackouts with batteries. Alas, the total number of those affected – and without power – is in the hundreds of thousands.
“It’s the perfect combination for getting through these shutdowns,” Sunrun Chairman Ed Fenster said in an interview. He expects battery sales to boom in the wake of the outages.
For those wondering if their appliances can work of the power generated by a Tesla, the answer is no, at least without special equipment. Incidentally, without electricity, a Tesla itself won’t run. So those Californians who still have “uncool” internal combustion engines are in luck; they just may have to pay nearly $6 per gallon soon to fill up.
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Is the weather really that nice ?
Gentle Fukushima sea breezes wafting over steaming freshly laid human feces amoungst the subtle sounds of Chicano rap.
WTF is Chicano rap? We listen to narco ballads.
Narco Corridos. The only one I think I ever saw and heard was one on “Breaking Bad” putting a bounty on “Heizinger.” Chicano Rap would be singing about bitches and hos in Spanish. “Alla en el Rancho Grande, alla donde vivia, habia numerosa Bitches and hos, que allegra me dicia, que allegra me dici-aaa!” Something like that. I confess to really liking Ranchero Music.
https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/mexico/articles/a-region-by-region-guide-to-traditional-mexican-music/
Article left out the best mexican song ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It7107ELQvY
in a certain southern part of the state that is not an urban hellhole…and as long as you are close to shore
yes.. the weather really is that nice.
i’m a meteorologist, the bottom crook of california, combined with the Channel Islands, creates a moderating system unlike anywhere else in the US.
which is why everyone is batshit insane in this state, cause they don’t have to really deal with “weather” and thus have plenty of ‘free time’ in which to go bonkers.
You can’t make this stuff up!
Betcha ol’ Nancy’s house has power, at least from a diesel powered generator.
And she will have an unlimited supply of diesel available to her.
They are all so happy they are saving the earth with high gas prices and allowing all their food in the fridge to spoil and run out and rebuy it all en masse. Allowing the “go natural” no electricity a few hours a day is now a thing….lmao
They will understand up close and personally what benefit that “dirty oil energy” really provides them.
Still, most won’t be able to connect the dots. Idiots….
What do the Indians have to do with it?
If we’re lucky the san andreas fault will crack and the shit hole will collapse into the ocean.
Actions have consequences…..sometimes unintended……..
How is pg&e supposed to maintain their lines and keep stuff cleared and pruned back all while being sued into oblivion?
Work on it all year long?
They are constantly fighting the envirowackos over their need to clear the right of way. Their legal bills would probably sustain a small city forever.
They were sued by the Enviro-Nazis when they proposed clearing the right of way of dead trees and brush. Prog clown judges ruled for the Enviro-Nazis. Land of fruits and nuts.
What a ridiculous title.
Of course solar panels work during a blackout, as long as there is sunlight. What they mean is grid tied systems without storage capacity are inoperable whenever the grid goes down.
And that one good reason not to get sucked into buying “solar”.
Also, if you cover your roof with solar panels, and a fire breaks out, either on the roof, or in the kitchen, there is a good chance the fire company will not use all their resources to extinguish the fire?
The normal procedure is to first control the fire, by cutting through the roof, and it becomes rather tricky when it is covered in glass and steel tiles, connected to potentially energized panels.
buyer beware.
Those solar people are damn persistent. I must have rejected 5 or 10 solicitors. 1. They might shave $100 off your monthly bill, or not, but they promise your electric bill will be zip. They don’t mention that you will have to pay for the solar system for 10 or 15 years. And, I have read reports of the solar panels causing a roof fire.
The next trick will be to meter off-grid installations for taxes.
And we found out from neighbor that solar panel install company charges $500 per panel to remove and reinstall each when roof has to be replaced due to hail damage.
They don’t last that long either before having to be replaced.
Californians are still blessed to live in USA. They can leave the democratic socialist system until the socialist take over the whole USA. That is when they will build the Wall to keep Americans from escaping to Mexico. It sucks to be a Californian. Tough shit.
I’m not a Californian. Most of the people living here are not either, they come from the shithole states to make money here and then retire to their little trailer/mudhole villa in Missouri. There for a while, people born here were sporting bumper stickers on their cars saying NATIVE CALIFORNIAN. Meh, they were generally stupid because they went to shitty schools in Cali. I got a quality education in Texas. I don’t know if I told you before about the Cali natives, my old boss grew up in a suburb of LA. He used to mix capital letters into words like so – RiNSey – and he used quotation marks to highlight words in a sentence. Moron.
Inconceivable!
If they had a battery bank instead of being grid-tied it wouldn’t be such a problem. I always wondered about how we are supposed to charge millions of electric cars.
You know what this means.
Clinton-Warren 2020 in a landslide!
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/california-expands-gun-seizure-law