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1   HeadSet   2018 Nov 13, 9:54am  

If we want to prevent theses massive fires in the future, we will have to manage the forests using methods such as controlled logging and controlled burns. Otherwise, all that kindling will build up and be lit by PG&E, a careless smoker, lightning, arson, and so on. Forest fires in that area are part of the ecology, they will not go away on their own.
2   RWSGFY   2018 Nov 13, 10:16am  

So it's either the fuckers in PG&E management decided that clearing trees around power lines is unnecessary, or it's these union fucks reported the job done but never lifted a fucking finger. Either way that fucking company has jumped the shark and needs to be fucking decimated.
3   Ceffer   2018 Nov 13, 10:19am  

In the great socialist paradise, there is no God, so there are no Acts of God, only actionable torts against deep pockets. Keep the courts crammed with fleecing litigations, false testimony for secondary gain, and righteously proclaiming legal lottery gamblers!
4   Evan F.   2018 Nov 13, 10:47am  

HeadSet says
If we want to prevent theses massive fires in the future, we will have to manage the forests using methods such as controlled logging and controlled burns.

Agreed but controlled burns are actually really really complicated endeavors. It can take months, sometimes years for a specific area to be not only bureaucratically cleared for a controlled burn, but conditions have to be right as well, and then the actual burn has to be carefully, CAREFULLY managed such that a controlled burn doesn't grow into an uncontrolled one.

Honestly land management will only take you so far. Wanna live in Cali? You get fires and earthquakes. Wanna live in the Midwest? Tornadoes. Gulf coast? Prepare for hurricanes. New England? Well, prepare to be a miserable fucker for the rest of your life ?
5   mell   2018 Nov 13, 11:02am  

This is what Trump criticized and then got blasted by the usual suspects. The people living in fire danger areas would be helped much more by competent forest management as well as a mandate to build all houses as fire-proof as they can be. This was not a "global-warming" fire and everyone knows it, but many are dishonest about it.
6   zzyzzx   2018 Nov 13, 11:11am  

DASKAA says
So it's either the fuckers in PG&E management decided that clearing trees around power lines is unnecessary, or it's these union fucks reported the job done but never lifted a fucking finger. Either way that fucking company has jumped the shark and needs to be fucking decimated.


Check out their recent stock slide. Ticker symbol PCG
7   RWSGFY   2018 Nov 13, 11:59am  

zzyzzx says
DASKAA says
So it's either the fuckers in PG&E management decided that clearing trees around power lines is unnecessary, or it's these union fucks reported the job done but never lifted a fucking finger. Either way that fucking company has jumped the shark and needs to be fucking decimated.


Check out their recent stock slide. Ticker symbol PCG


We are past stock slides and other bullshit. These guys need to be kicked out completely and the company assets transferred for $1 to a competent company. Otherwise they will suck more money from the ratepayers and keep doing what they are doing. The so-called oversight by CPUC is a fucking joke too. They are busy with "greenhouse initiatives" and other pie-in-the-sky shit while neglecting the important day-to-day stuff.
8   krc   2018 Nov 13, 12:38pm  

Be careful what you wish for - controlled burns are often the start of major conflagrations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerro_Grande_Fire

It is usually some idiot who decides how to do it...
Unfortunately, just clearing underneath wires, etc.. isn't all that helpful when everything is so dry and the winds can take a well swathed patch of ground and still light enough grass so that it blows embers on the forest nearby.

And, ironically, shutting down power lines during high winds and fires won't help rural areas that rely on power for their well pumps - so they have no way to spray off embers on a roof, etc... Most folks I know in rural areas now have a generator just in case they need well water during a power outage to fight fires on their property.
9   RWSGFY   2018 Nov 13, 2:36pm  

krc says
shutting down power lines during high winds


.... is a crutch to compensate for insufficient vegetation management around power lines.
10   theoakman   2018 Nov 13, 3:32pm  

Part of the reason the fires get this big in the first place is because all of the small ones are put out for decades leading up to the big one.
11   Heraclitusstudent   2018 Nov 13, 5:34pm  

theoakman says
Part of the reason the fires get this big in the first place is because all of the small ones are put out for decades leading up to the big one.


Like financial crisis: small ones are papered over by the Fed until some irrepressible SHTF.

The laws of nature never change: Nothing fails like success.
12   zzyzzx   2018 Nov 14, 10:13am  

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pg-e-plunges-draining-credit-144537343.html

PG&E Plunges After Draining Credit Facilities Amid Fire Costs

California’s biggest utility was plunged into full-blown crisis by the possibility that its equipment sparked one of the catastrophic wildfires ravaging the state.

Shares of PG&E Corp. plummeted as much as 23 percent Wednesday after the company said it had exhausted its revolving credit lines, signaling its growing financial stress.

“It really raises a lot of fears for investors,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Kit Konolige said. “It seems to me that it’s maybe a desperation move.”

PG&E has a total of $3.46 billion in cash and cash equivalents, and another $1.4 billion in wildfire insurance coverage, according to regulatory filing Tuesday. Damages from the deadly Northern California wildfire may reach as much as $15 billion, Citigroup Inc. analyst Praful Mehta wrote in a research note Wednesday.

In a statement, PG&E said it drew down its credit facility “to provide greater financial flexibility, including to pay down upcoming debt maturities and for general business purposes.”

It’s the fifth consecutive day of declines for San Francisco-based PG&E, which has lost 48 percent of its value since the Camp Fire broke out Nov. 8. The company’s widely traded 6.05 percent senior unsecured bonds due March 2034 fell 7.8 cents on the dollar to 88.2 cents, according to Trace data compiled by Bloomberg.

California authorities are investigating PG&E equipment as a possible cause of the Camp fire, the deadliest blaze in state history, burning about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco. It has killed at least 48 people, destroyed 130,000 acres and wiped out the town of Paradise.

“The utility could be subject to significant liability in excess of insurance coverage,” PG&E said in its filing Tuesday.

PG&E already faces up to $17.3 billion in potential liabilities for 2017’s wildfires, according to a JPMorgan Chase & Co. estimate.

A separate fire burning near Los Angeles have sent shares of utility owner Edison International falling sharply this week. The Rosemead, California-based company was down less than 1 percent Wednesday after Macquarie Capital analyst Angie Storozynski said in a research note that she didn’t expect liabilities from the blaze to exceed $1 billion.

California enacted a law earlier this year to help utilities cover costs of last year’s, including by selling bonds backed by customer bills. But the measure didn’t specifically address how to handle the costs of any fires in 2018. So PG&E may need to turn to lawmakers for another fix.

“We think Sacramento will likely step in to protect the utility and its customers,” Citigroup’s Mehta wrote.

PG&E Corporation (PCG)
24.84-7.88 (-24.08%)
13   Automan Empire   2018 Nov 14, 10:39pm  

Man I am sick of people who know fuck-all about California taking up this swaggering, "The libs don't know how to manage forests let's take them over!" bandwagon. So many laughable ideas being thrown out, and strongly held positions with literally no basis in reality.

What ACTIONABLE PLAN do critics have?

Controlled burns? What is that? We have a year round fire season, mister lives where it rains 55+ inches a year. Also, the fire in Ventura burned through an area that was burnt to a moonscape less than 10 years ago.

Firebreaks? I don't think you understand Santa Ana wind conditions. The fire jumped a 10 lane paved freeway in the aforementioned recent burn area. What kind of fire breaks are you proposing? How many, across whose property, and to what effect?

Increase logging to remove dead trees? AHA! Here we get to the CRUX of the issue. This is laying the groundwork for Republicans to open forest land to increased logging, THAT'S ALL! This is NOT an effective fire prevention or reduction technique. It's also not an economic logging technique. Trying to remove dead and diseased trees without damaging surrounding healthy growth is nearly impossible, and expensive per board foot compared to clear cutting large swaths. Look on Google Earth North and East of Lake Shasta, at the checkerboard patches of clear cuts. THAT is the way logging companies operate, and is the impossible economic foe "clean up logging" is competing against.

Pretty nifty trick of the Oligarchs, getting large numbers of Americans pumped up about handing logging rights on public lands to private individuals, while blaming liberals and "socialists" for what is really the machinations of crony CAPITALISM.
14   mell   2018 Nov 15, 9:58am  

Automan Empire says
Man I am sick of people who know fuck-all about California taking up this swaggering, "The libs don't know how to manage forests let's take them over!" bandwagon. So many laughable ideas being thrown out, and strongly held positions with literally no basis in reality.

What ACTIONABLE PLAN do critics have?

Controlled burns? What is that? We have a year round fire season, mister lives where it rains 55+ inches a year. Also, the fire in Ventura burned through an area that was burnt to a moonscape less than 10 years ago.

Firebreaks? I don't think you understand Santa Ana wind conditions. The fire jumped a 10 lane paved freeway in the aforementioned recent burn area. What kind of fire breaks are you proposing? How many, across whose property, and to what effect?

Increase logging to remove dead trees? AHA! Here we get to the CRUX of the issue. This is laying the groundwork for Republicans to open forest land to increased logging, THAT'S ALL! This is...


Any state that uses PG & E and relies on them wrt safety is by default mismanaged. Have you seen those power-lines and masts? They are and always have been pretty much 3rd world grade. There are many things where the US excels, this is not one of them. If you want some first world state-of-the-art power line and wildfire/forest management look no further than Western Europe. I'd like the US to arrive at some point in the 21st century and put all the last miles power-lines underground and run only the major power-line highways above ground and in non-forest/wildfire areas. PG & E stock should be at zero.
15   zzyzzx   2018 Nov 15, 10:26am  

Down more today:
PG&E Corporation (PCG)
18.76-6.83 (-26.69%)
As of 1:24PM EST. Market open.
16   mell   2018 Nov 15, 10:30am  

You could ride your bicycle or skateboard against a PG & E powermast and singlehandedly bring it down. For too long they abused their monopoly and only cared about their profits instead of improving their technology and making investments into infrastructure.
17   Automan Empire   2018 Nov 15, 11:03am  

I can't speak for PG&E because I live in Edison territory.

Another thing I didn't get to in the above post. ALL of these people declaring the electrical utility at fault and in need of takeover, when there is NO information about the start of these specific fires. The Ventura fire happened in a recent burn zone, so ALL of the poles are less than a decade old and up to recent standards. I spend a lot of time in the mountains and I can see the poles are well maintained and brush cleared from around their bases. One recent smaller fire in the Malibu area was sparked by a power pole, after A CAR HIT IT. Another years ago started near Sylmar after a large bird spread its wings across two wires and fell to the ground in flames. Edison is reporting a trip event in the area where one of the fires started and everyone is assigning blame. However, a fire near power lines sends aloft ionized particles that are highly conductive and can CAUSE an arc between perfectly designed and maintained wires.

Underground all utilities everywhere? THAT is considered actionable advice? Anyone proposing this, have you actually LOOKED at the terrain power lines cross in mountainous areas? It's painful having to listen to advice and solutions from people who know jack fucking shit about the topic. Asimov had a great quote about one of the failures of implementing democracy is the pervasive belief that it means "my ignorance is the equal of your knowledge."
18   mell   2018 Nov 15, 11:09am  

Automan Empire says
I can't speak for PG&E because I live in Edison territory.

Another thing I didn't get to in the above post. ALL of these people declaring the electrical utility at fault and in need of takeover, when there is NO information about the start of these specific fires. The Ventura fire happened in a recent burn zone, so ALL of the poles are less than a decade old and up to recent standards. I spend a lot of time in the mountains and I can see the poles are well maintained and brush cleared from around their bases. One recent smaller fire in the Malibu area was sparked by a power pole, after A CAR HIT IT. Another years ago started near Sylmar after a large bird spread its wings across two wires and fell to the ground in flames. Edison is reporting a trip event in the area where one of the fires started and everyone is assigning blame. However, a fire near power lines sends aloft ionized particles that are highly conductive and can CAUSE an arc between perfectly designed an...


Mountainous and earthquaky terrain is no problem for underground lines in many European countries, some more active than CA such as Italy. Power-lines above ground are dangerous in many ways, but causing fires is the biggest issue.
19   Eric Holder   2018 Nov 15, 11:10am  

Automan Empire says
I can't speak for PG&E because I live in Edison territory....

... there is NO information about the start of these specific fires.


Except there is: SFGate reported that one lady in Paradise area was contacted by PG&E on a day the fire started requesting access to her property because of reports of power lines sparking against tree limbs.

PS. Fires in the North and the South of CA are two different beasts and need not be mixed together. The terrain is different, the cause is probably different and conditions are also different.
20   Eric Holder   2018 Nov 15, 11:36am  

On PG&E:



"The utility was responsible for several of last year’s wildfires that burned through Northern California’s wine country. In fact, Cal Fire has determined that of the 21 major fires last fall in Northern California, at least 17 were caused by power lines, poles and other equipment owned by Pacific Gas and Electric Company."


On logging as a "solution":

Some researchers said that logging in the burned area after a fire in 2008, which was intended to clear out fuels and make this part of Northern California safer, may have had the opposite result. The logging may have left fast-burning weeds and young trees in the fire’s path.

“When it got to the logged area, it spread very rapidly and people just didn’t have much time to evacuate in Paradise, so this whole notion that logging — so-called hazardous fuels reduction — was going to save the town is a dangerous falsehood,” said Chad Hanson, a fire ecologist at the John Muir Project


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/us/camp-fire-paradise-cause.html
21   Eric Holder   2018 Nov 15, 12:12pm  

Automan Empire says
Pretty nifty trick of the Oligarchs, getting large numbers of Americans pumped up about handing logging rights on public lands to private individuals


I doubt modern Oligarchs are THAT interested in logging in CA. There are plenty of much more lucrative fields than "selective logging in the mountains".
22   Automan Empire   2018 Nov 15, 12:32pm  

Eric Holder says
There are plenty of much more lucrative fields than "selective logging in the mountains".


Selective logging can't compete with clear cut logging. Make no mistake, clear cutting is the end goal, not "better forest management." Oligarchs are very happy to send whole logs to China then ship back finished lumber products. My point is, they have people up in arms clamoring for change, but the ACTUAL CHANGES won't be the ones the useful idiots are clamoring for.
23   Eric Holder   2018 Nov 15, 12:49pm  

Automan Empire says
Oligarchs are very happy to send whole logs to China then ship back finished lumber products.


Again, doesn't make much sense to me since Chinese now have practically unlimited access to Russian Taiga where they can clear-cut whatever their hearts desire after bribing the local authorities.
24   Al_Sharpton_for_President   2018 Nov 15, 1:24pm  

I expect the Maibu residing Hollywood powers that be will relent and agree to that remake of the Green Berets starring Don, Jr., in order to get Trump to redirect the high energy weapon.
25   HeadSet   2018 Nov 15, 1:33pm  

willywonka says
I expect the Maibu residing Hollywood powers that be will relent and agree to that remake of the Green Berets starring Don, Jr., in order to get Trump to redirect the high energy weapon.


Good one!! I can just picture Donald Trump at his new Weather Control Console dialing up the Santa Anna winds......
26   Booger   2018 Nov 15, 2:15pm  

Has this affected homeowners insurance rates yet?
Or can you even still buy that in CA?
27   RWSGFY   2018 Nov 15, 2:51pm  

Booger says
Has this affected homeowners insurance rates yet?
Or can you even still buy that in CA?


Mine is up for renewal soon. The offers I've received so far indicate no price hike. I'm not living in a forest, though.
28   Evan F.   2018 Nov 15, 3:21pm  

Booger says
Has this affected homeowners insurance rates yet?
Or can you even still buy that in CA?

Sure, but it varies from neighborhood to neighborhood. I imagine for high risk zones like the Malibu hills and San Gabriel mountain areas (La Crescenta/La Canada) it's gonna go up. For most areas nothing will change much.

I almost bought a place in La Crescenta about 8 years ago but the insurance alone (roughly $5k/year at the time) made me walk away. My current annual premium is like $1000/year, and hasn't changed for 5 years.
29   Booger   2018 Nov 15, 4:03pm  

DASKAA says
Booger says
Has this affected homeowners insurance rates yet?
Or can you even still buy that in CA?


Mine is up for renewal soon. The offers I've received so far indicate no price hike. I'm not living in a forest, though.


It might be too soon.
I am expecting insurers to leave the market if this continues.
31   zzyzzx   2019 Jan 2, 10:07am  

Looks like PCG closed last the year at $23.55/share
32   zzyzzx   2019 Jan 8, 11:49am  

PG&E Corporation (PCG) $17.00/sh -1.95 (-10.26%)

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pg-e-bankruptcy-leave-power-010657028.html

A PG&E Bankruptcy Would Leave Utility in Turmoil for Years

PG&E plunged 22 percent Monday on news that it’s exploring a bankruptcy filing in response to an onslaught of wildfire liabilities that are estimated to be as high as $30 billion -- far exceeding the company’s market value of less than $10 billion. On Tuesday, the company fell as much as 17 percent after S&P Global Ratings downgraded the San Francisco-based company’s long-term credit rating to junk, and said the utility remains on a negative watch. The bonds hit all-time lows.
33   zzyzzx   2019 Jan 8, 11:58am  

Obligatory reference to the other similiar thread:
/post/1310914/2017-10-10-fires-in-santa-rosa-and-napa
34   zzyzzx   2019 Jan 8, 11:58am  

Anyone here manage to short this stock recently?
35   zzyzzx   2019 Jan 14, 9:10am  

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pg-e-bailout-hopes-crushed-163848465.html

PG&E Bailout Hopes Are Crushed With California Showing Little Interest

Now that PG&E Corp. has said it plans to file for bankruptcy, analysts are seeing little chance that California lawmakers will step in anytime soon with a bailout for the beleaguered power provider.

California’s largest utility, which faces potential liabilities of $30 billion or more from deadly wildfires, said it will file under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code by Jan. 29, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday. Governor Gavin Newsom issued a statement signaling he’s willing to let PG&E proceed, saying that at the same time “the company should continue to honor promises made to energy suppliers and to our community.”

A bankruptcy reorganization would, in fact, allow PG&E to operate and keep the lights on. What’s more, it “diversifies the responsibility for what plays out,” said Kit Konolige, a senior analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. He said he didn’t believe there was much enthusiasm in Sacramento for an immediate rescue plan. “What politician is going to step up and say ‘I want to save PG&E?’ ’’

There are some, including Democratic Assemblyman Chris Holden, who in a statement called a bankruptcy “deeply concerning for the state.”

The pressure is unlikely to be off politicians to eventually act. Newsom covered that ground in his statement: “I will be working with the legislature and all stakeholders on a solution that ensures consumers have access to safe, affordable and reliable service, fire victims are treated fairly, and California can continue to make progress toward our climate goals.”

PG&E employs 20,000 and provides power to more than 15 million people. Its liabilities could grow from wildfires in 2017 and 2018; the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has blamed 17 of the 2017 blazes in part on company power lines and other equipment.

Its stock has tanked, and it has little left in the bank -- $1.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of Friday. PG&E has said it doesn’t intend to make an interest payment of about $21.6 million due Tuesday on 5.4 percent senior notes due in 2040.

“There isn’t a lot of time left. You’re talking six months until you actually get into a liquidity crunch,” said Guggenheim analyst Shahriar Pourreza.

Even if they wanted to, Newsom and legislators might simply be unable to do anything in time.

“The high degree of controversy and public outcry stemming from wildfire damages and perceived blame assigned to PG&E likely creates headwinds in the legislative process,” the research firm ClearView Energy Partners LLC said in a report Monday. “The 15-day notice offers a very short runway for lawmakers to act.”

PG&E on Sunday started searching for a new chief executive officer after Geisha Williams, 57, quit; General counsel John Simon will take the helm in the meantime.

Williams’s departure came after a catastrophic period for PG&E. Bonds that traded above face value about months ago now fetch around 85 cents on the dollar. The stock fell as much as 50 percent to $8.77 a share as of 11:10 a.m. in New York, its biggest intraday drop ever. Shares are down 82 percent since the Camp fire broke out Nov. 8.

PG&E Corporation (PCG) $9.11/sh -8.48 (-48.20%)
36   Al_Sharpton_for_President   2019 Jan 14, 9:51am  

tovarichpeter says
PG&E cause Paradise Fire
You raci....errr....ethnicist!

Hispanic Leader Geisha Williams Named New CEO and President of PG&E Corporation

https://latintrends.com/hispanic-leader-geisha-williams-named-new-ceo-and-president-of-pge-corporation/
37   mell   2019 Jan 14, 10:49am  

Can't be because otherwise Trump was right again!
38   mell   2019 Jan 14, 10:51am  

Btw the problem with shorting pg & e is that they may get bailed out again by Newsom.
39   HeadSet   2019 Jan 14, 1:48pm  

Did anyone short PG&E?

Anyone planning to buy now that it is in the 8$ range?
40   RWSGFY   2019 Jan 14, 3:15pm  

HeadSet says
Did anyone short PG&E?

Anyone planning to buy now that it is in the 8$ range?


Not touching that pile of shit with a 10ft pole either way. Being their customer is more than fucking enough.

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