So, you know parts of California are now undergoing orchestrated blackouts, right? It’s wildfire season. Pacific Gas & Electric Company has cut power to residents in 34 counties in the state. Nearly a million people will be without power. The energy company is doing this as a preventative measure in terms of its equipment starting fires and being sued in the fallout. As a result, generators, flashlights, and battery sales went through the roof in areas that could be impacted. But this Venezuelan energy model has allegedly led to a fatality, one energy-dependent man died minutes after the power was shut off to his home (via Fox News):
A Northern California man dependent on an oxygen supply died Wednesday, shortly after power cuts by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. affected his home, fire officials said Friday.
Robert Mardis, 67, died roughly 12 minutes after PG&E cut power to his home and the surrounding area. An autopsy report concluded the man died of severe coronary artery atherosclerosis, according to the Sacramento Bee.
Fire personnel responded to a call around 3:40 a.m. and found Mardis unresponsive on the floor of his home, according to El Dorado County Interim Fire Chief Lloyd Ogan. He was found wearing a nasal cannula, used to deliver oxygen to the nose, and was hooked up to a PPAP machine for that purpose. Mardis' family told Fox 40 he couldn’t reach his battery-powered tank in time.
Yes, the autopsy proved that the energy loss was not the cause of death, but the deceased’s daughter thinks otherwise. We’ll see how this pans out, but it sounds like it was just a tragic event. With over a million people feeling the pain with no power, there is really no relief in sight, as PG&E says these blackouts could go on for another 10 years (via Daily Wire):
In case anyone needed another reason to leave California, the chief executive officers of Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. (PG&E) now says the company may have to impose blackouts over the next 10 years.
NPR reported that CEO Bill Johnson told energy regulators at California’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) the company needed more time to trim trees and update its technology to prevent future forest fires. In the meantime, Johnson said, the company would have to impose blackouts.
PG&E filed for bankruptcy in January. Months later, investigators determined that it was the company’s electrical transmission lines that caused a fire that sparked the raging forest fires in California last November.
Johnson reportedly said at the meeting that it could take 10 years for the power outages to be “ratcheted down significantly.”
What a mess.
