Sitting and Waiting……
We’re under a Blizzard Warning from now until 8 am Tuesday (tomorrow) Morning, BUT, I’m not worried about the Blizzard, and, I’m not sitting and waiting for the snow and 35 to 50 mph winds that accompany a Blizzard – I’m just sitting and waiting for the ELECTRICITY to go off just when I desperately need it ON!….. Â Anybody out there who has followed the MR Community Blog for any amount of time is well aware of my feelings concerning our unreliable, incompetent, non-caring, and totally greedy Power Companies…. Â Most of us still receive electricity in our homes via 19th Century technology – Utility Poles!!!!…. Â In Oklahoma the grids are in such a sad state that even the slightest wind causes power outages, and, the wind blows across the plains daily…. Â I guess if I were in their shoes, I wouldn’t care about improving anything either….. Â I mean, all they have to do is ask the government for a rate increase to patch up any storm damage to the antiquated utility pole system and it’s immediately granted….. Â How they have managed to convince the Government and the people that this is the ONLY WAY to deliver electricity is beyond me…. Â It’s nothing short of Criminal!…. Â There is no way to calculate the number of deaths and injuries that can be directly traced to the lack of electricity at crucial times….. Â In my case, I plan to stay in for the next day or so, until the weather clears up, UNLESS, Â my electricity goes belly-up, which is most likely and a constant worry anytime there is the least amount of bad weather…. Â Then, I have no HEAT, no LIGHTS, no way to COOK – NOTHING!!!… Â I will be FORCED to either stay inside and try not to freeze until the electricity is back on, or attempt to travel to some other inhabitable environment, which means getting out in a Blizzard that you are being told to stay out of for safety reasons….. Â It’s beyond crazy!…. Â WAKE-UP PEOPLE and start complaining because it is already too late!….. Â U–U-U-G-H-H!!!!!
February 26th, 2013 at 10:34 am
Fortunately, the Blizzard part of yesterday’s storm didn’t make it to the OKC area and my electric remained on, BUT, there was still the embedded worry that it wouldn’t and that makes it hard to sleep when it’s 30 degrees outside and the wind’s blowing 30-50 MPH….. The Western part of the State was not as lucky….. There were whole Cities and Towns without electric….. There was one death reported due to the Blizzard, but, to be fair, I did not hear the details as to whether the loss of electricity was involved… It’s still a shame that all our 21st Century technology that we now totally depend on is powered by a delivery system designed in the 19th Century- A very unreliable, unpredictable, and at times, very dangerous and deadly system…..
February 26th, 2013 at 10:46 am
We’ve been over this before.
So what kind of rate increase would it take to completely overhaul the delivery system to make everything underground? And what would people be willing to accept?
February 26th, 2013 at 12:03 pm
…And, as I’ve said before, I’m not an Engineer or an Architect, but, it’s natural to assume that it would not be cheap….. Most large cities in the U.S. have, at a minimum, downtown areas and some residential areas that have underground electric service, so-o-o, it’s safe to say that we have the technology to safely install underground grids….. Also, I know that it is not feasible to start replacing every electrical grid all at once….. I mean, it has taken us 120-plus years to get where we are now….. It would probably take 20, 40 years, maybe longer, but, at least, we would be moving in more stable, reliable direction, besides, how do you put a price on Life?….. A good start would be with new construction, Commercial and Residential, along with areas that are constantly having power outages…. Replacing these grids would save the money spent over and over again on replacing and repairing the outdated utility pole system….. If it’s done with forethought and planning, along with ongoing designing of proper specialty equipment/tools needed for a faster, safer, and less expensive installation, spread over a reasonable period of time, I don’t see how rate increases, if any, would be unacceptable to the customers….. Of course, the electric companies would have to get rid of their self-serving, greedy attitudes…. That will probably be the biggest obstacle, along with convincing the public that it’s NOT an impossible, over-expensive project…..
February 28th, 2013 at 11:34 pm
I sat it out in Limon, CO. On the topic. How much does the utility companies pay yearly to repair damaged services ? How much profit does the upper echelon of the utilities make? I don’t know about other states but here in OK we have No competition for our utility service, no other choices therefore every year when they go to the corporation commission and ask for a rate increase it is rubber stamped APPROVED. I think if they would tell the truth when they asked for an increase to make the service weather proof we might not mind. But now they get an increase every year and we still have service outages due to weather and just fix it back the way it was, trim a few trees and we are supposed to like it. That’s like if a house in the forest burns down they rebuild it, it burns down again, they rebuild it again, and then a tornado wipes it out. And they rebuild it again. never clearing a fire line around it or reinforcing the structure. It’s the definition of Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results
March 1st, 2013 at 5:21 pm
That’s about it in a nutshell, Mr. J…. Can we get an “AMEN” to that?…. “A-M-E-N”!!!!!!