It sounds strange to hear him talk about utility poles not being properly maintained. Maybe the power companies are cutting corners by not checking their infrastructure thoroughly and/or often enough, but I view a wooden pole as something that really isn't maintained. Power poles are usually treated with creosote or other chemicals and I don't remember ever seeing onsite injections into power poles to replenish the preservative. I think that it would be difficult to get the chemical treatment to the part of the pole in the ground. Probably quite a bit of paperwork would be involved for tracking the transport and use of the chemicals. Spills/leaks onsite would cause more paperwork plus doing what is needed to bring the land back to standards/expectations.
Yeah, power line starts are a common refrain, particularly over the last 10 years or so. There are 2 reasons for it: 1) Power companies have long foregone line maintenance and right-of-way maintenance in favor of squeezing more profits. This leaves lines vulnerable to high winds knocking them down and trees, branches, tumbleweeds, and such slamming into live wires. 2) The standard to which many of these lines were built is no longer adequate for the increased extremes we are seeing. Small lines serving a home or three or a small community were built on the cheap decades ago and never improved. In California, PG&E has overhead lines that are still as they were when installed in the 1930s. The list of high wind power line fires is growing. Power line failures famously factored in the Gatlinburg fire in 2016, the Oregon Labor Day fires in 2020, California's Camp Fire, Colorado's Marshall Fire in 2021, and Maui among many other lesser known fires. Nationally between 1992 and 2020, there were over 32,000 fires started by transmission lines. (There's also the problem of live lines creating arcs through smoke particles and frying firefighters.) For the Camp Fire, PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter and they face many other charges in other California fires. Hawaiian Electric has dozens of pending lawsuits and faces almost $4 billion in liability from the Maui Fire, which killed 115. Instead of ruggedizing their transmission lines, power companies now just shut down lines when high winds are forecast, leaving people without power. At some point soon, we'll need to bury a huge amount of lines--thousands and thousands of miles. Personally, I don't think private utility companies are up for the challenge and will continue to put profit above safety. Given the climate-driven challenges ahead and the more extreme conditions certainly coming, I'm turning into Lenin when it comes to utilities--seize them. I also like the idea of community solar with a one line connection to the larger grid, leaving them self sufficient for a time if needed.
https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/08/texas-panhandle-wildfires-utilities/ I believe the same company was involved recently in Maui and Colorado, Xcel Energy
Warmest winter on record for the Lower 48. The US average temp was 5.4°F above normal, with parts of Minnesota reaching a ridiculous 13°F above normal. Again, not a month--the entire winter. Not surprisingly, Great Lakes ice coverage was at an all-time low. Also not surprising: It's the warmest Canadian winter on record. They averaged 9.6°F warmer than normal. Southern Europe had their warmest winter ever recorded and for February, much of Europe not only had record highs for the month, but many would also be highs for the month of March. It'd be cool if we decided to do something about all this.
Yep in MN we’ve reached 70 a couple of times in February which is unheard of in MN. It’s also been a very dry winter with little precipitation of either snow or rain. We’re already in fire danger.
Of course when I have to play out side on St Patrick’s Fay the forecast is for the temps to be back in the 40’s.
That chart is getting a lot of play among scientists--365 consecutive days of records. A full year. And still going.
