• SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      We’ve only had a few truly catastrophic wildfires and only 23,000 homes burned down since 2017, let’s wait until those numbers come up before we start wasting money on things like “replacing 100 year old infrastructure that was built to last 70.” If we replaced every little thing, how would we pay the executives and shareholders?

  • Car@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    Record profits for shareholders could have been applied elsewhere, like investing in ourselves and what keeps the gears of society turning.

    • andrew@lemmy.stuart.fun
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      1 year ago

      Don’t worry, they will repopulate the earth with their billionaire genius genes once we all die and they return on their rockets and emerge from their sweet underground bunkers.

  • guyrocket@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    With rooftop solar I get to be the asshole that doesn’t care about the grid.

    And you too can be an asshole!

  • const_void@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Good thing the grid is run by private corporations that always do timely maintenance. Oh wait…

  • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.fmhy.net
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    1 year ago

    Of course it is.

    We have more energy consuming stuff than ever. But do you ever see NEW substations being built? NEW long range power lines? I don’t.

    Around here, the utility has a deal- they will sell you a top of the line $400 color touchscreen WiFi thermostat that talks to Alexa and displays the weather report and does a bunch of other shit, for $10 (not a typo). In exchange, you let them remotely shut off your AC if the grid gets overloaded.

    Why do they do this? Because a few truckloads of thermostats (with a bulk discount) are a fuckton cheaper than actually upgrading the grid.

    And so we hear about grid overload days and possible brownouts and incentives to shut stuff off as if this is the way it’s supposed to be. But the reality is these problems only exist because utilities don’t keep ahead of necessary upgrades. After all, why spend the money when there’s shareholders to answer to?

  • 21Cabbage@lemmynsfw.com
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    1 year ago

    I’m at this point pretty convinced that the US is like your friend in high school that never changed the oil in his car because it still started and ran, until of course it didn’t.

  • Davel23@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    The power at my place goes out if it’s a little windy, or if it rains just a little too long. So yeah, no shit.

  • SARGEx117@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I vaguely remember a TV movie from like… 2006 where some kind of solar storm /coronal mass ejection thing happens right as some hacker was trying to “HEY EVERYONE THIS SYSTEM IS VULNERABLE AND YOU SHOULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT BEFORE A BAD GUY TAKES CONTROL” type hack of the electrical grid, and the combination of the hack and solar radiation causing most of the US power grid to shut down

    I haven’t seen anything in real life to convince me the power gris isn’t a prince ruperts drop that only works because it’s never been shut down all at once before, and once it does that tail shatters and takes the rest with it.

    In fact, living near a power substation that supplies a couple major things for a nearby city, I’m convinced the only reason there hasn’t been a massive attack against it is because people just assume it’s well protected.

  • andyortlieb@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    I’ve had 2 multiple day power outages in the Milwaukee area, and 4 or 5 shorter ones over the past few years. It literally never used to happen.

    • piecat@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Local outages are a lot different than grid failure. But yeah local power lines are probably needing an update too.

  • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    ya think? you know there are countries where blackouts are a rare thing, not a routine occurrence…

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      34 years old, I’ve been without power a cumulative of maybe 3 days total my entire life. That includes being hit by many hurricanes including Michael which was a CAT5. You might be exaggerating a bit.