SCE Predicts 20-40% More Intentional Power Outages This Fall

‘Hardened’ Power Lines Hardly Matter, They Will Be Killed In Typical Malibu Windstorms

Southern California Edison last night said they would have to increase the use of intentional blackouts.  They will be more 20 to 40 percent more frequent … they will last longer … and they will cover larger areas last year. 

And California is going to have a more severe fire season than normal … due to worsening drought conditions and dry grass. 

The National Interagency Fire Center yesterday predicted that this year will see a moderate tilt … to strong tilt toward above average fire activity on the Los Angeles region.

The El Niño oscillation is in neutral … offering no significant relief in the form of significant rainfall this winter.

Two wet winters … followed by last year’s dry winter … have supercharged the load of dry weeds and brush in the mountains above Malibu.

Last night … the Edison company’s rid managers revealed yesterday that they are changing their policies for implementing PSPS … 

PSPS is the Edison shorthand for the intentional power blackouts that they implement even in mild winds. 

Tom Spake is the SCE meteorology … he says 2022 and 2023 were very wet … and Malibu escaped with relatively few blackouts.

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“But then we got into 2024, a very dry year, a lot of vegetation that was carried over from those two wet years, and then we had a lot of wind events on top of that.

“So that’s what triggered a lot of PSP events for us in 2024 and then of course into the first part of this year.”

And SCE says that the accumulated weeds and brush will mean a much worse fire season this fall. 

The power company is responding by planning to ramp up the use of intentional outages.

Jude Schneider is in charge of turning out the lights at the power company in high winds.

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“We are anticipating that our updated criteria and windspeed thresholds will result in potentially 20 to 40% more PSPS activations than last year and outage events may be up to twice as large … meaning that twice as many customers would be impacted.

“This is assuming the same weather as 2024 … and as you heard … 2024 was pretty strong PS PS season.

“So we are looking at an even tougher season.”

2025 looks to be worseT than the record breaking number of intentional power outages last year.

And this year … about 123 thousand customer accounts are being added to potential outage areas.  All of those are outside Malibu.

The power company says a wind forecast of up to 50 miles per hour sustained winds will mean the power company will cut the power on hardened power lines … this supposedly superduper covered conductors … the plastic-coated power lines that SCE has been been stringing all over western Malibu.

The Edison company had been using a forecast of 31 mile an hour for sustained winds … and gusts of 46 miles per hour … for its uncovered wires overhead lines.

But the company has been spending millions of dollars to harden its overhead wires … to make them less susceptible to flashovers during high winds.  Those lines are supposedly more resistant to failure in high winds. 

SCE says those hardened power lines will also have to be blacked out … their trigger speed: 50 miles an hour. 

The power company says they hate to assign a trigger speed for cutoffs. and stress that wind speed is only one of. number of factors that go into their decisions to turn off the power.  Other factors include the state of the power poles and trees in any area, the relative dryness of the air, and whether its crews and local fire engines are busy with nearby emergencies or fires.

And this related warning: SCE says they will likely turn off the power in lower strength winds … below the thresholds … if there is a widespread windstorm … or if fire trucks are in service elsewhere. 

Schneider says SCE has now started a 24/7 weather monitoring office to actually watch the windspeeds as the crop up.

And they will react to wind gusts and turn off the power if unanticipated gusts pop up.

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“It started late last year, but we have a 24 seven monitoring alert system through our watch office. We will capture unexpected weather so if we have to, we will start a PSP event by the energizing and then pick up our activation.

“So you we might have some sudden, unannounced activations which are tied to PSPS.”

In years past … SCE dod not give consumers access to three day warnings of possible windstorms on the horizon.

Those forecasts went only to pubic agencies … like the City of Malibu … which decided on a case-by-case basis whether to notify the public.

SCE is changing that this year.

Jude Schneider:

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“Now we used to just send these notifications to public safety partners at three days out … and then to customers two days out.

“But this aligns everybody together … so that all everybody hears at the same time.”

And she says the power company has heard complaints from Malibu and other areas about those repeated warnings and repeated blackout notices that we got last year.

Over and over and over again … your power is going to get cut.

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“We used to send this every four hours … until some of our customers part us basically cried ‘uncle’ and said it was enough … we were sending them too frequently.”

The bottom line: Edison will increase the number of power outages it intentionally pulls.

The outages will happen up to 40 percent more frequently … cover larger areas.

And SCE will likely take longer to respond to inspect the lines … and then turn the power back on … because of the increased number of outages.

Anti-Trump Rallies Tomorrow Will Push Back Against Military Troops In California, and Other Trump Moves

Anti-Trump rallies are scheduled for noon tomorrow at Malibu’s central crossroads …. PCH at Webb Way.

Also … in the center of Topanga Canyon … at Santa Monica Palisades Park … and the big one downtown at L A City Hall, Grand Park.

The rallies are coming together under the banner of the loose group called Indivisible … the same grassroots effort that generated huge crowds against Trump  8 year ago.

Ezra Levin founded Indivisible … he predicts this weekend will see the biggest anti Trump demonstrations since the first Trump term.

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“What we see is the wheels are coming off of this administration … maybe not fast enough … but we are in a dire position right now. 

“We are in a constitutional crisis … a period of authoritarian breakthrough. 

“We haven’t won yet … but the big bright silver lining out there is … as institutions, media, institutions or law firms, or some universities are falling … we are seeing a historic level of democracy grassroots engagement.”

The Republicans are pushing back.

Again last night …. they claimed that sending in the military kept Los Angeles from burning to the ground. 

“We saved LA” says the president … 

Nonsense … says the governor … the mayor … and the police chief.

The president says left wing agitators got paid. And that the new media is falsely painting LA as being quiet. 

Sean Hannity … last night on Fox.

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“The talking points have now gone out and almost everyone in the state-run legacy media mob … the radical left … the democratic party … they’re telling the American people ‘Trump is a dictator’ … ‘Trump is a threat to democracy’ … ‘democracy is in peril and on the line’ and ‘don’t believe the violence that you see day and day out night and night out with your own eyes.’

“They are lying to you.”

Sean Hannity .., speaking on the semi-official government news agency, Fox.

In West LA yesterday … US Senator Alex Padilla was shoved to the floor and handcuffed when he tried to interrupt a news conference called by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Padilla told reporters that being roughed up by the Secret Service and FBI was nothing compared to what working families are being subjected to. 

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“If this is how this administration response to a senator with a question …  if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question … you can only imagine what they’re doing to farmworkers to cooks … to day laborers out in the Los Angeles … in California … and throughout the country. We will hold this administration accountable.”

So … what was the important message that the Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was reading in Westwood yesterday??  

When the senator was roughed up??

KBUU News tracked down the C-Span tape … and found that important announcement consisted of back and forth with reporters … who were challenging her over the Trump administration statements that LA was a cauldron of riots.

Here’s the tape:

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“We left the hotel this morning before 5 AM … around 5 AM … but … but some of those areas that we were able to see … it makes me sad. 

“This is a phenomenal state and this is such a beautiful city and people dream …

REPORTER: “But you only saw downtown since you’ve been here.”

NOEM, INTERUPTING: “No I’ve been driving … I mean we’ve been in the car most of the morning and doping different operations and out with our agents.”

SECOND REPORTER: “But you haven’t  …”

NOEM: “Don’t you want your downtown to be beautiful?

FIRST REPORTER: “No, I just want to know your interpretation as to whether this is just downtown or in other areas.”

NOEM: “No I have been here many times before … but as far as this trip … we’ve been out on operations with law-enforcement officers and so we’ve covered quite a bit of territory.

So what was that operation?

KTLA reports federal agents raided a house east of LA and forced a pregnant mother of four out into the street.

She is a U S citizen.

They produced a warrant for her husband … but they got his name wrong.

That should have invalidated the search … under the Fourth Amendment there was no valid search warrant.

But they stormed in anyway. 

Cameras inside the home captured the heavily armed ICE agents going through the house room by room.

Noem watched from the street in her bulletproof vest and ballcap.

Then came the confrontation in the federal building with Senator Padilla.

One last item … on the video shot of the Padilla arrest … an official can be plainly heard repeatedly telling the photographer that he was not allowed to record video in the hallway.

The hallway of a US government building … the same government that has a U-S Constitution allowing freedom of the press. 

Downtown LA was quiet last night. 

There was a protest near San Pedro … and one in Orange County last night … near Disneyland.

A federal judge last night ruled that the president had to turn over control of the National Giard back to the governor.

But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals court immediately suspended that order … pending a full court hearing next Tuesday. 

SM Police Chief Vows Not To Make Same Mistake As In 2020, When Botched Response To Peaceful Protest Led to Destruction Of The Promenade

The last anti-Trump marches in Santa Monica were big … but peaceful. 

That would one the Indivisible marches of 8 years ago.

But in 2020 .. after George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneaplois. … there was a big Black Lives Matter rally in Santa Monica.

And the Santa Monica police overreacted and screwed up badly in 2020 … according to an after-incident study given to the city council last month. 

The police corked up the Black Lives Matter demonstration next to the Santa Monica Pier.

But while those peaceful protestors were surrounded and prevented from leaving … downtown Santa Monica was left unprotected.

Opportunistic looters flooded in and demolished the Third Street promenade.

It has never recovered.

Yesterday … the new Santa Monica police chief says that mistake will not happen again. Ramon Batista is promising a large police presence in downtown Santa Monica Saturday … allowing the No Kings protest to proceed unfettered. 

During a Thursday morning Zoom briefing hosted by the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce … the police chief outlined contingency plans.

Plan number one os to work with rally to ensure the event remains protected and peaceful.

“This is not 2020,” Batista said.

Silverstein Alleges Holes in Lawsuit Against Him And Uhring, As Healing Is Again Delayed

That hearing in the lawsuit filed by a former city of Malibu assistant planner… alleging racial discrimination against city council members … has been pushed off one more month.

The judge did not give a reason for the delay… 

Adrian Fernandez has accused council member Bruce Silverstein of conspiring to defame him. 

And he accuses Silverstein of publicizing a private letter … violating his right to privacy … 

Silverstein says Fernandez sprayed the letter out to a broad number of recipients … meaning it had become a public document. 

And council member Steve Uhring of threatening the planner … over his work on the proposed hotel across PCH from Malibu Pier. 

Uhring;’s attorney strongly denies that charge.

At this week’s city council meeting … Silverstein said the evidence is on his side.

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“There are sworn affidavits in the file. There is evidence in the file in the evidence, and the sworn affidavit demonstrate that the allegations in the complaint and the allegations that were hearing recounted by these instigators are, in fact, demonstrably untrue.”

Silverstein and Urhing are being defended by lawyers hired by the city … who are also defending former acting city manager Steve McClary and the city itself from the lawsuit.

Those lawyers have filed arguments that apparently blow some major holes in the legal reasoning cited by Adrian Fernandez in his lawsuit.

Silverstein and Urhing also rely heavily on a common law presumption that comments made by government officials during a government meeting … by elected government officials … are immune to defamation claims. 

Bruce Silverstein … at last Monday’’s city council meeting. 

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“I never once said anything about Mr. Fernandez’s mental condition or physical condition not once the actual recordings of the meetings at which I was alleged to have said them are available for anyone to watch Steve Uhring did not tell Mr. Fernandez he’s gonna make an example of him.”

The court hearing that was supposed to happen today was delayed to July 11th in Los Angeles.

The judge will hold a so-called anti-SLAPP hearing. 

California’s anti-slap law allows a judge to dismiss a lawsuit if it challenges, fundamental rights… Before going to actual trial.

The defendant has to prove is that he was exercising a constitutional right… like freedom of speech.

Or … as Silverstein argues … the common law right of a politician to comment on political matters at the government meeting.

At Monday night’s city council meeting … Silverstein said the court hearing will put an end to the lawsuit. 

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“Bottom line is I actually have a high degree of confidence that that lawsuit is gonna be dismissed. The court is gonna award attorney’s fees to us for the lawsuit and that should put an end to that drama. 

“If not, we’ll go on to defend it on the merits, but I think it’s gonna end it very quickly.”

The hearing is now scheduled for July 11th at the Superior Courts in Los Angeles. 

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KBUU’s engineers are Michelle Bradley, Josh Bohn, Mike Hutchens, Diane Laetz, Richard Stutsman, Jim Toten and Michael Wollard.