Tag archives: PG&E

War of the Currents From Transmission Lines to “Freedom Fuel”
By Rinaldo Brutoco   |   April 12, 2022

Forest fires, cyber warfare, sabotage, and plain old utility company incompetence, greed, and malfeasance have brought us to the point where we must abandon the electrical grid. It isn’t safe. It does cause a significant percentage of forest fires here in California, it supports a utility (PG&E) that has been convicted of multiple felonies for […]

Grab the Garlic! Let’s Reserve Resurrection for Religion
By Rinaldo Brutoco   |   March 1, 2022

Here they go again! It never ceases to amaze how far Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), a “public utility,” will go in harming the public interest. Their latest ploy is an attempt to surreptitiously resurrect the nearly 40-year-old Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, which is scheduled to close by 2025. They want to bring it back […]

Fireproofing California
By Rinaldo Brutoco   |   October 21, 2020

As of today, 2 times more acres burned in California this year than last. That isn’t an evolutionary deterioration of our public lands – it is a catastrophic, geometric increase in forest destruction that will continue to get worse on an accelerating curve indefinitely into the future. We have three choices on how to react […]

Letters to the Editor
By Montecito Journal   |   September 24, 2020

Transmission Lines Need to Go An article by Rinaldo S. Brutoco in the 10-17 September issue of the paper addresses an alternative to P.G.&E’s destructive high voltage transmission lines. His solution is called an “interconnected microgrid network” and it does not need the dangerous transmission lines to operate. There is no question that these lines […]

Wind, Wires, and Fire
By Rinaldo Brutoco   |   September 10, 2020

The devastating Paradise Fire of 2018 was caused by sparking from Pacific Gas and Electric’s (PG&E’s) high-voltage transmission lines that run through all sorts of back country and forests in Northern California. Unfortunately, that tragedy is but one of dozens of fires started from high-voltage transmission lines which, by definition, often run through forests and […]

The Death of an Electric Monopoly
By Rinaldo Brutoco   |   April 2, 2020

For the first time in memory, there is momentum in California to usher in the clean, decentralized energy future that a growing number of Californians believe is necessary to combat climate change and improve community resiliency. It begins with reimagining how electric utilities conduct business. After the 2019 fire season, Public Safety Power Shutoffs resulted […]

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By Montecito Journal   |   November 21, 2019

No Risk, No Return, No Electricity In my nearly 30 years of serving as a local government watchdog, I would be hard pressed to recall a more foolish proposition than that which is known as community choice energy (CCE). CCE is a scheme by which local government entities assume responsibility to purchase electrical energy supplies […]

Power to the People
By Bob Hazard   |   October 24, 2019

The hottest topic last week was “When will we lose our power in Montecito?” And, if so, “How often and for how long?” In the past, some 60% of power blackouts have been caused by bad weather such as violent storms. However, 30% of power outages can be attributed to aging electrical grids that are […]

Laura Capps Announces Campaign
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   August 29, 2019

At a gathering at the Mission Rose Garden on Tuesday afternoon, School Board member – and daughter of Walter and Lois Capps – Laura Capps formally announced her bid for First District Supervisor, challenging incumbent Das Williams in the March 3 primary election.  Capps, surrounded by school children, including her son Oscar, her supporters, and […]

Denying Dana
By Montecito Journal   |   August 30, 2018

Dana Newquist stated in the latest MJ (#24/34) that the Montecito Sanitary District is “dumping partially treated sewage water just off shore at Butterfly Beach.” This is a false, slanderous statement. Secondary treatment is treated to the same level as tertiary treatment, but the salinity is modulated to match the ocean salinity. Tertiary is the […]

It’s Gone on Too Long
By Montecito Journal   |   August 2, 2018

This has gone on too long. Every day, the pot holes and trenches get worse at the bottom off Olive Mill Road and Coast Village Road right in front of the construction of the new building on the corner. This intersection is a joke and needs to be repaired now. My husband and I drive […]