Several #California cities, including some in !SoCal cancelling their #Independence_Day fireworks shows because their contractor got raided by the state fire marshal.
Way back in the 1970s and 1980s, first the US encouraged large solar and wind generation projects, then cut off the tax subsidies. Most of them were not economical without those subsidies, so this both eliminated new investment in the field for the next 20 years and caused a lot of existing projects to shut down.
In California, we've got "sell your excess power back to the utility company at full retail price" plus tax subsidies for homeowners who put solar photovoltaic generation panels on their properties. (There are some limitations, such as you can't sell back more than you use in a year. Which means you can lower your electricity bill to $0 per year, but the electric utility will never owe you any payment.)
I also notice that none of the popular advertisers talking about putting in solar generation ("rooftop solar") talk about putting in any kind of personally-owned storage (e.g., Tesla powerwall). So if there is an outage during a period when someone's solar panels are not receiving enough light, it affects them just as though they hadn't spent a whole lot of money on solar panels.
(When I was working in Sacramento a few years ago, a co-worker who lived in NorCal had just had rooftop solar and an electric car charging station installed. He realized that he needed storage, so he had a powerwall installed, along with the necessary switching equipment.)
Currently, thanks to the #RU versus #UA war and the related price changes for energy, the various price and tax subsidies are probably not going away any time soon, but they still could go away before people have paid off their equipment investment.
Adding the personally-owned on-site storage makes true "off the [electric power] grid" living possible.
Anyway, my point is, I've been watching #California and #US policies this area (but not closely enough) since the 1980s, and I can see a similar policy change against normal homeowners ahead of us when sufficient solar / wind / geothermal electricity generation comes online to threaten the financial viability of electric utility companies.
I recall a minor !SoCal politician who had previously been a member of the US Communist Party and the US Nazi Party (not at the same time).
The way I heard it, when the election came, every other candidate roasted him for his Nazi history. I'm pretty sure he came in last or close to it.
#California does not allow parties to be involved in local elections (they have to be state or federal level), but multiple #pollies at the state level traveled into the area and spoke out against voting for Nazis.
There are also fields of employment that come with mandatory vaccinations, though I do not know whether those are state, federal, or employer enforced. I do know that one sister’s husband has worked in hospitals and prisons, and in both situations, he had a list of vaccines he had to have (including the most current influenza vaccine each year).
Regardless of whether you support the #COVID-19 vaccines being added to the list, it would not be “unprecedented” in any way.
(1) Our homes are not heavily insulated, so if below zero temperatures came, we’d be dependent on utilities not failing.
(2) The fires in NorCal a few years back revealed that our state Public Utilities Commission is under the control of the utility companies, just like Texas’ privately-owned grid operator. Californians generally use natural gas for heating, instead of electricity, but some of our natural gas utilities have reputations for skimping on maintenance.
(3) Every time a power company has a “public safety power shutoff”, that’s a reminder that their lack of infrastructure investment threatens the homes and lives of Californians.
In short, a version of that could happen in #California. I’m not saying it is likely, but remember that Texas’ experience wasn’t likely until it happened.
@geniusmusing They only restrict consumer-facing uses, while the farm industry continues to use around 90% of #California’s water and industrial uses take 8-9%.
The water industry has known for decades that our estimates of “normal” are based on a particular high-precipitation period, and that desalinization is the only way to sustain the current usage levels and population.
I wish they would have either given him his vaccination anyway or at least contacted the proper county and made arrangements to have the vaccination administered to the patient.
#California vaccine codes meant for community groups in hard-hit under-served communities escaped into general circulation, allowing resourced people to receive #COVID-19 vaccinations in slots reserved for those under-served communities.