Journeyman Lineman here: I worked in Northern California most of 2021 based out of Angels Camp. We had four crews oing "fire hardening" projects. Most of which was installing newer, fancy lightning arrestors and driving tons of ground rods. It was a gigantic waste of money. The lines we were "upgrading" were installed in the 1960's-80's and badly needed to be reconducted anyway. And to counter everyone's argument that the lines need to be put underground 1.) That's a huge cost difference. Think $12-18 per foot if you can get through the volcanic rock. Not to mention every transformer from the substations down to the last on the line would need to be changed 2.) Most of the lines out there are Delta not wye. Delta cannot go underground, wye can. The reason they don't run a wye system again comes down to cost, and also the hard rock. Where ground rods can be driven the soil is often loose, sandy loam which doesn't give the proper continuity for grounding an electric circuit.

I have worked as a Forester in the inland west since 2008. The main problem with large wildfires is not climate, it is an increase in fuels. We've been putting our fires all across the west for well over 100 years. These forests continue to grow and die, accumulating massive amounts of living and dead wood. We really slowed recurring timber harvest in the 1980s. If you don't cut down trees and remove them, or allow fire to clean up the woods in regularly occurring low intensity fires, you get what we have today. A warming climate doesn't help but its not the primary driver of the wildfire issue.

I went through the ice storm of 98’ in Maine. In the town I lived in, we lost power for 3.5 months. Most of the county was 2.5 months. No gas, no stores. One old person living alone fell in their driveway and froze to death. Wood stoves and it being cold, kept us alive. Everyone helped everyone. We were in the woods in small towns. No police. No snowplows.

We need to stop sending money to other countries and invest in our own.

CalFire budget is determined by previous years acreage burned. CalFire was pulling out of the Santa Cruz Mountains while the CZU fire was raging. They were going to let the fire burn to Silicon Valley. The only thing that saved Santa Cruz County was a small town volunteer fire chief, he said nope this is what we do and got busy saving our community. There is an insane story here that has never been told.

The problem isn’t a localized outage for a few days. If there was a large regional outage or national outage, for any reason, the fear and chaos starts when people aren’t getting updates and aren’t given resources after those few days. That fear and chaos doesn’t happen on small outages.

There are many informed and knowledgeable individuals who believe that thousands of foreign operators skilled in long term disruption of the inter structure have entered this country in the past several years. The head of the FBI has testified in front of Congress that this country is in dire danger. The magnitude of this danger I don’t believe has been made known to the public. If power, food, water, fuel, and sanitation come to a long term halt, it doesn’t require a lot of insight to see what will follow.

When that first substation in CA was attacked, the FBI asked the press to disclose nothing, as it was a national security issue. One full year later, the Wall Street Journal broke the silence saying "a year is enough." Perhaps Catherine forgot the news blackout? It turns out that if a different substation had been hit, Silicon Valley (?) would have had no power for over a year. The same for the Duke Energy attack. If a substation at the next closest location had been targeted, a major piece of hitech NC would have gone dark. FBI estimates concede that some 200 unsolved attacks on power grid, fiberoptic phone and data lines, all kinds of vital infrastructure have been happening just in the US, mainly NW, every year since. And some 200+ intentional local disruptions to GPS service. Catherine was holding back infirmation as to the extent of the problem.

I worked for the NM legislature in the runup to Y2K. I remember when we had a hearing on threats to the power grid. An official from PNM, the electric company that serves most of the state, told us that one person with a decent scoped rifle could cut the power to 2/3 of the state in a matter of minutes if they knew where to aim (and no, he didn't tell us where that spot was).

Andy, I've been fighting forest fires as a snag faller for 8 years. You might want to look into forest service fire fighting practices. Believe it or not they just keep them going, they don't put them out. I wish someone would do a video on that to bring awareness to that aspect of it, they're letting our forests burn on purpose.

Theres a station in socal just sitting there with only fencing around it. I had to have a plan in case an alarm went off there. Really no protection.

The hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River were pivotal in World War Two, allowing Portland Oregon to electrically weld battleships for the Pacific Theater. While also providing very cheap electricity, a subtle advantage to the local economy in many ways. But it came at the cost of Salmon Runs, which at one time ran at a massive capacity, it’s own juggernaut of natural wealth and abundance. It’s easy to forget what a wealthy nation looks like, financial gymnastics around currencies and services can look prosperous on paper, but the true wealth of an economy is it’s output, and the carrying capacity of natural resources is perhaps the best measure. Our forests and rivers are running below capacity, our continuous harvests are suppressing the recovery of these resources, limiting their potential to have even higher yields. Likewise farmland, and energy generation/extraction are essential elements to consider as we optimize our use of resources. The aquifers, springs, and rivers all receive their water from soil permeation. Various methods of land use, affect how much water is absorbed by the ground. The difference between grass, and no grass is huge, grass provides just enough shade for rain to soak in, and for dust not to blown away. The difference being,springs that flow or dry up completely, and aquifers that entire cities draw from. The biggest impact to grass cover is goats, who eat the grass down to the root, while other cattle and buffalo actually encourage grass growth from their heavy hooves stimulating the soil. So the electricity is strategically important, but so is the salmon run, and the grasslands. All of which holistically make for wealth and prosperity. It’s not hard to simply look for the signs of depletion, ask why, and take steps to restore the carrying capacity.

I’m in Moore county NC and we were out of power for a week or so when they shot the substations the only thing they have changed is put cameras and a chain link fence up idk why they cannot harden them more than a chain link fence

We definitely need to wake up and prepare, time to take ownership of our own safety and survival.

I was near a large substation near Los Angeles. The perimeter security in place rivaled that of what I’ve seen at a prison or our southern border.

It is insane to think a 1 mile trench and some new electric wire would cost 3 million per mile!!!!!!!

I think what angers me the most about this, is with all the oversight they supposedly have…I remember an interview that stated that our grid, at best, is 1960’s tech. Our power bills go higher and higher every year, in leaps and bounds, under the guise of upgrading and maintaining an archaic system, that, very obviously, have not been maintained. Let’s be real, you know those with the oversight are holders in these companies. Upgrades and “maintenance” cost money, and cut into their take. We’ve been getting screwed for some time. Im a medic. I work 48 and 72 hour shifts. This means, depending on whether I pick up extra shifts or not, I’m gone, like NOT AT HOME, 10 to 15 days a month. My bill in summer has been as high as $800 for a 1200 sqft house. That f&@king ridiculous! I’m to the point where I’m taking myself off the grid, power-wise as a result. It will unfortunately be closer to October when I do this, but it will be a 10-15kW system with solar and wind (something we have plenty of here in Central California) with a generator backup to charge the system in a few hours at most. They will no longer get my money to line their pockets. My money will buy my own Cal Edison, I will maintain it and protect it myself, and they can go pound sand.

I used to inspect powerlines from helicopters, and I noticed how vulnerable our electrical grid is almost immediately... They could put 20ft concrete walls up around even the smallest substations, the powerlines themselves are still at risk. And theyre all held together with bandaids. I saw powerlines from as early as the 1910s, some of the insulators have dates on them (Its been some time so, details might be off) When I was in training, they told us a story of a tree landing on a large line somewhere in Kentucky?and the surge was making its way to NYC. A guy that worked for a power company had been doing maintenance and noticed the lines were sagging. He flipped a switch(think valve for electricity) and ended up saving the stock market from collapsing.

17 million vets available for hire , pay a man 60k 70k to protect them simple he will need nods and a thermal scope

I’ve lived in Texas all my life, I’m 60, and my electricity was out for 4 days and came back on sometime on the 5th day, it was not fun. It had never happened before, and we’ve had worse ice and snow storms, so it’s never made sense. The population explosion is most likely the culprit and that’s still growing so you better be prepared for future problems that last longer. I’ve done a few things to make sure I won’t be in the dark continuously for days, but most have done nothing and just “hope” it won’t happen again, it will. A prepared person can survive, the unprepared especially in urban areas are going to be screwed!

So the power company in our area is doing a lot of upgrades for security at the sub stations. Better fences, motion sensors, cameras and stricter on who has access to that area.

If cost was no matter, there would be redundant system critical components held in storage (i.e. EHV transformers). The lead time on replacement of these system critical components can be as long as twenty-four (24) months. Unfortunately, these components are manufactured at a cost of millions and utlities are extremely reluctant to have that money just sitting in a storage yard, not generating a return on investment.

First-time, and last-time watcher of the channel, too many plug-in ads, I hate that I pay for add free for a reason.

We went through the Texas winter storms where we lost both water and power at the same time. During the bad one, we had no power for 4.5 days, and no water for 5.5 days both at the same time. Those numbers might be reversed. Hard to remember 100%. Either way, our water came back on for a few hours one evening on like day 4 before it then went out again, and it was a nasty light brown color with all sorts of gunk and film in it, even after it had gone through our water softener system. It ended up ruining our water softener system internals, and we had to later replace the internals. I had a very bad case of poison oak/ivy rash all over my body as the storm hit. I was cleaning my oozing blisters with vinegar and paper towels, and drying myself with a propane heater, which honestly just made the blisters expand and ooze more. It was not fun. But I kept running every day during those times, mainly to do recon all across our surrounding area. One day alone I ran over 9 miles in the snow. My parents were 75 and 65 at the time, and were also going through these same exact conditions, minus my poison oak rash. We have a natural gas stove, which kept our home warm enough, and luckily we could cook on it. I had to convince my parents to open windows a few different times to let fresh air in, as I was getting headaches from the scentless gas/carbon monoxide fumes in the house. They would not have opened windows otherwise… Luckily I kept us properly prepared with extra food and water. I kept and still keep extra gallon jugs around, and we were still beginning to run low in water towards the end of the shortages. My elder parents would not have been prepared otherwise. My mom refused to drink boiled and filtered snow melt. She would only drink bottled water…🫤 Most people in our area were sitting in their running cars either in the garage or on the driveway for warmth, and to charge their phones. People died in our overall area from exposure, among other things. It was not good. I made the best of it, and my poison oak/ivy rash was way harder on me than the weather conditions, but having been twice in my life a potential SEAL training candidate and a lifelong outdoor athlete, the vast majority of people did not handle the conditions nearly as well as I did.

Thank you for this production. Watching from Central Texas.

First time watching. Are the ads always like this? Seems like a good show but I just can’t do that many ads.

Water should be a top concern.

Ok how did it just so happen, that 2 days ago Dankula did a "mad lads" about a sniper attack on a sub station? WTF

Monopolies are always bad for the consumer.

Two significant challenges the industry is facing which are preventing upgrades are people and money. There aren’t enough linemen and customers (family homes to airports) can’t afford their bills and aren’t paying. Up north it’s illegal to cut power, so the bills just climb.

Great information. We have neighborhood well system for water but will only have 3 weeks of reservoir capacity. We often lose power, our island is well practiced in power outages. I think we will be better off than the city folks on the mainland. Fortunately we can block the only bridge road on/ off the island.

Paradise survivor here, crazy i just clicked because of the black out click bait. I'm now in knoxville, TN. I miss Paradise every minute of the day 😢

Edison wanted to use DC power initially

Thank you.

No this fire was just like Lahaina Laser

Look up Metcalf sniper. Barely made the news and still not talked about by authorities

When comparing Europe to the United States you have to consider the vastly larger distances and much lower population density in many parts of the US. This is especially important with the much more rugged landscape over parts of the western states that are larger than many European countries. The cost per customer services over these larger distances is much higher in western states. While the US has over 350mil people very few live west if I35 and east of the pacific coast. I’m not saying we shouldn’t bury transmission line there but the costs will be difficult to recover if they are not distributed across the entire grid. Que the folks in Florida or NY that don’t want to pay for the grid in Northern California or Idaho. It’s a difficult problem that may be best addressed by distributing power production with new tech like small modular reactors.

There is an impressive number of ads on this show.

Excellent show!

Thank you!

Just look at hurricane Katrina

You guys pointed out that pwr has gone out for wide swathes of people before and no one resorted to cannibalism, but the power has nvr gone out nationwide before. There has always been a safety net of sorts in the form of "nearby" emergency services able to provide at least some modicum of relief for those without pwr even if that relief is shipped in from neighboring states. One or two EMPs could put the pwr out nationwide in an instant. Let's see who gets hungry then.

What’s with all the interruptions

This channel has awesome information. I can see it growing to over 1mil, probably soon.

I lost my home in Concow during the Camp fire. I'm shocked you even mentioned Concow!! All we ever hear about is Paradise. Greed always shows it's face in the wake of disaster.

Great work Brother

Theres no way to measure because in the past u assume it comes back on but when theres the possibility grid stays down thats a concern instantly

Power outage can be a problem, especially long term. The bigger problem, i think, is if that is in conjunction with loss of communication. For example, who would go to work, even essential personnel, in that situation? .

Being such a smart lady maybe she can explain why the trees did not burn but the houses and cars did? hmmm?

How is this company still in business??

If it’s JUST blackouts at this point… it’s a blessing.

Did she say 3 million a mile? We need to let private companies bid on these jobs.

Power is not complicated not at all but burying all the high power transmission lines is very pricey. And of course in delta and high water tables like Florida it's a no go all together. When you are dealing with very mountainous area such as a lot of Cali and west burying it to get over a mountain or through again very expensive.

And took many of my co workers properties and homes. One of my co workers get up every 2 hours over the course of 3 days

Think Ruzzia is targeting Ukraine’s power grid by accident?

Edison used DC, Tesla made it possible to use AC…that’s why the towers were so close together.

We had no power through our the town I live in no Internet no cell service here in Maricopa az on Tuesday

Here in swfl when hurricane Ian hit an where it landed I went without power for a month storm ripped the power meter off our house as well as many other people I was cooking over a fire in the front yard for days.. so therefore it won’t be that quick people will make do for some time until resources run out

A lot of ads though

Wow! She is strikingly pretty! (First impression when panned to her, just a compliment)!😊

In order for solar and wind to work, appliances need to be remanufactured to run differently. And it has to be done on the individual home level. Bigger power companies are not better.

Well, you could just make sure the transformers have three-quarter inch steel plate

If the interviewing was as intense as the background music you guys would really have something

hell yeah. once i learned python im acually scared of the future

During crisis most people die from panic and stupidity

31:00 Sometimes a fella has gotta eat a fella. - The Ghoul

The earbuds are being designed to read your mind

It's insane to me that these would be the same people screaming that gun reform is paramount to the safety of our children, but refuse to restrict the access to social media and these types of AI algorithms that while maybe not or maybe was designed with this intent, but that they don't want to remove it because it will impact revenue generation.

It's truely enlightening what you speak of here. Your absolutely correct. We must first come together as a people, even if in groups separated by distance, before we actually have any hope of conjuring and utilizing an alternative system that excludes the tyrants. I think the tyrants will send forces to put a stop to that, and I think it will ultimately still result in a civil war, but hey, at least it would be they who cast the first stone.

We don't have to put a concrete dome over these substations but you can put them in large corrugated buildings the size of a warehouse and you could feasibly fortify or build up materials at the base level of some of these buildings to prevent firearms damage from penetrating and subsequently damaging the transformers or transmission lines. That's not that real much of an intricate plan and it would not cost billions of dollars. Another more advanced modern technology I think that is not been leveraged to help deal with this problem is drone technology much like drones are used with the telecom industry now in particular the cell phone companies to do constant monitoring maintenance and reconnaissance of cell towers drones could be utilized to provide real time surveillance 24 hours a day at rail yards with switch lines substations and electrical power generation sites and all kinds of other vulnerable public utilities like water reservoirs or water treatment centers. I mean this would also not cost a tremendously large amount of money but you know things like active 24 hours security guards at certain sites possibly funded through counties by way of federal grant money is another option. Everybody has no real problems with spending millions or billions of dollars with large security staffs to guard federal office buildings courts contract or facilities or agency buildings like the FAA or the Department of Energy could we pry loose a little federal money and funding to apply the same type of security measures meaning active armed staffed security forces at vulnerable infrastructure sites?

DEW the DEW.

Because batteries never catch on fire?

31:34 I have yet to hear her answer a question with an answer that makes me feel like she is well versed or has any value added to the subject at hand.

PGE clearly didn’t maintain the right of way. Simply maintaining aerial right of way is far cheaper than underground. I will never understand why academics will play cover for corporations when it’s clearly neglect. The host almost gets to this point talking about Montana. Libby dam is not new and avista doesn’t have these problems. Climate change is excuse making in this topic. PGE keeps smaller set backs and a less aggressive maintenance program. Avista and northwest coops have smaller budgets and do just fine- why is that?

What makes thes fires caused by the electric companies. Is when they get fined, they just hike everyones rates. We pay for their failures. Same for the recent one in Texas. Rates are already increasing to lrepare fot the lawsuits. We all need to be our own providers. Home solar and wind is viable on the small scale.

Way too many ads , atleast 5 already within 15 min

What is Ohm’s law and difference between AC and DC?

Why can't the wires be incased with a see through casing for inspection and made fire proof 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸👁️⏳🙏

allot of this sounds like it’s done purposely. how does anyone have a legitimate business, and allow it to fall apart and not invest to maintain it.

Danergerous questions excellent ideal. Concerned about a video I seen a landlord rented a apartment to a girl then later she says I'm leaveing my brother moving in and 5 guys move in stop paying rent cops say they cant do anything. Could this be a sleeper cell ? Or just immigrants or invaders not wanting to pay rent . I'm guessing a sleeper cell would pay rent to avoid cops. Apparently video says these guys are drug dealers and squatters but it has me wondering. Do u think some of these wilderness fires was not natural? 🐾🐾🤔

259 this is not happy news - but it is honest and identifies a real problem

The Iron Clad adds are super corny and really break up the flow of conversation.

We need to go back to windmills and things like that. The government has to control our energy so they can make a buck? Take it into your own hands. Generators etc.

Why do I see this topic being signal boosted by quite a few channels over the last few days?

Too many commercials!!

Great show as always I hope terrorists are not watching this video taking mental notes

I just lost all access to the chat that was going on

Katherine looks similar to Patriot nurse.

Only said "um" 5000 times

Our grid is highly secured, go-to sleep.

The algorithm is the OVERLORD !!😂

HAVE CHAINSAWS / WILL TRAVEL

I'm not trying to imply anything about the host or the guest here or this particular community of former military veterans who create content like this because I watch all of it and I love their content but does anyone else find it's suspicious that nobody is talking about how most of those substation attacks that took place towards the end of 2022 were all located very close to very important military bases like Fort Benning. The ones that took place in Washington were near and a army base that I believe was location that housed and armored unit of some sort. No obviously I'm not trying to imply that these clouds that did this we're trying to knock out power to the bases but I think there could be an argument made that this was more about impacting the families and the active duty military members who live around those communities.

KZfaq commercials on top of your commercials. Can’t even get through 30 seconds 👎

For a person who "wrote a book" on the subject. She wasn't able to articulate her knowledge very well. She was more dynamic about the sex trafficking on social media. I will look up her book. It ismy guess that she is going to go after the power companies and not touch the myriad of problems that were created by the residents of California. Her comments on batteries and underground power transmission and distribution lines also shows her shear lack of understanding our grid. Pretty uninformitive podcast. I kept hoping she would get the conversation to come to life. It was a total flop IMO. I have 30 years working in the power and water utility industry. I think i know what my retirement job needs to be... I need to write a book.

Needs more ads

Kathrine is adorable 😍 ❤

Leave California. There. I said it.

Last few years seen Family Tree all over Mendo county and Sonoma. Theres still shit ton of dead pine trees along mendo coast. Beetles are all over them. Pg and e doesnt maintain its lines for decades. Paradise was unmanaged total matchbox .Sonoma county and Napa were hit hard . Camp Fire , Atlas fire. Santa Cruz county. Unmanaged forests and inept liberal government really dropped the ball ..... intentionally, it seems

23 commercials.... Not worth my time to watch a channel like this