January 04, 2007
Seattle City Light Workers Sound Off At Hearing
Seattle City Light workers and customers testified at a city council hearing yesterday on the 10-day Seattle power outage affecting about 100,000 of the utility's customers following the brutal Dec. 14 storm. In today's P-I: residents told by SCL to clear a tree themselves from downed power lines; a crew sent home with no replacements as they neared power restoration to a Darigold plant; and 200 unfilled SCL positions, including line workers. In today's Times, workers decry shortages of: employees, bucket trucks, chainsaws, flashlights, batteries and public information.
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at January 04, 2007
10:35 AM | Email This
1. Yestrday I heard a pre-emptive strike by a power company: they blamed the technicians for having cordless phones, (which of course don't work without electricity) and are considering requiring those on call to have at least one land line.
Hello! Don't those guys all have cell phones... probably paid by our power bills!
2. I'd be interested in knowing whether private utilities have the same sort of problems as public utilities.
3. I'd be more interested in getting an opinion that didn't come from a union member. You know, an honest, unbiased one.
4. I am amazed at the frenzy that has encircled the Seattle City Light's handling of the power outages and the facts that are still yet to be spoken as to the true reason for this storm in the first place.
I am absolutely certain that if one were to poll the crying individuals that are so loudly pointing the finger at a city utility that everyone them drove their car (suv) to the courthouse to complain,...thus adding to more global heating and thus more horrible weather conditions to come.
Why is it so tough for the American Human being to understand that all of these weather patterns are simply the tip of many icebergs that have melted and fallen into the ocean and will be falling upon us sooner than anyone expected and for many years to come??
Why are the automotive manufacturing corps still reaping billions of profit? BECAUSE nobody cares enough to become responsible for our pollution.
I think the city has an obligation to bring a lawsuit against the major three auto makers like the California attorney General and seek compensation for the damages...COME ON SEATTLE WAKE UP AND FACE THE TRUTH, NOT THE HELPERS !!!!
I could reccommend a book or two for all of those people with no clue like Hell and High Water by Joseph Romm
Just think about all things and not just your small lives please!!
5. Great, the "oh-so-ignorant" contingent of greenfreaks with an agenda and no actual data has shown up.
6. Scott: It's called winter. The pattern here that has you so concerned is called "seasons". Winter is one of the less friendly seasons. And speaking of patterns, the Columbus Day Storm we had here, about 35 years ago (can't remember what year)was much worse than this little huffer we just had. Just yesterday, watching network news, they breathlessly told us another STORM FRONT was headed for Washington, and that it would.....RAIN! News flash: that's what it does in Washington.
7. A good way to get outside opinions on your utility is to speak to one of the storm chasers, the linemen who make a living by coming to the aid of storm struck areas. I heard that PSE was good because they had a lot of spare parts on hand, but bad because they were not well organized. Either way 6 days without power was not easy. I learned to be better prepared.
8. Do you think there are any unfilled positions staffing Seattle's new apartment for drunks? It's all about priorities.
9. Nice string movement,....lots of progress and solutions here!
How many here is for moving the lines underground as propsed so many times before by city light yet nobody is willing to pay for it. OOOHHHHH another tax!!! HMMMM??
Nahhhaw! Seattle is better at gripping and crying instead of solutions. We can't pay no more taxes!! Let it all fall,...just fix mine first!!
10. Whatever happened to that rumor that Idaho power offered to send workers over to help restore power, but was turned down because their workers are non-union. I heard it mentioned once on the radio, then never heard again. You'd think someone would have done the research to find out if this was true or not. Anyone hear anything about this?
11. Scott you're an idiot. Why should we pay taxes to pay for underground wire? The power company needs to buck up and do the job they should have done in the first place long ago. It would save SCL (and PUD) tons of money that they are constantly paying in overtime every time the wind blows. The underground wire would pay for itself but SCL and PUD are to stupid to invest in their own future. Why is it with you guys that taxing is always the only answer?