The Power Grid: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

[@carligirrl]

“Don’t make your problem, my problem” is the most American attitude ever and the reason why we have so many unsolved issues today.

[@desktopdesign7196]

You mean you should help each other? Act social? You're not communists, are you?!

[@candacen7779]

It isn't actually. Americans help each other every day. That guy's comment could have -- and probably has been -- said by any citizen in any country anywhere in the world. People like that exist everywhere. And America is known for coming together to help others, especially in times of crisis, more than folks in other nations.

[@madpoetsociety2917]

@@candacen7779 Clearly not anymore. Watching Faux news isn't helping you.

[@candacen7779]

@@madpoetsociety2917 What are talking about? I don't watch Fox News, sweetie. And obviously it's not clear since you don't seem to notice all the poor and working class people out here helping one another every day.

[@stadoblech]

@@desktopdesign7196 its funny because americans are blabbering about community this and community that all the time but second you mention universal health care or parental leave you are marked as evil communist

[@mikeballer08]

As an electrical engineer that works on the power grid, it amazes me how old some of the equipment utilities still use. I am proud to be apart of the process to modernize our grid

[@ChantingInTheDark]

Not all heroes wear capes, I hope you get all the funding you need.

[@Lodinn]

Yes, the grid does feel like something from another era... Because it is. In the age of semiconductors and electronics, dealing with power mains feels pretty much like rubbing sticks together to get fire to me, a non-professional...

[@tabethahowell5859]

Would be cool if somwone documented some of the oldest still used today

[@ltjgambrose]

@@tabethahowell5859 I've seen transformers that were built where my grandfather worked when my dad was born (mid-1960s). I think the oldest thing I've seen was probably mid-1950s?

[@animal579]

you got any jobs for a recent EE grad?

[@BLK_MN]

Holy shit, the “Land of Giants” idea for power transmissions is awesome. Imagine humans re-discovering those giant metal structures after an apocalypse. Or just wandering around tripping balls and seeing them for the first time.

[@HobbesHobbiton]

Infrastructure shouldn't just be functional, it should be beautiful too!

[@Kaldorey]

@@HobbesHobbiton Completely agree ! When we see what cities look now, with all this purely-functional car-oriented design, we wonder at how great they'll become when we transition past that

[@sdfkjgh]

@Brendan McMahon: Well, _there's_ your first mistake. The moment you let your guard down and think they aren't moving, _that's_ when they start moving in for the kill. Yes, that's right, *_they know your thoughts!_*

[@syrenseas]

@@sdfkjgh Don’t blink

[@Gambit22003]

Under ground. It worked out well for Germany. Under ground lines are the way to go, but it's doubtful Congress will ever do it. That idea just makes too much sense. 🙄🤷

[@thatoneguywiththevoice328]

So apparently "DON'T TOUCH THE THERMOSTAT" is a father tradition since the invention of the device

[@johndolan5076]

we can remove this stereotype by teaching and learning this shit costs money, an ex-girlfriends sister came home from snowboarding and turned the thermostat up to 98 degrees, because daddy only paid child support. they were rich conservatives, i told her nicely, you could have blown up the furnace but explained to her, heating and cooling works differently than the temperature of a human body.

[@thatoneguywiththevoice328]

@@johndolan5076 what are you on about

[@vaelophisnyx9873]

@@thatoneguywiththevoice328 he just likes being an asshole, it seems

[@Sophie-ek5ml]

​@johndolan5076 sir, this is a Wendy's drive-thru

[@alisonselje2809]

"the man's pride of the house, the weather center" ah yes, the original 'hands off my thermostat' dad

[@duroxkilo]

i swear my dad can sense when i touch the thermostat even though i live 3 states to the west... ring-ring, you guys having a hot day over there, how's life?

[@gt-bz7zw]

Dude. Think of how many little pieces of life that we think are just “how it goes” that was based off those American/nuclear family informational propaganda movies. Our great-grandparents (or older) spent their school years watching those. Movies about why your credit score is important, how men and women are supposed to interact, how dating is supposed to progress, how a family should look and act. It’s fucking wild to think about.

[@joellahrman4557]

That apartment looked pretty sweet though, I'd rather be living there than the dump I bought.

[@andrewkeller1117]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/a5fVXnx4nq9mitU

[@doggytheanarchist7876]

@@joellahrman4557 lol. The nice houses are for boomers. Not for us. We are too late for the "basic standard of living".

[@KealohaHarrison]

Speaking as someone who’s lived in Texas for 15 years, we need the power grid repaired and regulated and we need it 9 months ago

[@DavidRichardson153]

We Texans have been needing it ever since ERCOT was established.

[@dalpz205]

Warnings since 1989 but since so many ppl died last winter new laws were passed effective immediately until huge campaign donations showed up for Abbott and friends and now WE'RE paying for it and it'll be done... In the future? Until it's not.

[@Marijuanifornia]

The Texas Governor's mansion has power. Gather everyone without power and go to the Texas Governor's mansion.

[@runed0s86]

*years

[@chaklee435]

@@DavidRichardson153 As I understand it, ERCOT handles distribution, and has no power over the power plants (and natural gas people). So politicians scream at ERCOT to fix the blackouts, ERCOT politely recommends that power plants winter-proof their shit, and the power plants promise to fix things as soon as they can. Then the power plants hang up the phone, laugh, and keep making profit. Ten years later, blackouts happen again, and politicians scream at ERCOT again. What the fuck are they suppose to do? They can't force the power plants to do anything. The politicians can force the power plants to act, but they choose to scapegoat ERCOT instead. It's insanity.

[@Ecclesia_]

The Iceland model 'Land of Giants' as power lines actually impressed me. Imagine seeing those huge statues all over the country, holding up our power lines, as if those giants are helping us keeping our world powered :O

[@macrumpton]

They could have a huge variety of designs, Dancers, animals, trees, words, , the possibilities are endless. There was an era when public works had to have some aesthetic value. Lets do that again.

[@TragoudistrosMPH]

*Supresses Attack on Titan flashbacks* Those do look incredible!

[@AdamBechtol]

ya

[@anakinslucien7193]

No, they reminds me of those titans in attack on titans

[@ravenecho2410]

@@macrumpton i like triangles, but some cleaning of the shape could be nice

[@Admiral137]

Reminds me of the incident with two linemen from Comcast. One died and the other severely injured to the point of amputation. There was a fault in the pole that Comed knew about since the 60s and that day Comcast linemen were up there working it decided to fail completely and sent massive amounts of voltage through the guy in the bucket. The man at the bottom managed to call the police and was alive when they arrived, sadly he didn’t realize a line came down and activated the truck. He touched it and was shot across the street and burst into a ball of flames. State of Illinois jumped on Comed for that before Comcast could even get the team ready. We got to learn that during our safety training.

[@mattlogue1300]

Sad

[@jv-lk7bc]

negligent

[@lanigirognithemos]

Maybe you can make a specific team designed to repair the grid and call them the Power Rangers :)

[@zoekastillo]

Underrated comment!!

[@deiondremartinez8522]

Best comment under this video 🙌🏿

[@theladoflads7884]

The smile after the comment makes me so happy

[@wavey-davey]

Thank you for being you

[@coreywall5438]

I appreciate you so much for that hahahahahah....Wild Force for lifeeeee

[@TenTonNuke]

Ah, yes. I remember that famous JFK quote: "Ask me not what I can do for my country, because that shit ain't my problem, man."

[@raycearcher5794]

"Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago? Well, I don't give a shit."

[@mexuscentral]

More than a century later after Tesla died, and the corporate media aka HBO, continues to repeat lies and propaganda about him to trash his image, just because he wanted to provide free wireless electricity for everyone, but Edison (a crook) and corrupt friends, didn't want that.

[@dustrose8101]

@@thekaren1111 That was less about global warming and more about stopping our planet from becoming a horrible plastic hellscape where all living things were choked or poisoned to death. There is some point where ordinary citizens should think of the bigger picture because not everything hangs off the backs of corporations like it does with climate change.

[@amberleeannalee1999]

@@mexuscentral Elon musk would be working in a gas station if our fed government didn’t bail him out and give him millions to get his business up and running. He’s also ensuring there is no real competition to his company or he’d lose billions. Poor guy couldn’t sell trips to space if he had to put taxes. Give me a break. Stop being daft and defending an overly rich a hole that could solve all of our infrastructure problem if he wanted. If the 15 richest Americans paid taxes equal to a full time worker we’d be evolved to 2021 in every way. Y’all demonize China but they invested a huge percentage of their GDP on infrastructure including their grid. That’s why they are so far advanced in every way over Murica. We are a joke on a mass delusion pretending we are #1. Only in guns per capita, mass shootings, school shootings, gun deaths, police killings, and incarceration of people

[@WindFireAllThatKindOfThing]

"We choose let powerlines go boom in this decade and do the other things. Not because it is easy for me, but because it is hard for you. Because that goal will serve to stick it to you libs and throw away the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are unwilling to accept, one we are willing to postpone, and one we intend to lose." - Also not JFK

[@cullermann2]

I will never understand how the US is spending a ridiculous amount of money on its defense but lets stuff like the electric infrastructure be this dated and prone to failures.

[@jamesrutherford1475]

It's almost like it's intentional...

[@HowToChangeName]

Because the so-called innovation of capitalism is actually on "efficiency" to do bare minimum

[@rock-n-rollfoodie]

Money

[@TheNewblade1]

John pretty much said it. It's the republican party. I guarantee that grassroots movements was backed by right wing organizations.

[@heyho4770]

One could argue that US military hegemony has led to 75 years of Peace and Prosperity in the West. And now with China having its window of opportunity to to challenge that it might be unwise to cut funding now. That Ship has sailed between 1990 and 2010

[@abbysomnia624]

The balloon explosion at the end was perfect and John's reaction was incredible. Thank you

[@nateweaver3324]

"Don't make your problem my problem." That one quote sums up everything that is wrong with America and why progress has been so hard to come by.

[@flagrarus]

@CalvinV7 If anything, colonialists made their problem, that most of them were the dregs of society back in Europe, the problem of Native Americans by killing them with bioweapons

[@marvinmartion1178]

It's due fox propaganda network! Me,me,me, mindset has been fostered for 40years!

[@BadCookWhoJudgesChefs]

Yet we are one of the most charitable nations on earth. We almost always fall in the top 2 by every group who calculate it.

[@JSErwine]

@@flagrarus The "bioweapons" story is a complete lie.

[@nateweaver3324]

@@SirPatrickMackofMaplethorpe that's not really relevant to the power grid issues, champ

[@boRegah]

The "land of the giants" design of the transmission towers looked the best by far.

[@sorenkazaren4659]

@@RandomPerson13 Just gonna put this out there. But an alarming number of humans worship some creature(s) called “God”. Said creature(s) historically say humans are bad, evil, and unworthy of worship. I’d argue that has something to do with why we don’t see so much humans are awesome look what we can do imagery. I’ve found religion hates it when people glorify what humans can do, and if some human does do something great it gets attributed to an act of God.

[@LochNessax3]

Just imagine a bunch marching across the desert or along the interstate highways. You can't tell me that wouldn't look hella cool

[@austincde]

@@LochNessax3 some horses running in a line 🐎🐎🐎

[@jessehammer123]

Yeah, I loved that design. Spooky, yet also strikingly evocative of a sense of wonder. The designers of those towers did really well for themselves.

[@JimRFF]

@@sorenkazaren4659 in the spirit of bona fide argument, there are a couple things fundamentally wrong with what you said... first, theologically, God isn't a creature in any religion that I'm aware of; creatures are created, God is a creator, and there is a categorical difference there which is what makes the god or gods different from animals... second, the claim that God says humans are bad is ENTIRELY dependent on the specific theological traditions of a particular religion -- Buddhism does say that humanity is fundamentally evil and we need active effort to overcome our nature, Abrahamic religions say that human nature is fundamentally good but flawed through choice, and I'm not aware of any native American religion for example that would say humans are at all "evil" by any kind of moral category -- to say that all religions "historically say humans are bad" is a gross oversimplification and misrepresentation of religion and history... and a final point: "religion hates it when people glorify what humans can do" is an absurd statement, religions don't hate or love anything, people do. Individual humans may diminish or glorify human actions as they personally chose to, but the religion itself does not make the same petty emotional decisions that people do; Pope Julius II didn't commission Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel because Catholicism hated humanity or human efforts, and the religion certainly doesn't assert that God Himself painted it.... And again here, you're committing the fallacy of sweeping generalization whenever you talk about "religion" as an ideologically unified single body. I don't expect anything I've said will actually change your opinions on your beliefs, which is fine, but please make an effort to improve your arguments supporting those beliefs, as the claims you made in that comment quite weak, make for poor support, and are riddled with fallacy, from a strictly logical perspective

[@cerebraldreams4738]

"Return on investment" needs to start being chanted to defense contractors. "OK, I get you're selling these fighter jets for 52 million. What do Americans get out of this besides a fancy jet, and an excuse to kill people?"

[@ForrestFox626]

But defense spending... Will sadly be the response

[@shobvious]

This.

[@strangeonexd4776]

@@Xeretov Yet in all these nations where these conflicts pop up, you don’t exactly see M4’s and US armored and air assets. These nations use, surprise surprise, Cold War surplus. AK’s, Migs, ect ect. If we are the world’s armory, we are doing a pretty shitty job of it.

[@strangeonexd4776]

@@Xeretov Fair enough. Lmao.

[@7StarsMA]

@@Xeretov nobody asked the US to do that....... you may want to check how profitable war is and see the real reason.

[@brandondavidson4085]

Funny how oil companies don't have to jump through these legal hoops when they're cutting through Native reservations and federal land

[@aliceahueman3005]

It's outright ridiculous that white people be like yeah you can have that land then white people do the "Indian giving" and take it back. It's absolutely ridiculous. A friend of mine recently befriended a native and he recently became dehomed for that exact reason. I've now taken it upon myself to help my friend come up with things to send him because of the white man being like I know you've lived here your entire life but it's apparently still my manifest destiny to take this land. I'm very close to scalping passive racist white people. I hate how cruel we are to one another.

[@RandoBurner]

Have you ever considered that the natives want them to because they are paid?

[@littleark]

And they receive 20 billion in direct subsidies every year.

[@aribantala]

@@RandoBurner Lemme play with basic common sense here in a form of a simplified dialogue A: Hey B, I am sorry but you need to move out from your room, we need it to expand the Kitchen. B: No way, where do I move from my room? I have stayed here since my childhood A: Well, you can go to the Toolshed... Plenty of space there B: The Toolshed? Really? That place has no power outlet, no air conditioning, no heating, no window, and no bathroom; not only that, it's full of Mosquitos, plagued with rats and raccoons, and as structurally sound as a deck of cards... Heck, that place is filled with your tools that only you can use! How do I suppose to live there?! A: Here's fifteen bucks for you to get whatever you need to live there... I'll give you monthly if you moved there B: WHAT??? Fifteen bucks?? What do I do with this? I need to get heater, Air cooler, And even more stuff to make the Toolshed barely livable... And you gave me Fifteen bucks? A: What more do I need to give? Either live there and take the money or get out from the house! Oh also, We will also need to pass the Gas line for our new kitchen from the Toolshed as well... You can't complain tho, you got fifteen bucks Have fun with that analogy...

[@g.d.graham2446]

Indeed

[@haraldschuster3067]

Always nice to hear people say "Don't make your problem my problem" while they live in states that are funded by other states because they can't get their stuff together. Hypocrisy is a bit of a sport in some states. Why do you take their money?

[@vexxama]

Not to mention he’s making his problem their problem. They don’t get electricity because he just doesn’t want to look at them

[@ShopFloorMonkey]

Did someone say Rand Paul?!!

[@Sewblon]

They take money from those other states for 2 reasons: 1. The states have constitutional mandates to balance their budgets. So for them, getting money isn't an option. They just have to accept wherever it comes from for the most part. 2. Because taxation is progressive in America, and the Fed's biggest programs are for the aged and the poor, social security, medicare, and medicaid. So the states that end up being the biggest net recipients of federal dollars are the states with the oldest and poorest inhabitants. So what is your point?

[@haraldschuster3067]

@@Sewblon - The point is why those red states just happen to be the home of the poorest for decades on end. It might, wild speculation here I agree, have something to do with who they vote for. And your "they just have to accept" is downright ridiculous. They might make an effort, you know?! Bavaria here in Germany used to be the poorest and most backward state, subsiding heavily on federal support. Nowadays they are paying into the pot, not taking out of it. So if you do your thing right, you can get out of that ditch.

[@Sewblon]

@@haraldschuster3067 1. "The point is why those red states just happen to be the home of the poorest for decades on end. It might, wild speculation here I agree, have something to do with who they vote for." There is an intuitive appeal to that point. But lots of poor people end up in red states because they can't afford to live in most blue states, with the exception of New Mexico, which is both blue and poor, because those blue states make housing expensive on purpose to raise more property tax revenue. Blue states tend to funnel poor people into red states. Maybe red states could stop those people from being poor if they really tried. But blue states don't really try either, they just make sure that poor people can't afford to live in them, again, except for New Mexico. Plus, its not like voting blue guarantees that your people won't be poor. Just look at New Mexico, like I said, or that having a low poverty rate means that your state will be a net tax payer, just look at New Hampshire. Most importantly, if you make redistribution from the rich to the poor an explicit goal, then the states where poor people live being net tax receivers isn't a sign of a problem. Its a sign that the system is working as intended. Even without redistribution, its not like being a net tax receiver means that you are doing something wrong. Virginia and Maryland are net tax receivers because they are where the best paid federal employees and contractors live. They are not a drag on the system unless you think that the employees and contractors are not justifying their compensation, even if you think that, that is the Feds responsibility, not the states' responsibility. Edit: But now that I think of it, Vermont has an extensive welfare state. So they actually try to stop poor people from being poor. But they are a net tax receiving state. So actually trying to stop the poor from being poor doesn't stop you from being a net tax receiver. "And your "they just have to accept" is downright ridiculous. They might make an effort, you know?! Bavaria here in Germany used to be the poorest and most backward state, subsiding heavily on federal support. Nowadays they are paying into the pot, not taking out of it. So if you do your thing right, you can get out of that ditch." Interesting, how did they do that?

[@snowangelnc]

"Mr. Johnson, would you mind letting us know your current salary?" "About a hundred seventy thousand a year, but why do you-" "What is the return of our investment?" "Well, the work I do in Congress to represent-" "I didn't ask what you do. I'm asking you what is the return of our investment?" "Well if you let me finish, the bills I've helped pass have-" "It's a simple question sir. Just say the number in dollars and cents. What is the return of our investment?"

[@halcyon_echo42]

It's almost like the term "public service" is lost on actual public servants, elected into office by the public for the improvement of public life.

[@lifesignjohnson]

Congress people should have term limits

[@stompbot272]

Return on investment was a legitimate point! We the people foot the bill while energy companies continuously raise rates. What Mr. Johnson was getting at was a rate cap but that doesn't fit the narrative. As for the expansion of the power grid, John glossed over the obvious answer. Build along side railroads and freeways. Everything else was just filler material. Yawn. No mention of Thorium reactors?!?

[@TheTony024]

@@halcyon_echo42 I find it scary that Republicans claim they are for the people yet mostly work to be in favor with only one little man. It feels like the Republican party is all about themselves and taking care of their donors. Not the general public and all Americans. It’s sickening what the GOP will stand for yet not do what is right for American.

[@jakobsievers]

Awesome

[@BatManWayneCorp]

What really helped with power outages here in Germany was moving most Power lines inside cities underground. Makes them way less vulnerable to balloons

[@FalbertForester]

This can be a good move, in urban areas, but it can make it a lot more difficult to reach the lines for repair, though. And when flooding comes - it tends to flood out your local power grid.

[@rlud304]

Ich liebe Deutschland! Underground power lines is so much nicer aesthetically too. Power lines are so ugly that they ruin the landscape.

[@rlud304]

@@FalbertForester Always a naysayer

[@BatManWayneCorp]

@@FalbertForester true, it makes them harder to reach for repairs, but there are also less repairs necessary, since the lines aren't exposed to the elements, falling trees, etc.. I didn't hear of flooding outing our power, but I can't say it doesn't, either.

[@macexpert7247]

@@BatManWayneCorp Ever heard about conduit and tunnels?

[@SebastianSeanCrow]

18:44 the ROI for me is that maybe my grandma won’t be without power for days on end like with the winter storm in Texas. My ROI is not having the lights flicker when you’re doing laundry, heating your home, and having a couple lights on at once. My ROI is knowing the nearest hospitals, which my area btw is closer to the outer edges of the city (almost to the boonies), won’t be without power needed to literally keep people alive. That’s a great ROI to me.

[@debbieknight8901]

The question I'd have asked Senator Windbag from Ohio is this: What is our ROI on your salary? How exactly are we taxpayers getting a monetary value from what we generously give to you?

[@lucad6649]

BURN. I love it.

[@adunsavior]

That would be asking the wrong question. The corporate lobbyists are getting great ROI from their campaign donations.

[@mrrodriguezHLP]

I wish the Transportation official was a little quicker on her feet, she could've roasted the Congressman: Sir there is no economy without electricity, and there is no growth without a modernized electric grid. I can't predict the monetary benefit to the individual taxpayer but I can promise longer delay will cost them more to replace when it eventually fails.

[@SusanOnTVShows]

I cannot like this comment enough.

[@vidblogger12]

Representative* windbag. Ohio’s senators are Sherrod Brown (D) and Rob Portman (R). Don’t give the windbag more prestige than he deserves.

[@ilpregno2632]

As an environmental engineer, I deeply appreciate this week's topic. This is not an America-only problem, power grids are old and not ready pretty much everywhere and this rush to a fully electrical life deeply concerns me. Nearly nobody is pointing at these problems we're going to have.

[@shawnjavery]

It's a big reason why I think we won't have full electrification of things. Or at least it taking a lot longer of a time frame/ government spending on a level even higher than the new deal, for a decade and a half.

[@MostHighEmperorPalpatine]

Makes sense they are so outdated 🤔 it does seem we focus the most on port cites over inland cities.

[@MrNicoJac]

Problems we're going to solve* ;) As in, once everything is down the whole fucking time, politicians will finally make it a priority to fix all the things that have been neglected for decades and decades.

[@MostHighEmperorPalpatine]

@@MrNicoJac that's the mentality of most people though... "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" 😒

[@ImionLordred]

You are so right, this is not an America-only problem. Here in Germany our Grid is not that much worn down and most of our lines are installed underground so that they are not that much harmed by the weather. But we face the same problem. You can generate a lot of wind energy in the north, but we have great energy demand in the west and the south, so we would need to upgrade our grid in order to get the "green" electricity to where it is needed. And in addition to that, our big distribution lines, that are also in many cases are landlines, need repair and upgrade as well. So yes, I think this is a world wide challenge to make the transition from centralized electricity production to a distributed system.

[@LisaBeergutHolst]

"I chose to live here, they chose to live there" "I guess we'll just move to where you are then" "Wait what"

[@StoriesByDighe]

More like, I guess you don’t need gas, food, electronics… since that isn’t here either

[@aleatharhea]

Very good points. Also, it's not like they "chose to live there" at a time when these problems are manifested. And I bet good money that that guy "chose where to live" as an accident of birth. His argument is rubbish in so many ways.

[@ladyabaxa]

And those people who chose to live over there do business with people who chose to live over here thus being part of what keeps our economy going and people able to make a living. Ya know, on top of those people over there helping fund things like roads, clean water, insurance pools, disaster recovery, and oh yeah THE ELECTRIC GRID YOU ALL RELY UPON. Argh, that guy had me seeing red. NIMBY in action right there.

[@starventure]

Relax, his hunting license is paid up and he knows all the best places to bury the bodies.

[@CharlesBosse]

@@starventure "this land is my land, this land ain't your land, I got a shotgun, and you ain't got one..."

[@immortalsun]

‘While things are bad now, they could get a lot worse in the future.’ That should be this show’s motto.

[@Pontifex777]

The whole "my inconvenience is not worth your convenience or life" basis was laid bare during the pandemic all too well. And why we are stuck with policies that do more harm than good and prevent us from being better.

[@richarddevenezia8186]

All nice nice until you get eminent domained or manifest destinied.

[@PartnershipsForYou]

@@richarddevenezia8186 wait what

[@KitC916]

Full access to 50 state mail in voting, end voter ID laws, make it a paid national holiday, and make it mandatory,end gerrymandering and overturn Citizens United FOR STARTERS.

[@torinnbalasar6774]

@@KitC916 while I agree that most of your statements would be a tremendously good idea, mandatory voting is one of the red flags indictive of a dictatorship.

[@flaskhjertako]

@@torinnbalasar6774 Just because it's been in fascist countries, does not make it a fascist policy. Australia has the mandatory voting law, and you don't see them pledging to the 3rd Reicht. I think it more or less has to do with what the political scene looks like when it is enacted. In most fascist countries, mandatory voting is usually enacted well after the press, and civil disobedience are cracked down on. Currently the press isn't censored, and while civil disobedience is disincentivized right now, that's primarily because of the pandemic instead of a moral demonization of going against the state.

[@huntercrosby8882]

As someone who works in environmental compliance, specifically in transmission lines, solar and wind, this was very well done. Good job John and team.

[@jamesjolly2204]

I thought it was a pretty good presentation as well...

[@phil20_20]

What ever happened to supercooled hydrogen conductors? I thought that was supposed to solve this problem.

[@sailaab]

Right

[@oldmandeadpool1064]

But he’s ignoring nuclear like all you progressives.

[@Alex-cw1ph]

@@oldmandeadpool1064 as someone who lives near several plants, they fail frequently. It doesn't matter how well you think they are run, human error persists. It is not feasible to take that risk again at the present moment. See Chernobyl

[@daemon.mythos]

"I ain't gonna help them if it don't help me." I think that's the most American thing I've heard all week.

[@phuctrinh2589]

Thats freedom

[@alexejfrohlich5869]

i do not want it to sound smart-alecky, but i'd say the most American thing about it is not so much the "if it doesn't help me" but the fact that he doesn't realize that it is for his own good aswell? sorry, don't want to be too harsh but had to point it out.

[@duanebarry2817]

Yeah. I still can't understand why anyone would voluntarily immigrate to the United States. What are those people thinking?

[@gazpachopolice7211]

Helping people is communism.

[@phuctrinh2589]

@@duanebarry2817 democracy and equal opportunity

[@mitchcook4199]

I’m a Lineman In Canada and it’s all the same up here working on Transmission lines is also extremely dangerous wether it be high voltage, high tensions, or extreme heights people really take for granted the amount of work lineman actually do to keep the grid going literally at all times. One solution would be maybe to make trades jobs including power line technicians/lineman same same more noticed, more public recognition maybe. I’ve been in the line trade for many years now and all I can say is it’s very hard work but also extremely rewarding as well but also if you come out of your house because I turned your power off to do regular maintenance or if an external force turned your power off and I’m working sometimes 22 hours day and night to get it back and you come out and ask what the fuck is taking so long cuz you can’t watch fucken americas got talent I will be taking much longer afterwards.

[@jayceewedmak9524]

Don't know where you are but I've had power outages and went through the ice storm that hit Southeastern Ontario. Wherever you are, thank you for your amazing skills! 👏 👏 👏 😊

[@acebaker3623]

Man, I come from a family of electricians, regular and high voltage workers, and I know that you guys are taking risks every day to keep that power flowing. Very much appreciated by me and mine here in BC! Thanks!

[@pt7181]

Cheers from Bulgaria :) i worked as an ISP technician for some years, we also 'reward' the annoying, not respecting customers like you do in Canada!!

[@pt7181]

Forgot to say I am also thankful for what you do, it should go without saying! I sometimes even went to fix a neighbours' connection outside of working hours because i genuinely care for people, and still when you call them for help half of them wouldnt bother.. However the other half would respond in a kind way ... Because of those people i enjoyed this kind of work. I bet your heighbours call you if they have some sort of power issues :) Also you work with very high currents which makes your job constant danger, and your sacrifice is incomprehensible for most people, i can imagine :)

[@waynerenolds3955]

you better be on some adderall if youre working 22 hrs straight on god damn electrical shit wtaf...

[@22lostservice]

(thought that came to my mind about "return on investment") If libraries didn't already exist and someone suggested them in the current USA culture they would be rejected as socialistic propaganda.

[@bishop253]

I bet if we started talking about the return on investment for the military though all suddenly that Congressman from Ohio would change his tune.

[@boxadorsrus5991]

@@bishop253 Does my memory fail me or did America not just lose a tremendously expensive 20-year long war? I'm wondering what our "return on investment" was in that?

[@bishop253]

@@boxadorsrus5991 Not going to get into Afghanistan, because clearly it's a shit show to put it lightly, but the point I was trying to make is that the Congressman's arguments were clearly in bad faith and if the topic was instead the military instead of clean energy, then chances are he wouldn't care that it doesn't have a ROI for taxpayers.

[@candacen7779]

@@boxadorsrus5991 The ROI on Afghanistan was tremendous for the rich who profited off of it.

[@zues9614]

Libraries have existed for thousands of years ,example (library of alexandria) your idea that libraries are somehow socialist, and the fact that libraries wouldn't be created is rather ludicrous in the first place, and you have no statical evidence to back this and probably any of your claims from extensive knowledge of American culture from your bedroom and the interent.

[@garyboos9102]

I'm retired now, but from 1976 through 2017 almost all of my time I was a high voltage transmission engineer. I did the design and project management for the type of power lines you described in your segment. In summary: on point and good work. :-). You are correct in that its the Right of Way (ROW) that is the biggest problem. More calendar time is often spent getting the permits than acquiring materials and constructing the line. I can design the needed power line anywhere I can get the ROW to put it. There is one aspect that you did not mention: maintenance and laws. In the NE there are states (E.g. NY) where maintenance is not allowed (by the state regulators) to be put into the rate base. I.e. if a utility wants to replace the "hooks" or shackles or cracked insulators for a line it can do so but must "eat the cost" and this is an expense that is never reimbursed through rates to its customers - it comes out of the Bottom Line (profits). So, often the CEO will simply refuse to do so and take his chances on major problems not occurring before he get his bonuses and retirement package. Federal law could change this and allow all utilities to put maintenance charges into the rate base and then the lines would be more reliable. Also, anyone, in a building, who declares some opposition to power lines should have the lights turned off, and the heating and ventilating turned off. We could then say, "Oh dear! The power lines weren't able to take the load the tens or hundreds of miles from the power plants to this building." Do you think its important?

[@Lainer1]

This is a planned obsolescence narrative. Don't you get it? they get rich quick, and then the grid fails and reboot/reset. the rich get richer and the masses start all over in the slave birth certificate federal cabal scamming system of this pyramid ponzi fiat currency scheme.

[@wild3gaming398]

Or maybe people shouldn’t be making a profit over a necessity like heat and power

[@weisemari]

Here's a way we can in future let the market do its job: Sell the electricity for electric cars for cheap at low load time, sell it for expensive at peak load times. Suddenly many car owners will plan their mobility according to the pricing, and the car batteries will play the role of the energy buffer. ---- Happy regards from Germany, I'm an old gardener, excuse my English.

[@contrawise]

@@weisemari No apology necessary; it was perfect!

[@snikerz5886]

Unfortunately as long as people keep electing Republicans there will be no change. Their whole policy is "fuck the common man, I want money".

[@smaakjeks]

"Why would I buy food? That's a terrible return on investment." -Bill Johnson

[@crispy3605]

It really is 🤣 Im hungry....

[@LisaBeergutHolst]

"Why would I pay to feed and clothe my children? How much do I make from it?"

[@duroxkilo]

the guy's not stupid, he's getting paid by an old and dirty power plant to act stupid... just so we're clear :} *i'd take a stupid person w/ decent social skills over someone who's acting stupid on purpose any time

[@nilsp9426]

Exactly my thought. But if anyone is a dollarvore (eats dollar bills to stay alive), it is probably Bill Johnson.

[@sociolocomtsac]

@@duroxkilo I used to think the same way, but stupid people create outcomes where nobody wins (i.e. lose-lose outcomes). At least thieves help themselves. Stealing is inevitable; just have to make sure they are doing their job well and don't steal too much.

[@LowellMorgan]

It’s a good thing rural heartland farmers have a solid record of being focused on long-term and big-picture solutions and don’t benefit from federal subsidies or corporate welfare.

[@michaelccozens]

Rural heartland "Red State" farmers have been subsidized by the urbanized "Blue States" they so despise to the tune of hundreds of billions for multiple decades now. Hearing these parasites talk about "don't make your problem my problem" is brain-melting. They would truly rather die than allow reality to puncture their white-supremacist fantasy-land. The question is, are we going to let them take everyone else with them?

[@jackyzimmerman]

@@michaelccozens That’s why it’s infuriating to hear things at right wing rallies like, “Liberals are trying to fund planned parenthood, public healthcare, green energy and new public transport.” Yeah. We’re *trying,* but it’ll never happen, because we have to pick up the tab for Old MacDonald and his hick buddies. States that’d go broke without our tax dollars literally spit on the hands that feed them. When was the last time Mississippi (27% federal tax dependent) or Alaska (28% federal tax dependent) did me a favor?

[@petervanschepen8809]

I mean, your facetious point is valid, but to be fair long term, big picture solutions rarely benefit them anyway. For example, do you know why there are so many dairy farms in California, where there isn't nearly enough water to graze that kind of cattle? Because some idiot numpty in the 1930's decided to scale the federal dairy subsidy (well, the minimum market price guaranteed for milk) by how far away a farm was from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. So California got a rush of dairy farms it couldn't support and Wisconsin lost what was at the time its biggest domestic industry. How's that for a long term big picture.

[@beannathrach2417]

They are subsidised by Food Stamps and other government programs. The purpose of food stamps is to prop up the domestic market so farmers know they will be able sell their harvest, so they can make plans to plant the next year's food. The federal government coerces what we need to ensure the food supply and prevent famine. As bad as food prices might be this winter, there's enough food for every American.

[@waynerenolds3955]

@@petervanschepen8809 considering cali is in the top 10 GDPs in the world i think theyre doig fine

[@ardenprince2146]

For those who don’t know, the situation in Texas was truly insane, I was working at a cold weather shelter all night and returned home to an apartment that was so cold I couldn’t stay there, had to get my family across town to friend’s house who had a gas stove, but our car got stuck and we had to abandon it, it was honestly a little apocalyptic, and I had never thought about how we take a functioning power grid for granted before

[@whiteraven550]

Can't wrap my head around how the US can consider itself a first word country, let alone "the greatest country" while this is happening out of sheer greed.

[@lowonplotproductions3283]

And an 11 year old died of hypothermia in his home. It haunts me. He wasn't the only fatality. Climate change kills.

[@Serpentius]

@@whiteraven550 100%. GREED! I wonder, does GOP stand for Greed Only Pays?

[@KitC916]

mobilize in the off season since your state doesn't care about at least HALF of its people

[@KitC916]

@Ben Henderson you have no understanding of cold weather or how hypothermia works.

[@eastunder55]

I usually cringe at non-engineer attempts to talk about electric power transmission and distribution. John and his staff put together an excellent discussion of the problems and some possible solutions to the power grid. I shouldn't have doubted John, he always does a superb job.

[@TheTruthWholeTruthNothingButTh]

What do you think about STEM?

[@Brian-ey4xt]

I feel the same. Reporting on STEM stuff is often pretty poor, but this did an ok job hitting a lot of relevant points about grid infrastructure and politics given the segment duration and needing to incorporate comedy.

[@hellfish2309]

Come back when you build a Colosso for Americur

[@Demon_DC]

He did a horrible job at explaining what's really wrong.

[@radoraf]

@Hank HILL I recall last winter TX had no redundancy when it's grid went offline. Criticizing the pebble in your neighbor's eye would seem kind of ironic.

[@JuanAMatos-zx4ub]

Imagine being in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, anywhere from 3 months to a year without power. Some places in the island never got power back and the government basically told them that it was too difficult to get it back working again in those remote areas. I mean, I get that it's an island surrounded by big water, but damn. This needs to be taken seriously.

[@e-spy]

yes, and I don't think a roll of paper towels will help the situation.

[@chrisfrisch1347]

maybe that is by design so as to heard the sheeple in to cities where they can easier be controlled and watched and manipulated

[@PYR0NinjaPXG]

@@e-spy It was insane. I have a lot of family that lives on the island -- that winter my grandmother had to come up to NY to live with us for months while repairs in the area were done. It was wonderful having her around of course, we don't see her that often due to the distance, but the circumstances were awful. There is a lot of "normal" water/power shortages there outside of hurricane season (due to shoddy infrastructure), but Maria was a massive blow. I genuinely don't know for the future holds for islands in the Caribbean regarding climate change.

[@e-spy]

@@PYR0NinjaPXG The whole thing just broke my heart. How can we virtually ignore our own citizens like that?! I haven't read the entire bill, but there had BETTER be a good chunk set aside to address this situation. My hopes and prayers are for the people of puerto rico, including and especially your grandmother and the many friends I have there. Stay well!

[@kimberlychodur3508]

@@e-spy thank God he didn't throw them at the governors dealing with wildfires.

[@Civerius]

My uncle was actually a police officer on duty inside a court room when lights went out once in outside of dallas, he said 'as soon as the lights went out, the guns came out'. Which, sounds like an overall fun night for everyone doesn't it?

[@H0uxdubxston]

Ah yes. Court rooms that famously don't have metal detectors when you enter. I totally believe this

[@MsBean02]

​@@H0uxdubxstonI think they mean the police in the courtroom take their guns out.

[@JasonRennie]

"If you've ever wondered how balloons can cause a power outage..." Yes, John, this is exactly why I watch.

[@Bacteriophagebs]

I thought he meant hot-air balloons (and that may be what the statistic actually is) because those things hit power lines distressingly often, usually killing everyone aboard.

[@JVenger]

I've actually seen that first hand. Pretty cool until you realize it knocks your power out

[@manuel0578]

This particular example probably didn’t cause a power outage. But there are metal balloons that can

[@joellahrman4557]

The biggest threat to power lines on a day-to-day basis is all the tree branches and limbs that can come into contact with the lines as they grow. It's a big job keeping them trimmed back.

[@stanmoulton6904]

maybe there were slugs on the balloons?

[@TreyDoe]

“Don’t make their problem our problem” America in a nutshell

[@AntonAdelson]

Where psychotic egoism is a virtue!

[@eldiablo1000]

The goal is always to make them care before it becomes their problem too...but its hard to change anyone's mind these days before its too late, and the problem has grown exponentially...

[@cy-one]

I mean, wouldn't "America in a nutshell" be more like "Let's make our problems their problems?"

[@TreyDoe]

@@cy-one I guess u could say that too

[@cy-one]

@@TreyDoe I mean, a big part of the issues in the Middle East are caused by the US directly and indirectly. Same goes for the refugee crisis in Europe.

[@Marksmaan]

I work as a real estate agent acquiring the lands for Transmission companies. This is very accurate. I'd like to say, farmers are actually pretty well versed in science and are often open to alternative energy. Remember they need to research GMOs, fertilizers, pesticides, etc... so they need to pay attention to a lot of what's going on. Landowners often don't want it in their backyard even if they get it, John you said. Great video.

[@Superdoc009]

I think that is typical of farmers. It’s been my experience farmers are great stewards of their land and resources. A lot of byproducts from farming can go back into the farm for energy. One of the craziest things I ever saw was watching a farmer make his own diesel fuel.

[@vtrbswarmachine]

And they know nothing of selling their land for more long term gains!

[@72marshflower15]

A permaculture farm I’m at could use an investment given that we’ve a demonstrable history converting desert/lava into farmable land at a rate of 5 yards per year per 1/4 acre.. This is a big deal Hit me back when you’re ready..

[@cendrieeR]

I have farmers in my family, they are definitely more knowledgeable about renewables than I am, and pretty positive about it as well.

[@creativedesignation7880]

That makes it even more sad. I thought these people were just narrow minded and don't see why it would be important, but they actually go: "I recognize this is the right thing and I chose to do the more selfish, wong thing instead." Sometimes I think people don't feel enough immediate consequences for wrong actions, so they don't even understand anymore why "right" and "wrong" are relevant categories...

[@lina9535]

Not gonna lie, the "Good f*ck" had me on the floor laughing in tears 🤣

[@nealtircuit9373]

John: Transmission lines - the absolute heart of our grid. I’m neither a medical doctor nor a metaphor specialist, but shouldn’t they be the veins?

[@edwardblair4096]

The arteries. The generation plants are the heart.

[@DaleRogers]

Uh. How about nerves? Electrical grid, not plumbing grid.

[@DidIDoGoodMum]

@@DaleRogers then the generators would be the brain which would be weird because they don‘t control anything. Arteries and Lung would be better because the blood transports the o2 with the arteries to the cells where the air gets burned to energy which one could see as the process of transforming the high voltage energy to low voltage energy the normal house needs. And I mean seeing wind parks as the lung of the power network is pretty fitting as well :D

[@dereksaltamachia4633]

Nervous system, water and sewage would be veins?

[@williamkoehl5833]

No - the arteries. The veins would be taking the power back where it came from. You know what happens when you cut an artery.

[@imtired2983]

I like the way this show gets the conversations started. Every town meeting about anything should start like this. The problem, the possible solutions, the pros and cons to said solutions……and go!

[@scottmwilhelms2437]

I would like Rep. Johnson to detail the monetary ROI that paying his salary gives to the citizens of Ohio. 🤔

[@jessemairose4534]

I mean... There's definitely a return when you pay a clown to show up to a child's birthday party.... I think we are just overpaying the clown 🤣

[@SweetLilWren]

All politicians

[@felinecontrolled]

As an Ohioan the term "sunk cost" comes to mind.

[@heavysystemsinc.]

I know he's enjoying his return on investment for selling out.

[@holycrapchris]

Congressional rep salary: $174k. So as long as Johnson finagled more than $174k of pork barrel spending into his district, it's a positive ROI. For reference, Johnson's district (OH-6) took in $3.8B in federal money in 2017.

[@Cheshirestog]

Love the idea people CHOOSE to live places. A lot of people happen to be born and raised somewhere and can't afford to move anywhere else, nor have support system anywhere else, by support I mean mental support and social, as often financial support isn't likely as those people are also poor. Life is full of forced "choices." It doesn't have to be but that's the way things are run and the end outcome.

[@codymoe4986]

So because a lot of people are born unto a location that they will never be able to leave, that means that no one chooses where they want to live? Try again...

[@RichardMiller-tq6ut]

Tell that to the countless millions who have walked tens of thousands of miles through jungles and deserts to sneak into our country. I can't imagine feeling as trapped and helpless as you. You are living where you choose to live

[@Cutest-Bunny998]

"... [W]hile things are bad now, they could get a lot worse in the future!" may as well be the motto of this show. I love tuning in every week and hearing about yet another crisis I was previously not appropriately anxious about. Despite that, I do, of course, still prefer my existential dread to be delivered via the deceptively soothing British vocalizations of John Oliver.

[@Alblaka]

The solution to that anxiety is to realize, accept, and embrace the fact that the entirety of humanity is an utterly chaotic mess that is miraculously held together by a societal equivalent of duct tape. There's no point in holding any anxiety or dread, because you could get anxious over quite literally anything, if you just look closely enough. And yet that anxiety wouldn't change anything, nor help with anything. I mean, I'm aware that this essentially just summarizes to "You're anxious? Simple solution: Stop being anxious.", but I can't figure out how to put it into better words.

[@history2know422]

@@Alblaka amazing insight!

[@sukhbirnaidu4360]

You know you’re fucked when those late night thoughts start hitting you in the middle of the day 😭

[@3.k]

@@Alblaka It’s the same thing with being afraid of dogs - if you’re afraid, they sense it, so just don’t be afraid. 🤷‍♀️😃

[@rlud304]

@@Alblaka "The entirety of humanity? " That is so stupid. The US is not the entirety of humanity.🙄 Another of my fellow Americans who, of course is not aware that there are like these whole other countries that exist that are NOT the US and many are not at all a chaotic mess.. Shocking huh? Living abroad in an actual first world country has been an education for me on just how terrible the US is at everything and as I personally experienced, that it doesn't have to be that way.

[@dalpz205]

Texan here. We'd like not to die this winter. Warnings issued since 1989 and new "laws" seem to never be completed because governor campaign donations from same energy companies.

[@nickpacitti3247]

Exactly !!!

[@noahbuddie]

Our society has definitely failed in the aspect of understanding that society requires cooperation and collaboration. MEMEME works fine if you're alone. Not so much if you have to live with other people. But unfortunately our country endorses and supports being a moron. Education is one of the most quickly cut budgets, and greed not only supported but almost a rule. Land of the greedy, home of the stupid.

[@ltraina3353]

Totally agree with you. God, that politician was so annoying with his idiotic ‘return on investment’ crap….oh I don’t know, having f’ing electricity maybe?? Just half a day without power is enough to remind me how much we rely on electricity. I live in a desert where it is scorchingly hot for 9 months of the year…I consider air conditioning a ‘return on investment’, not to mention the services and conveniences that rely on electricity. I will never understand the absolute selfishness and greed that is so prevalent in this country! We are going to be in a world of hurt if we keep this crap up, and I’d rather not go through that. I’m 50 and I always thought societal breakdown wouldn’t happen in my lifetime, I’m not so sure anymore. Good luck to us all

[@davidwhittington7638]

Well said.. America, united states my arse.. Not in my back yard hick mentality. The hick with the sunglasses couldn't even use the word "electricity". Education is key and giving a crap about your neighbour's is also key. Such a sad "state" of affairs', with each state having it's own ideology, and Idiocracy...

[@youprobablydontlikeme3206]

Friedman: "Do you know any country that doesn't run on greed...? We listened to the wrong people for the wrong reasons. Most humans are unable and/or unwilling to really consider peace, harmony or any social good as a more important thing then money and greed. Most people seperate whats good for them and whats good for others and allways choose whats good for themself. We share a community, a state, a f...n world. We all fail to see this very important point and cut down everything to selfinterest and return of investment. What a nightmare!

[@HobbesHobbiton]

TBH, "political unity" died with all of those COVID-19 victims. We shouldn't seek to compromise or collaborate with domestic terrorists, but sadly the aging, spineless Dems in office feel otherwise.

[@wontbefooledagain9400]

Now they just cancel education all together, I’m sitting in Bay City MI ,and they just announced school in Saginaw is closed due to staffing.

[@firefox5926]

9:35 can i just say that hook deserves a medal .. for serves above and beyond the call of duty for which it was designed

[@chadmiettunen]

The more I learn about the power grid, the more I'm amazed any of this shit actually still works.

[@willfreese]

More than one person goes home each night mumbling, "I can't believe we kept it going another day."

[@MHGFTW]

Why not just put your powerlines underground?

[@doug960]

@@MHGFTW $$$ It's way more expensive to build, and you have to dig it back up when there are problems or you need to make upgrades

[@chucktaylor4958]

@@willfreese 1 800 DIG would be keep even busier.

[@WeBackUp6911]

@@MHGFTW why cant we just wireless carry energy lol

[@deovi1653]

I'm surprised Puerto Rico wasn't mentioned. After hurricane Maria, many sector of the island spent MONTHS without power and to this date it's still being fixed. There's also a big dispute with the current company that's running it. Things have been so bad that the local government had to get involved.

[@joebone1961]

Damn! I cant even imagine the disaster, discomfort, and waste.

[@amplelola23]

There’s been more than one episode on Puerto Rico on this channel.

[@biovmr]

Well, like Hawaii, Alaska, and other "islands" of electricity, PR is not part of the 3 grids of the lower 48 states, and would have been a distraction more deserving of its own episode (which I believe they did one on during the year after Maria).

[@franceszapata951]

Our problem is so out of control, he would need an entire episode. The fact that we are a colony plays a role in how deficient our power grids are.

[@deovi1653]

I just said "mentioned" as an part of an example of poor grid systems in the U.S. and prolonged blackouts.

[@iloveplasticbottles]

Q: whats the return on investment? A: not freezing to death because your politicians get their wallets lined up by oil and natural gas companies.

[@michaelccozens]

Which is clearly an excellent moral reason, but also carries a reason of "self-interest" as well. The economic and social disruption caused by preventable outages and the injury and death that comes with them impacts us all via increased costs and decreased productivity. It's not just the right thing; it's the smart thing. But because it would involve slightly less of the total larger pie ending up in the pockets of a vanishingly-small and increasingly-ludicrously-powerful group of the connected wealthy, we don't do it. It's very "suicide of the Senatorial class in the collapse of the Roman Republic"; there, too, the wealthy didn't care if society, or even themselves, would be better-off with a given policy in absolute terms. They only cared if it made them *relatively* richer than their also-wealthy Senatorial competitors. Basically, if given a choice between everyone getting $50 or everyone losing $50, but the Senator in question only losing $40, they would prefer the latter case, because they only cared about being *richer than others*, rather than being richer overall. Truly evil.

[@dwells7747]

Who do you think produces the energy? Is it possible that it’s the very oils and gas companies that you’ve been told to hate?

[@daemonspudguy]

@@dwells7747 that's kind of the problem.

[@KnitterX]

I would like to ask that man three questions. 1. Do you buy fucking shoes? 2. What's your return on investment for shoes? 3. Then why the fuck do you buy fucking shoes?

[@unborncookie9809]

@@KnitterX yeah that senator was clearly a tool, whats the return on investment in having a working power grid? its pretty simple, its having electricity. needless to say not much economic development will happen in a region devoid of power and if we keep neglecting our powergrid for another 20-30 years, it might fail beyond our capability of a quick repair It happened in Quebec in 1998 after a freak ice rain event that left 4-5 inches of ice on power lines and towers over 90 towers collapsed because of the added weight, (that over 10 miles of towers) you cant fix that in a day or two some towns where out of power for over 60 days

[@thestonedabbot9551]

'Don't make your problem my problem' "The modern conservative is engaged in one of philosophy's oldest pasttimes; the search for a higher moral justification for selfishness." - John K Galbraith

[@Dlúith]

Can confirm ladies, there’s nothing quite like having the thermo-bros over for a much needed boiler watching sesh

[@rita-want-sex152]

forget to say, “Good morning” 👊✊👎👍👌✋🖐

[@rita-want-sex152]

a dear little girl who was 😘😍😎😋😊😉😆

[@rita-want-sex152]

‘Who is there?’🍹🍸🍷🍾🍶🍵☕️

[@fourlightsorchestra]

“Hawt”.

[@cathrinekruger5499]

Im from Europe with either radiators for warmth and fans for cool. We just look at the house termometer.

[@a.schmidt3096]

Depressed, but informed. Which is honestly what we all expect at this point, thanks guys!

[@imnotmike]

That could be the slogan for John Oliver's show.

[@AStoic-th4hr]

As an electrical engineer, I was ready to hate this topic. However you did a great job explaining the challenges we face.

[@Acidfrog475]

I would like to know what you were expecting and ready to get angry by. Genuine interest.

[@AStoic-th4hr]

@@Acidfrog475 I thought it was going to be a one sided discussion on renewables without talking about the challenges faced with building the transmission needed to carry power to the load centers that need it.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

Years ago, I questioned whether there were more power outages or if we just noticed them more. Several decades ago, we were less likely to have a bunch of stuff plugged in that would remind us that the power had been out while we were away. But, these days it's pretty clear that it's happening more often. We ask more of the grid than we had, and there's been a bunch of neglected maintenance in many areas of the country. Recently, we've been having strings of electric polls falling over during storms because they weren't strong enough after decades of service to withstand and when one goes down, the line of them go with it.

[@TheCzemike]

Really? Why no mention of line losses sending electricity from the Midwest to the coasts? If we really were to ship electricity 1500 miles then we're looking at transmission lines pushing 750kV or more... and, of course no mention of the massive substations that would be required for voltages and power loads of that magnitude (which would be gigantic terrorism magnets, btw). It would make a lot more sense to break the three grids into a collection of many smaller grids that interconnect and can route around transmission issues. Would also make a lot of sense to rely on proven zero-carbon technology like nuclear -- especially SMR -- which can be safely located very close to or even in cities where the electricity is needed, obviating the need for massive, lossy transmission lines in the first place.

[@AStoic-th4hr]

@@TheCzemike you right there are a few things he omitted but he provided enough information so the general public can understand the challenges.

[@travelwithlegs]

Slugs are really cool and interesting critters! I think they deserve kudos for more than just electrical disruption. Maybe they deserve a web special? To quote the great nature show host John Acorn : there ain't nothing wrong with slugs.

[@mt7able]

Monetary return on investment aside... the whole point of "money", "infrastructure", "technology", and "education" is to improve quality of life. There is way too much focus on "money" and financial ROI without the consideration of "is this making lives better for the people in the community/society?" Health, education, safety, and a clean society is WAY more important than money.

[@deamon6681]

My counter question for that charming mister would probably be something like "Why would a man plant a tree that takes a hundred years to grow? You don't need to answer me, but just think about it and the implications for 10 minutes."

[@theriveroftruth]

bc all that matters to people like him is profit profit profit 🤑🙄

[@MonkeyJedi99]

I would add that health, education, safety and a clean society ARE a financial return. People who are sick, dumb, in fear, and living in cultural and literal filth cost money to heal and protect and aren't contributing to the wealth and prominence of the nation or it's businesses.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

@@theriveroftruth Also, too many of the "profit, profit, profit" crowd can only think in terms of the fiscal quarter or year, and can not (or will not) consider the longer scales of decades or lifetimes.

[@tempeleng]

@@MonkeyJedi99 yea I mean why pay taxes to pay his salary when he hasn't benefited me financially, right? It's really bad when someone who hasn't done the proper homework is allowed to ask these time wasting questions and then wouldn't even let the other person finish explaining.

[@nicolebogda1482]

Enlightening, upsetting, hilarious! The best part about Oliver is that he doesn’t CARE who he pisses off, he delivers what you need to hear.

[@NumbBlaze]

"We haven't done nearly enough" should be the US new slogan.

[@KitC916]

"Because we give tax breaks to the rich every year/refuse to ever tax the people with money instead of ever investing in actual social and material infrastructure"

[@NefastusJones]

Unfortunately, the new US slogan is, "I got mine!"

[@stevebuscemi3622]

Our government haven't done nearly enough. FIFY

[@ptanyuh]

More like, "we've barely done anything".

[@ianschmutzler8177]

that's fair

[@bongarozani272]

We in South Africa are used to this. We are 15 years into load shedding. We even have a schedule and apps tracking power outages, the stage, the number of hours and so on. This despite building two new coal power plants which at the time said they would help ease the pressure on old power stations.

[@astralminstrel]

This is kinda off topic, but that “home on electric” commercial finally explained my grandpa’s rabid insistence that no one touch the thermostat. It was a mystery I didn’t know I needed solving.

[@dc1842]

You dont touch the thermostat because men all men can tell if the tempature changes by a degree and it immediately makes us uncomfortable I dunno why we are so sensitive to temperature but we are and if it's outside our control we deal with it silently like men but when it's your home your laying the bills and ultimately in charge there is no way in hell anyone mother wife child is going to make us uncomfortable in our own paid for area lol that is why your grandad was insistent.

[@astralminstrel]

@@dc1842 Sure, that's understandable. If you pay the bills, you control the heating system. Thing is, I pay the bills. Grandpa always complained that he was too cold. Then he'd get furiously angry that I touched the thermostat. Even if he just asked me to turn up the heat. He had dementia, so his actions sometimes didn't make logical sense. The thing about guys being more sensitive to temperature is debatable. Everyone feels too cold or too warm for different reasons. It's not really a gender thing.

[@dc1842]

@@astralminstrel well if he's old and feeling cold or young and feeling too cold more than likely an issue woth circulation when your older but when your younger which I assume your grandad was when he was moaning About the thermostat in your memory and still fairly young I can imagine he did sense it. I know when there's a change in my environment very quickly and it's a stereotype so it has to be popular enough to be a stereotype

[@Jackassik]

In my case I don't like when somebody touches the termostat is because my wife will feel a bit cold in the morning so she will turn it up, and then when the sun comes out you have to open all the windows because it's too hot, letting all that money wasted on heating it up out the windows. Or if you have floor heating then changing the termostat won't do anything for the next 12 hours because it takes time. When I take care of the temperature in the house, I monitor the average in-house temperature, and the weather forecasts for the next couple days and set it up so we don't sweat during the day and freeze at night and we don't dramatically overspend on the bills. If I let people touch termostat, they will be unhappy with the results. Like letting a person, who doesn't know how to drive, to drive a car. They will have a bad time, it will be a rough drive and in the end they will say that my car is crap because it doesn't do what they want it to do - because they don't know how to operate it.

[@Sinoops]

@@dc1842 Men are not any more sensitive to temperature change than women are. You're making that shit up.

[@colonelkurtz2269]

It's not failing us, we're failing it. Describes most of our problems.

[@cmdraftbrn]

short sighted It CoSts ToO mUcH! instead of its the cost of reducing outages.

[@auntisthenes2754]

No problems with electricity in France, except for the nuclear waste,a few cuts in Summer for the poorer parts of large towns in order for others to keep cool, once you know, you buy an appropriate alarm clock but the water network is a nightmare.

[@Silverfirefly1]

I found a baby pigeon on the grounds of the hospital where my father was dying, a very helpless and hopeless period of my life. It was very young and had either fallen from or been pushed from a nest and it was near traffic and the area with all the cats. I took it home and gave it the space, food and water that it needed and a month later it took off from my balcony as a completely wild adult and I didn't feel quite so helpless anymore. That memory is a talisman for me. As a related note, the behaviors and perceptions of the pigeon are formed around an organ that's attuned to the things that physicists know to be the truth behind the universe, magnetism, direction, frequency and vibration. It would raise a lot of questions for a man like Tesla, it seems he found his own, er... unique answers.

[@missednoahsarc2654]

Love that! I took in a pigeon that a kid had hit with a baseball bat. After 2 weeks of stumbling it came out of it and flew off.

[@melorgomolox6828]

woah!! so insightful about tesla and the nature of piges. Thank you so much for sharing your story

[@jackmaehoph4822]

I once found a pigeon in my neighbors back yard & took it home & named it Dan. For a week I bummed it every night before going to bed, while singing 🎼 "What's the frequency, Kenneth? Is your Benzedrine, uh-huh" 🎤 After Seven days it died & I was heart broken, so I can really relate to your story. Oh, BTW, when I said pigeon, I meant chicken & when I said bummed, I meant.. Well, I'm sure you get it!

[@Civerius]

@@jackmaehoph4822 This comment wrecked my head more than the movie INCEPTION.

[@robertblokdijk901]

💋

[@alteredego6208]

This is when JFK’s quote, “ And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country,” should be embraced by Americans.

[@dwells7747]

These people aren’t pro America

[@waynerenolds3955]

"no." - every republican

[@PenguinLord10]

And would ya look at that? JFK wasn't a republican... odd, that. I thought they were supposed to be the party of the every-man?

[@desertdaisymarie6951]

"Fuck off" - every Republicunt..

[@cenccenc946]

I live in Chile. By law when the power goes down, the power company has to pay me. They get a few hours for normal things (tree down, maintenance) , but after 4 hours a month the credits start showing up on my bill. It really motivates the power companies to fix shit fast.

[@Jerrodbasketball]

Holy shit. This is amazing.

[@gwgux]

That makes too much sense to ever happen here.

[@lifesignjohnson]

Packing my stuff...see ya soon!

[@megand4222]

If only this happened in South Africa!

[@ChrisBoulanger]

This is a great idea.

[@Mypainfullyaveragelife]

I would never really care about power grids but these deep dives give me a new perspective.

[@thejumper7282]

yeah americans really give a fuck about their own infrastructure

[@Marijuanifornia]

Homes can be made from and powered by industrial hemp. Cars can be made from and powered by industrial hemp. There are videos of this on KZbin. There is also the 1942 USDA film *Hemp For Victory* which tells Americans how to grow Cannabis Sativa to defend our country.

[@runed0s86]

We care so little about our infrastructure that you can basically break into any of our infrastructure buildings with a bent coat hanger. If your power grid fails, you can easily go break into the facility and fix it yourself.

[@dahleno2014]

@@Marijuanifornia Powered by industrial hemp? Or they could be powered by solar power, wind power, or best of all (if done properly) with nuclear power. You trippin

[@Marijuanifornia]

@@dahleno2014 To produce electricity, water simply needs to be boiled into steam to turn turbines. Even nuclear power plants do this. The best fuel source to burn is biomass, and the best source of biomass to be burned is Cannabis Sativa. The US legalized and grew Cannabis hemp to defend our country during World War II. Since World War II, police have spent billions of dollars cutting down hemp and burning it as a "dangerous" drug. So, since we're cutting down hemp and burning it anyway, grow more hemp, then cut it down and burn it in an incinerator to boil water into steam to turn turbines to produce electricity, and the hemp takes in CO2 as it is growing (which solar panels, wind turbines and nuclear reactors cannot do).

[@helenryan5217]

When I was a kid, my grandmother's old iron sat on our mantle. It was made of cast iron and heavy af and since it was not electric (she didn't live in a home with electricity until she was in her 40s) she had to heat it up on the wood stove before she could iron. Of course it would cool off eventually and then she would have to reheat it. If this was your life, an electric iron probably seemed like a real step forward.

[@nonyabizness.original]

i remember when i was maybe 8 years old, my family finally could afford an electric washing machine to replace the old wringer washer in the basement. i remember that because us children were banished from being anywhere near that treacherous old washer, but now that the washing machine couldn't maim a person for life, doing laundry became my job.

[@jonathancook1096]

You too huh? Believe it or not we still have Mamma Hudgens (Great-great grandmother) old black cast iron which my mom uses as a doorstop for the door leading out to a screened in porch. I can remember as a kid trying to pick that up and feeling like it was 100 lbs. It's still heavy so I'm very familiar with these. Mom explained to me how she heated it up back in the day (She was born in the 1890s and lived to be close to 80 [1970s] ) so I never knew her. But she grew up in rural Lenoir City, Tennessee pre-electricity so yeah, and electric iron was by far a godsend.

[@cbpd89]

You are not wrong! My grandmother hated ironing, but was expected to iron shirts for her husband and 5 kids...so she paid my mom to do it. Five cents per shirt! Boy am I grateful for wrinkle free fabrics!

[@exquisitecorpse4917]

Being a woman was (and in many ways still is) a full time job.

[@CharlesBosse]

@@exquisitecorpse4917 a quote that stuck with me about the pandemic was "other industrialized nations had social safety nets to fall back on, the USA relied on women".

[@JohnOhkumaThiel]

My wife is from Japan, and we spend much of our life together there. Living in the northeast United States for a decade has turned her into somewhat of a prepper, even when we are in Japan. In the United States, totally justified by only a decade of experience, I keep my car’s tank full all hurricane season, but in Japan, the natural disaster capital of the world, any time one of about twenty-five annual typhoons is on the way, and even in the non-catastrophe season because earthquakes don’t have a season, we have a stockpile of cash, water, non-perishable food, electricity, and of course for me 🍺 Not once, ever, in my over twenty-five year span of experience, hundreds, perhaps thousands of earthquakes, using mainly mass transit, have we experienced even a brown out in Japan. At the most, the trains and buses weren’t on time for a change. --- Slugs though, slugs are smug. --- In the United States, we basically need a Johnny Appleseed of power generation.

[@colechapman3382]

You are talking about a country with 325,000,000 people across thousands of miles compared to Japan, a small country with a small population. There is a difference between Japan and USA. The real question should be why do we have outages when bigger countries like us don’t

[@JohnOhkumaThiel]

@@colechapman3382 : Japan isn't a small country, nor does it have a small population. You're mistaking your bigotry for facts.

[@pywaketpilot]

@@colechapman3382 Japan is hardly small. It's nearly 2000 miles long, and, with 125,000,000 people, it is the 11th most populated country in the world (the US is third, after China and India).

[@JohnOhkumaThiel]

@@pywaketpilot Japan is the size of California. All in all, it's a medium size country physically. Economically and Politically of course it's one of the most powerful countries in the world.

[@alext3811]

That's because East Asian cities actually have decent infrastructure. My grandparents in Taiwan don't have to worry about national disaster, so that's one less thing (considering they're elderly and worried about China invading). Because they're "liberal" where it counts, understanding that skimping on infrastructure at all means taking an arrow to the knee later on. Privatized utilities in the USA only care about shipping the minimum viable product for the highest end price.

[@POTATOEMPN]

Imagine the slug, right now, watching this at .25 play speed, hearing that his Cousin, Sam, actually followed through on his plan to terrorize the humans.

[@billveusay9423]

The "watching at .25 play speed" is the cherry on top of this comment

[@Legendaryium]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[@brucedavis1803]

“Oh my God he finally did it!”

[@diamondflaw]

9:55 - "You can't just keep something that old in place and expect it to keep working forever" Sounds like a decent description of elected officials right now too.

[@hugodoucet2872]

HA! Well said.

[@dragonsword7370]

Well "working" is an objective term in this case. Lol.

[@susanfarley1332]

Oh, yes!

[@l1nus0nl1neproductions9]

🤔 true, cuz When u elect a ”new” leader over 70 ur not really picking a new president, ur picking a new pope

[@PRIVATEpastry]

The older I get, the clearer it becomes that most of our divides in this country come down to empathy or the lack thereof.

[@cirkmannzirkel8229]

Exactly. And it's down to a general distribution of traits that make you more or less empathic towards others that we can't really change. But societies can influence it with their general approach to laws and government, and unfortunately, capitalism without proper pricing in of long-term effects tends to favor those who care more for the dime than for the man. And the US is the king of capitalism, so...

[@iamjustkiwi]

Best stated by Mr no backyard power line. So many people refuse to change anything in their lives unless they see a direct, usually financial benefit. That mindset is what's going to doom us all in the end.

[@halcyon_echo42]

It's awfully sad really.

[@chrisprilloisebola]

@@cirkmannzirkel8229 lol blaming capitalism, too funny

[@charleswettish8701]

@@chrisprilloisebola Explain how it's funny. Because it sounds like you think it isn't capitalism the leads to PG&Es deadly decisions. I'll bet you believe in trickle down economics, lmfao!

[@Mirelale000]

21:35, I knew where this was heading the moment he mentioned the balloons, and it's still funny 🤣😂🤣🤣😂.

[@Astraeus..]

So there's a recurring theme every single time John does a segment about absolutely ANY infrastructure in the US, you can be guaranteed of 3 things; 1- it's always mismanaged/mishandled/underfunded/etc. 2 - it's basically always being made worse, both naturally and actively (cut funding, no maintenance, etc..usually because of some Republican/s) and 3- you'll get to the end and be genuinely astonished that the entire country hasn't literally fallen to pieces yet.

[@namelesswalaby]

Almost like he’s conquering strawmen of his own design

[@EcnalKcin]

@@namelesswalaby Oh, what is the strawman argument in this video that he is conquering?

[@EcnalKcin]

I think putting the blame on Republicans is you trying to justify your ideological politics. Let me be the first to point out to you that he opened with the fire in California being because of the hooks holding the power lines not being replaced in decades.....in a state that has had a democrat majority for two and a half decades. Regardless, he is wrong about the need to restructure the entire grid for renewable energy. Nuclear fission is just as safe, more environmentally friendly, and more cost effective than any renewable energy source, and can be built anywhere there is a coal power plant today. Just replacing coal power with nuclear would save over 10,000 lives a year in the US.

[@CapriciousCobra]

Our egos are the only thing that keeps us going.

[@jessicalacasse6205]

what was the cost of afghanistan war ...about 2.5 trillions

[@xJayhawkFANx]

Speaking on the whole "old infrastructure" bit... I've been in the industry for a while now so I have a pretty informed opinion. He's right, but it's not like utilities aren't doing anything about it. Grid maintenance, updates and upgrades are literally all we do as long as there are no outages going on. People like to joke about lineman not doing anything until the power goes out. That's absolutely not true. We work our butts off every day to update old structures. But there so much which needs updated, and so few lineman that we don't have the man power to update the grid effectively. Not only that, but maintaining and upgrading the grid is expensive as hell. But there are many upgrades which are being implemented which do Indeed help with power reliability. But it's not as easy as snapping your fingers and everything is fixed. Linework takes time. Lots of time and lots of money.

[@ZedaZ80]

Wait, people make this quip about linemen? :|

[@joebone1961]

In every county, there's an enormous amount of men fixing the convenient utilities that we all take for granted. Cheers, to you and yours!

[@poonamsvideoblogs]

Why aren't there more jobs to do what's needed? Is it to maintain CEO profit margin?

[@joebone1961]

@@poonamsvideoblogs some choose to babysit those who make the money for companies, others choose to build up the country companies profit from. You've got to decide what your place in the duality of it all.

[@Tebssis]

I know our linemen work all the time. I've seen them on sunny days a lot around my town. Outages are just overtime. Dude, respect for all you do.

[@Palefox27]

"DON'T TOUCH THE THERMOSTAT!!" every dad ever.

[@xuto2693]

Only the stingy bastards who won't turn it up above 63. Or down below 130.

[@sonorasgirl]

😂 I think about my Dad every time I turn on my heater

[@generalofchaos5174]

It's the sacred covenant!

[@lpk6372]

Old jokes are still funny

[@garyowens7454]

@@xuto2693 You should be happy that they're consuming less energy and helping curb climate change.

[@mikelboone9601]

I used to watch Oliver and Colbert together when I was pretty young. I followed Colbert across his career and I just rediscovered Oliver! I agree with your views expressed in this show. So so funny with motivational properties. Thank you

[@drccrl1203]

The ending is probably the most creative they've done in a while, not from a production standpoint, but for getting laughs, and referencing the balloon-power grid fiasco video.

[@benvoliothefirst]

I think it's pretty great from a production standpoint too!

[@jasonLJ]

I laughed fucking hysterically at that

[@Trevor21230]

Electroboom would be proud!

[@fabianpanter850]

I particularly liked the good fuck part, i mean thanl you you too i guess...

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

After doing some of my own live 'spark and flash' effects on stage for my own production... yes... this was an AWESOME way to end the show, lol. 💪😎🤟

[@swiftrian]

Btw, I've read his memoirs. He said he loved the pigeon as one would love a woman. And one day she didn't return. He waited and waited but she never came back so he assumed she had died and it broke his heart. He was also extremely poor at this point and isolated. Which likely drove him over the edge. Really sad stuff.

[@liqqit]

Yeah, but let's make fun about someone else's passion and agony, to make us feel better about ourselves, and ridiculing a great man

[@frostfang1]

I've had many pets in my life, but I completely understand how he feels. I had one cat for a mere five years and that cat was my soulpet. I still miss him three years later.

[@swiftrian]

@@liqqit right. Saddest part is his home was ransacked a few hours after he was reported dead.

[@TheFrugalVideoGamer]

The better line for you regarding Transmission lines at 13:42. "Because transmission lines are the veins and arteries of the body. It doesn't matter how powerful the heart is - if the blood can't get to where it's meant to go, you're *going* to lose a toe."

[@viddork]

That last spark at the end was magic!

[@1nelsondj]

I love how John Oliver makes us laugh while educating us. One thing I was impressed with after being stationed in England for 3 years was the lack of telephone poles everywhere because all the lines were underground. Much cleaner look, no problem from fracking squirrels and birds, access for repairs without having to climb, protection from lightning strikes, on and on.

[@waymire01]

Exactly.. when they were crying about trying to improve the infrastructure while crying about where to put more overhead lines that they know are a break waiting to happen, it was the pinnacle of stupidity. Put them underground idiots.

[@BenYetton]

@@waymire01 Surely its more expensive to run them underground? You only have to dig a few holes vs one continuous hole. Also, when you have to get them over a mountain, thats a lot harder if going underground. Plus the access cost of getting to the underground wires everywhere. Probably makes a lot more sense in a denser populated, relatively flat (not to mention earthquake free), area such as England.

[@frostfang1]

@@BenYetton yea and it's already an inconvenience when they are constantly redoing roads and digging up whatever plumbing etc that was beneath them that needs fixing *again*. If things aren't getting maintained above ground, we know how well it will be maintained below ground. That and you have places like PA where everything a few feet below ground is boulders every few feet. And that reminds me of all the water pipes that never got replaced and are deteriorating or aren't being filtered and leaking poison into the water supply.

[@Henrik_Holst]

@@BenYetton Mountains is no problem since you simply use poles then, all don't have to be underground just because some are. Here in Sweden we have begun to put lots of the power line underground since a decade ago due to the increased number of outages with the poles during storms and heavy snow, but the pole system will never go away fully.

[@fmorgan98]

Underground electric service is in general, ten times more expensive the overhead. That's why we have so much overhead service...when we share the pole with the cable and/or telephone company its even cheaper.

[@jocodashcam295]

He didn't really talk about it, but what happened in TX last winter really wasn't the grid, or at least, not the electrical side of things. The grid went down because gas lines froze. "But JoCo, gas can't freeze". Yeah, I asked the same question too, but turns out, it was the gas at the well heads that froze, and that was "wet" gas from out of the ground, which contains a lot of water vapor. So the gas lines froze up, choked off the natural gas supply, and the grid went down in a chain reaction. All because the owners didn't want to invest the money in freeze protection of these pipelines because "it never freezes in TX". Oops.

[@michaelccozens]

It's worse than that. The problem of a lack of winterization was laid-out for Texas a decade earlier, during the examination of widespread power failures during a blizzard in 2011. So it was very clear that, yes, it does freeze in TX, and, yes, it will happen again, sooner rather than later. The Republican faction of Texas didn't care, and did nothing. And that's without addressing the fact that they deliberately chose to isolate their grid in the first place, thus greatly reducing resiliency, in order to deregulate their market and funnel huge profits from vulnerable Texans into the pockets of a small number of connected oligarchs. We have to stop giving obvious bad-faith actors the benefit of the doubt when they claim ignorance. They are proven liars. Refusing to recognize that becomes complicity.

[@Mr___f]

Good summary but the Texas grid's main issue was it has very few connections to the other main grids. So instead of getting short term power fluctuations like OK was getting due to power lines getting iced, Texas was overloaded to the point that they had to force blackouts. Dumbsh1ts like Abbot and Fled to Cancun Cruise blamed wind even though wind was performing as expected for the time period. Nat Gas alone was responsible for 80% of the outage with nuclear, coal, and then wind covering the rest. ERCOT is garbage. It's as bad if not worse than CAISO.

[@petervanschepen8809]

That sounds a bit like splitting hairs. It was still a grid failure due to lack of investment by private entities that have been shielded from public oversight.

[@jocodashcam295]

@@petervanschepen8809 correct. They did not invest the money in freeze protection because they were not required to invest the money.

[@beannathrach2417]

The Texas Ayn Rand grid is sold as always good enough but cheaper than other grids where customers are forced to pay higher prices to pay for maintenance.Texans can avoid a third power failure but they have to be convinced to pay up front for disaster that might never happen.

[@OriginalNajja]

"What's the return on investment..." It's not having to spend tens of thousands to millions of dollars every time the grid fails ffs. It's like asking what the return on investment of traffic signals are.

[@kuronanestimare]

"The return on investment is sitting in a room lightened by lightbulbs, speaking into an electric microphone that transmits into electric speakers. The ROI is your constituents being able to do their jobs and not be freezing when the power goes out and they don't have electricity for their heating systems when they go to bed. The monetary gain is not having to spend as much to repair a hundred year old power grid that can fail if the wind blows too hard on it. The Investment required is to stop taking money from oil companies for five fucking minutes so our children don't inherit a desert running on technology made by cavemen who smashed rocks together."

[@KitC916]

Or running water, or indoor plumbing. The ROI is living with dignity in a civilization. Once upon a time, people understood they "don't exist alone" and "have an obligation to others." Now we can't even tax billionaires. This is why we mandatory voting as a paid national holiday, with 50 state voe by mail. Sane people are tired of being drowned out. Also, Democrats, start to understand what "turnout" is at any time.

[@TrungNguyen-uf8cv]

lawmaker adamantly asking that question on such issue to focus on the contractor's ROI should not be a lawmaker

[@sor3999]

It'S NOt A rETurn ON INvEsTmenT BeCausE No MONEY Is ReTurNeD

[@eragon78]

@@TrungNguyen-uf8cv To be fair, he was simply asking what the ROI would be for his wealthy donors. He doesnt give a fuck about the American people, he only cares about the companies paying him off and what they will get out of the deal.

[@Bartjdevries]

Wow, I'm impressed. Good on you @john Oliver for making this subject accessible to the wider audience with a laugh. you do such important work! Love it.

[@xenosbreed]

16:15 I love the guy has the empathy to acknowledge he wouldn't want to be without electricity, but then immediately says 10s of millions of people should still go without power because he can't be bothered with the mildest of inconveniences because they 'chose' to be born where they live

[@grmpEqweer]

He doesn't want his profitable land to be put out of commission. ...But, yeah. He's basically fine with the customers he grows food for being without power, possibly in the winter. Real smart thinkin' there.🙄

[@andrewmastin4312]

NIMBYism isn’t based on logic.

[@ToowokeforFlorida]

Put a wind turbine in your backyard and the power won’t have to travel. Problem solved! Stop using so much electricity. Stop eating so much packaged food. Stop consuming so many things, particularly from China. Stop using plastic. Stop ordering in. Why don’t you give up all your luxuries before you ask rural Americans to give up their necessities?

[@ToowokeforFlorida]

@@grmpEqweer I can put you in touch with a turbine builder and you can put one on your property. If you own any, or do you rely on someone else to provide your home by renting?

[@steveconrad1525]

@@ToowokeforFlorida Put solar panels on your roof. Insulate your home better. Use LED light bulbs. Turn off lights that don't need to be on.

[@nomore6167]

"A return on investment is a monetary thing. That's why you make an investment." - Mr. Johnson, (R) Ohio. Let's ask Mr. Johnson why we have a military. The military does not give us any money; it only takes our money. If a return on investment is strictly a monetary thing, then we should get rid of the military. Sometimes I wonder how these idiots passed grade-school, let alone high school or higher education.

[@Mode-Selektor]

Its like asking "what's the return on investment for buying a furnace." Ummm, having a heated home? Can a monetary value easily be attached to that? No. Is it worth the investment? Absolutely.

[@krejados1]

He was just bullying her; his tone, interruptions and body language makes that clear. What he asked was irrelevant; the point was to try to discredit her.

[@cggc9510]

I've dealt with these types of people by both ignoring their questions or by calling out their rudeness. It isn't ideal, but rather fun. That is my return on investment. I am ashamed he represents Ohio.

[@rydorion182]

Let's ask him if he ever brushed his teeth. He didn't, because you can't make money buying toothpaste. Bill Johnson stinks.

[@darkriku12]

This man does not know what a "service" is. Like, roads don't have an official ROI, but your employees need to get to work, right? He's the short-term focused MBA middle manager that causes long term harm for everything they touch. We need to rid society, companies, and government of these cancers.

[@rasmuslindegaard2024]

I love that whole: "I don't give a shit if this is for the benefit of the people living on the other side of the country" Do you want them all to come and live where you are then? No? How about climate changes that fucks up the place you live in. Want that? no? Maybe you should show a bit more solidarity, and try to gain a higher perspective.

[@whiteraven550]

Those people act like they are completely independent from "the people living on the other side of the country" but in reality a lot of farming equipment, fertilizer, pesticides, etc. are being developed and produced by those very people on the other side of the country.

[@Acidfrog475]

Why does everyone need to be so selfish all the time? Do some people really have such a hard time understanding basic empathy?

[@LochNessax3]

I love our individualism, but it's times like these that I really envy collectivist cultures, like Korea and Japan. In both countries, you can go anywhere (coast, mountains, etc) and have high-speed internet and electricity, because communities were happy to do something that would benefit the country as a whole.

[@jacobojala3767]

Maybe if the people in the cities didn’t treat those in rural areas as second class citizens, lording over them as if their opinion doesn’t matter. Just because the population of the cities and suburbs are high; doesn't mean that their interests are more important. The farmers, miners, loggers, and truckers keep the cities from starving. Yet they get almost no say in state governments. The legislative districts are split by population, this skews the agenda towards high population areas and disenfranchises the minority of rural citizens in the states. Look up Reynolds v. Sims a Supreme Court case that forced states to redistrict. The moral of the story is that if those in the countryside continue to be sidelined, the political divide will continue worsen. P.S. Federalism is the answer even at the state level.

[@RichardServello]

Now imagine if the coastal cities said that about middle America and stopped paying into the system. They would be kinda fucked and ready to put up those windmills.

[@drzoidberg3849]

Sometimes I wonder if there aren’t shelves under his desk and instead there is a space in the desk where the crew pops up behind and gives him the props

[@edwardboron5776]

"It's a good start, but not nearly enough" the show.

[@mattia_carciola]

To be fair I don't even remember the last "It's a good start, but"

[@edwardboron5776]

@@mattia_carciola true, but the one time John said it in this piece rang true enough. If it's not about what doesn't work, he usually rails on about how the ways of fixing it aren't enough and there needs to be done more.

[@nuanced8225]

Most people can't think beyond their immediate needs and wants. That's why we need John Oliver!

[@kris2455]

Imagine they build it above your house and your income was from renting part of it to tourists. It changes the perspective.

[@baconpancakes1752]

@@kris2455 first, that's a lot of hypotheticals. Not sure exactly how many people are in rural areas making a living on tourism. Second, most power lines move through very sparse areas. They are visible, but still miles away from where you live. Fact of the matter is that we need higher grid capacities and it will happen sooner or later. A single neighborhood's opinion isn't going to change that.

[@nobakwaas5161]

Lol the grid is okay. They will say it is hacked though and then bring a cyber pandemic

[@hannahdivic28]

YESSSS finally a video about the grid. I’ve actually never been taught about this at school and I know it’s not commonly taught to other people either, which is crazy!

[@runed0s86]

Yeah the dead people in Virginia from 200 years ago are waaaayyyyyy more important than a silly electric distribution system that's currently disintegrating.

[@mai-ya-hee]

@@runed0s86 you’re aware they can teach both those things….right?

[@jaxturner7288]

News flash; school does not teach you everything. Not even half of it.

[@everythingmatters6308]

You would like Ted Koppel's book "Lights Out." It's about the grid and how unprepared we are for a grid down situation. There are some KZbin videos from when he was doing interviews to promote the book.

[@PrashantBhardwaj13]

Not saying schools are perfect what purpose of school is to provide basic information on concepts like electricity. It's not viably possible to teach everything and Evey details on school as general education

[@juliedahl1892]

Guys that work on cars or in your house have a saying … If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. They don’t believe in checking it out to see if it’s OK still. That’s why they tell you to inspection your furnace & clean out chimney, clean vents… on & on. But they don’t. Cause a lot of fights here… No maintenance….

[@LazarethPrime]

The guy with the mirrored sunglasses is the essence of one of the US collective attitude problems: "fuck you, I got mine"

[@octavianpopescu4776]

I never got this about Americans, how come they have this way of thinking, but at the same time claim they're patriotic. How can you be a patriot and not care about your fellow countrymen?

[@ImoniFatty]

@@octavianpopescu4776 their claim of patriotism is a euphemism for racism/bigotry. These people are the most unpatriotic idiots in the world.

[@daveroche6522]

I reckon the last 15 seconds of that interview weren't recorded - they would have gone something like this - "Ah'm a true-blood American so fuck y'awl. Now ah'm gonna get me a slice o' that there squirrel pah, just made by mah wife/sister". Ugh.

[@thinhvo3893]

@@octavianpopescu4776 they claim of patriotism when it come to everything else that involved foreign. Whether it trade war with China which bankrupt our farmer or increased in military defense but when it come to Public good they said fuck it. Let our road be damn, our electricity age, our Healthcare shit, and our education underfunded but hey at least we got free refil.

[@zoravar.k7904]

@@octavianpopescu4776 they somehow find a way to reconcile their hyper-individualism with their patriotism creating something which is only patriotism in name.

[@BoyWonder1914]

Fun fact: The snake he showed at the beginning is a Ball Python, and gets its name because it is 99.9% more likely to curl up into an adorable little ball than ever hurt a human being. Great starter snake if you're ever considering one as a pet! :)

[@ryanm4319]

They’re a great pet, as long as you understand how snakes react to things like scent triggers they are harmless and easily predictable, they’re very docile and enjoy handling when properly raised and handled, even then they’re rear fanged with very small teeth and their bite is entirely painless and really just scares you.

[@jamesoconnor7009]

Adorable and Snake? Tf

[@jessemairose4534]

Psh. It gave itself that name because it got all smart from sleeping in all those damn books. Tricking fools like you into keeping it as a pet. Making you it's prey. Just waiting for the grid to fail so it can sneak out of it's enclosure at night and eat you.

[@missednoahsarc2654]

I love snakes!! My fav is the ring neck it is more like a salamander than a snake.

[@BadCookWhoJudgesChefs]

No. Stop buying these as pets if you live in the US. They are invasive species and are already causing enough problems to ecosystems.

[@R2debo_]

The episodes of John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight are so POWERful.

[@pages1128]

You watched it already? Damn that's fast

[@dahleno2014]

@@pages1128 They gotta get their comment on the video (prior to watching) for attention because their parents never gave it to them!

[@Krystalmyth]

I'm a pun fan and I boo'd at this one. Lol

[@rebeccameador7712]

this pun is weak. it is the opposite of power. 😉

[@pages1128]

@@dahleno2014 Hahahaha, makes sense now

[@RodFarva]

The eastern grid is much bigger than they described. The US and Canada have integrated power grids. The eastern grid also includes Ontario and Quebec. In fact Quebec produces more hydroelectricity than they use and that sells it to the northeast US. When the northeast states go offline they take Ontario with it. It’s all linked together across both countries

[@MultiSciGeek]

Idk why but I love this type of stuff! I know it's an everyday thing many take for granted, but infrastructure & city planning is something I think about all the time! It's absolutely amazing how much potential we have as a species if we work together to improve our lives as a collective! I really want to see a greener and smarter future...

[@royalty_the1892]

Thank goodness! I love seeing comments like this. Most of the other ones are depressed, 'we can't do nothing anyway so why try'. Seeing comments like yours let me know that there are other people out there ready to tackle the issues at hand.

[@montygates8767]

It seems so simple and logical and is. Unfortunately we have people like Johnson who only cares about the $$$$

[@PaleGhost69]

Check out permaculture! It would fit right in with that interest.

[@mohammedsarker5756]

have you considered studying urban planning, if you're of college-age or even as a hobby? It's a field dedicated to all this type of stuff

[@MultiSciGeek]

@@royalty_the1892 Yes absolutely! I'm happy my comment made you happy. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

[@frankied.roosevelt6232]

I'm old enough (27) to remember my small town in South Jersey would lose power for days at a time on the reg. As someone who's fed via electric pumps through a feeding tube and dependent on two electric iv pumps daily to run iv products necessarily stored in the fridge..that was always my biggest fear growing up. We had to buy things to modify the cars and small electric generators in order to keep me alive as a kid.

[@runed0s86]

This happens in my area regularly.

[@ETS186]

Hope you're ok now man

[@bobjob3632]

I feel so sorry for you. Your country has failed you and will do it again

[@yourangelinfleshorsackclot1523]

you "survived" the "power outages of 1999"... they didnt start this bs propoganda agenda till recently

[@zacheryeckard3051]

@@yourangelinfleshorsackclot1523 What "BS propaganda", exactly?

[@RachelEliason]

If watching old mysteries has taught me anything, when the lights go out during a murder trial there will be a new victim when they come back on. 🤓

[@robertstuart480]

"Clue" (1985) - Great mix of mystery and humor. Larry Blamire's "Dark And Stormy Night" (2009) is also hilarious.

[@tituslafrombois1164]

That ending bit with the balloons taking out the studio lights was great!