CALIFORNIA UNPLUGGED: Jim Meigs writes about the “planned blackouts” that are coming. “Many California residents—especially retirees—are drawn to rural areas by the natural beauty. Who wouldn’t want to live in the Sierra foothills? But many also move to escape soaring housing costs in the state’s notoriously anti-development major cities. More people inhabiting the wildland-urban interface means more lives and structures placed at risk. As a result, today’s routine fires cause even more damage than those in the past.”

My advice: Move. Or buy a generator.