Decades of mismanagement by PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric) and utter disregard for consumer safety. Pure obsession with profits, short-range, not realizing that investment in preventive strategies would prevent losses.
Now PG&E is in bankruptcy and a whole new raft of claims will be coming, since the losses from the outage are NOT caused by acts of Nature, but by negligence of PG&E in refusing to take preventive steps that other California utilities had taken.
In 2007, there were numerous wild fires in San Diego County, including one that caused me an my family to be evacuated, though our home was not lost. Following that catastrophe, which resulted in SDG&E (San Diego Gas and Electric) being held responsible for almost $400 million in damages (within the last month the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal holding the investors, not ratepayers, liable), SDG&E immediately began strengthening the grid, spending $1.5 billion on improvements, replacing flimsy wood transmission poles with poles of steel and concrete, putting 143 miles of transmission lines underground (and more to come) and establishing microgrids to limit preventive blackouts to small, local areas. The improvements are still ongoing with a completion date expected of 2025.
So last year, when PG&E lines caused numerous fires, including the deadly Paradise fire, and Southern California Edison lines caused fires in Malibu and Thousand Oaks, there were NO FIRES in San Diego County.
PG&E already had a model for how to do this and they ignored it in favor of short-term profits and now they are in bankruptcy. The state should take over the utility.
Decades of mismanagement by PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric) and utter disregard for consumer safety. Pure obsession with profits, short-range, not realizing that investment in preventive strategies would prevent losses.
Now PG&E is in bankruptcy and a whole new raft of claims will be coming, since the losses from the outage are NOT caused by acts of Nature, but by negligence of PG&E in refusing to take preventive steps that other California utilities had taken.
In 2007, there were numerous wild fires in San Diego County, including one that caused me an my family to be evacuated, though our home was not lost. Following that catastrophe, which resulted in SDG&E (San Diego Gas and Electric) being held responsible for almost $400 million in damages (within the last month the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal holding the investors, not ratepayers, liable), SDG&E immediately began strengthening the grid, spending $1.5 billion on improvements, replacing flimsy wood transmission poles with poles of steel and concrete, putting 143 miles of transmission lines underground (and more to come) and establishing microgrids to limit preventive blackouts to small, local areas. The improvements are still ongoing with a completion date expected of 2025.
So last year, when PG&E lines caused numerous fires, including the deadly Paradise fire, and Southern California Edison lines caused fires in Malibu and Thousand Oaks, there were NO FIRES in San Diego County.
PG&E already had a model for how to do this and they ignored it in favor of short-term profits and now they are in bankruptcy. The state should take over the utility.