PG&E Finally Gets Serious

Time to bury the power lines:

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. executives committed Wednesday to move 10,000 miles of the utility’s power lines underground, a daunting and expensive task for the embattled utility that’s just emerging from bankruptcy after it was held responsible for some of California’s most destructive wildfires in recent years.

...At the press conference, PG&E CEO Patricia Poppe told reporters a utility employee called in the fire after he found it burning near where a 70-foot tree fell on a utility power line along the border with Butte and Plumas counties, though she didn’t directly acknowledge that the tree sparked the fire.

“We were going to make this announcement in a couple of months when we had a little more meat on the bones,” Poppe told reporters. “But we couldn’t wait, particularly given the proximity to the Dixie Fire and the emotional toll that it has on all of us.“

...Utility experts have said in the past that planting power lines underground is one of the most expensive measures that can be taken to improve wildfire safety. In 2019 PG&E was scolded by a Public Utilities Commission consultant for failing to spend $120 million in ratepayer money that was earmarked for underground projects.

PG&E officials noted that they’ve already buried some 65 miles lines in Butte County, especially in Paradise, the site of the infamous 2018 Camp Fire.

But Poppe said more lines need to go underground to keep communities safe.

“We start today. We know that this is an extraordinary condition and an extraordinary time. It requires extraordinary solutions and extraordinary thinking and extraordinary people,” she said. “Where else but in California would we tackle something such as this and expect it to be achieved?” 

PG&E was found criminally responsible for the Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California’s recorded history, which killed 85 people in Butte County. The Camp Fire, which destroyed much of Paradise, was the latest in a string of mega-fires that landed PG&E in bankruptcy in early 2019. The company exited bankruptcy last year after pledging to pay $13.5 billion to compensate fire victims for losses not covered by their insurance.