PG&E power lines may have started deadly fire(s) in California

Here is the conundrum,

It is a regulated utility therefore, any fines or huge lawsuit awards against it will have to be baked into its rates because the state can't have it go broke.

PG&E reports second power line problem before Camp Fire. Paradise residents file lawsuits

"PG&E has been hit with numerous lawsuits in the last year stemming from major wildfires believed to be caused by power line issues. Recently completed Cal Fire investigations have determined that 17 Northern California wildfires in 2017 were started by problems with PG&E power infrastructure."

"A week after reporting a power-line outage near where the Camp Fire is suspected of starting, Pacific Gas & Electric said in a regulatory filing that it suffered a second problem with a high voltage line the morning the devastating fire ignited.

The utility company filed an incident report with the state California Public Utilities Commission Friday afternoon saying a high voltage line near the rural Concow area in Butte County suffered an outage at 6:45 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 8.

Seeking to calm investor concerns about PG&E, California PUC chief Mike PIcker on Friday told The Bee he does not believe the utility is headed toward bankruptcy, despite the mounting threat of billions of dollars of legal liability from wildfires.

The more pressing priority is to help PG&E access low-cost borrowing, he said. “The challenge is that as the cost of borrowing goes up so does peoples’ rates, and that is what we need to avoid.”

I think the economic issue should be handled by the free market. The state should not take over but a court Administrator should be appointed to take over operations in bankruptcy until someone else can purchase the utility.

In the end the stockholders AND the public are going to pay for this and they will pay heavily.

Who is responsible for the 1000 plus people who died and the destruction of more than 12,000 buildings. If a continues to operate in a negligent manner then should be shut down and the Board and its management team should be facing criminal manslaughter charges for their dereliction of duty.

The fire could have been prevented by upgrading the infrastructure and burying the wires at a cost of $75 million dollars but instead you are looking at a 70 to 100 billion dollars in economic damage.

Let the lawsuits fly!

quote:

---

The stockholders should pay for it.

---

Personally? That is insane.

quote:

---

Cali state regulations made it untenable to do traditional maintenance

---

this is important

Vegetation management in powerline right of ways is typically fought by the green party types.

fricking hypocritical we spend millions for smokey the bear campaign, whereas every day citizens aren't even this careless