California Utility reaches $3.5 B deal in wildfire deal

Maybe that billion dollar fine can be used to put lines underground in high-risk areas - like they should have done in the first place. Too bad the greedy utility board members couldn't do that from the get-go - instead of building infrastructure on the cheap, more prone to start such fires. But then, how could they justify the profits that let them pull down 6 & 7-figure salaries with cars, bonuses, perks, travel, stipends, Etc. You grease the palms of the politicians that then elect you to your board member position - expect them to set such policies in motion. It was almost tragic comedy watching our governor act all surprised and indignant when this happened, saying he and the legislators will get to the bottom of this. Haha. Right. Maybe the utility board members, and our governor, and legislators will pay the fines ..... & pony up the money from their salaries. lol
Ironically, if you or I did the same willful wanton negligence, it would be tantamount to criminal behavior ... just like the 100 counts of manslaughter at the 2003 great white concert at the station nightclub, Rhode Island. Anybody want to lay odds on how many politicians &/or utility board members will go down for the electric utility Fiasco? When everybody's hands are dirty, you dare not point the finger at the other because with such dirty hands you would all be mutually assuring your own criminal sentencing.
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In an earthquake prone area?

I'm OK with underground power in urban areas and new housing developments. Just doing it retroactive is a hard problem.

Bob Wilson

 

PG&E has multiples of high fire risk non-urban territory compared to the next largest utility in the state. Underground power in these areas would be ridiculously expensive. No customers living in these areas would want to pay the fair market rates to do that.

 

It’s not as heavy a lift as one might imagine.
Right now, they’re burying glass all over the place down here on the Redneck Riviera, and given the sheath sizes and materials involved I cannot imaging why copper would be that much harder.
...it’s just a little more expensive up front.
I used to say that GOD has a sense of humor about that since there is a LOT of aerial fiber and copper in areas where hurricanes are common and much more buried facilities out west where there are earthquakes.

People out west can look to the east to see how it’s done.
The FAR east.
Japan has been dealing with buried utilities and liquefaction for a while now and it’s quite doable.....and California is going to HAVE to do it because they HAVE to do it.
Damaged underground utilities are much more easily repaired than they were 20 years ago and the cost of not doing it is just too high.
Put PG&E’s power lines underground? It can be done — expensively and slowly - SFChronicle.com

As far as the rest of it?
They’re going to have to figure it out for themselves.
Capitalism is the greatest thing in the world if you want to build an Apple....or an Amazon but Darwin is a stern teacher.
I do not think that dot.state.dot.gov is the best thing in the world EITHER if you want things like innovation or efficiency BUT allowing PG&E to gamble with rate payer’s money by playing in the market or making decisions based on short term gains in the market that are reflected in salaries and bonuses isn’t really capitalism.
Not even close.
It’s a game called “We bet YOUR life” and anybody that doesn’t already know that the rate payers are the ones who will be coughing up the 3.5 gigabucks deserves the rate increases as well as the state government that THEY elect.

 

Why not bury California's fire-prone power lines? The cost is sky high

 

Pay me now or pay me later....

Even if you take the numbers they’re offering at face value a 3x cost increase for burying verses conventional is a bargain....especially if you factor in trivial little things like human lives and increases in carbon throughput for NOT doing it.

3.5 gigabucks would make a pretty good down payment.....

The article mentioned ‘off grid’ being out of reach for the 99-percenters.
I tend to believe that 20 years from now that this will not be so - but it also does not factor in the ‘yuge’ benefit for distributed generation and storage, and since you cannot benefit from those without a robust distribution network Caly is GOING to have to solve that puzzle.

 

& here's another pot-o'-gold for the, "do the right thing" kitty;

Are Utility CEO Pay Packages Fair Compared to Average Workers?

The primary way these Executives dole out massive Paola to themselves is by slashing costs - & the easiest way to do that is going skinflint on safety.
"booo hoooo - how will we get massive bonuses if we have to pay out a lot to make the systems safer...." That's the main excuse. I love their 2nd "no-safety-for-you"excuse better. Equally profound." It's because "the neighbors will complain because trenching makes too much noise". Nothing says, FAKE ALIBI" better, than when they throw that one out. Yep ... no jail time for the 50 dead & 1,000's of homes torched.
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It would be nice if it were simply 3x cost for burying verses conventional. These are low density population areas so the number of people to distribute the costs among is orders of magnitude lower than urban areas.

The folks living in these high fire risk areas certainly don’t want to pay those internal costs. The rest of PG&E’s low fire risk rate payers don’t want to continue to subsidize these high fire areas. And of course all the other non-PG&E customers in California don’t want to pay any part of this either.

Basically everyone pointing at someone else to pay for it...

 

Everybody else is already paying for it.

The 3.5 gigabucks in fines is only the shiny bauble that distracts from the real costs hidden deep in things like homeowner insurance rates and increased fire related taxes and rates.

The folks over at Cal Fire are going to get paid and they’re throwing money like crazy at private firefighters, and even using a lot of prison labor.

 

Who else is paying for it? Non-PG&E rate payers do not. Sure, paying fire services is more generally spread throughout the state population, but pennies on the dollar of what the rate payers would be soaked for.

The homeowner insurance thing is another interesting topic. Unfortunately another thing where folks living in these high-risk areas were paying far below market internal costs for the risks they assumed. Now insurance companies want them to pay fair market risk premiums and many cannot afford such.

 

how's that ..... SCE folks are now regularly losing power at the meer probability of a 30mpg Breeze up in the Foothills, much less some of the ski resort areas, Big Bear, Wrightwood, Mount Baldy Etc. Ever tried to run medical equipment without power? No skin off our nose because our Honda inverter hooks to the main panel & runs on 3 different backup fuels - all fully stocked up. And we can pull power off of the plugins as well. Most people don't have that kind of resiliency though.
As far as other utilities having to Pony up more money, you don't see the potential litigation liability? You can be sure the other utilities are ramping up for big expenditures so that they won't be facing the same kind of issues as Central California.
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Thread topic:
California Utility reaches $3.5 B deal in wildfire deal

PG&E does not increase your rate directly and others are fighting for it to eat indirect costs. Are you a PG&E customer?

Yes, too many times and in too many places around the world. I'll spare you my professional history.

 

To wipe out their shareholders, give their debt holders a haircut and reduce their liabilities. The same as any other bankruptcy.

If you believe the failure of CA's utilities to manage their wildfire risk should be shared beyond just the ratepayers, then you DO want them to go into bankruptcy so those other stakeholders, including management, bear some of the pain.