Regulators slam PG&E CEO for claiming California blackouts could continue for another decade

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Downed power lines are blamed for causing some of California's worst wildfires and driven Pacific Gas and Electric to file for bankruptcy. But when PG&E recently shut off power to more than 700,000 customers in Northern California, people living there say it created more problems than it solved.

Regulators chastised the company's CEO at an emergency meeting of California's public utility commission Friday for taking such an extreme precautionary measure. Commission President Marybel Batjer said the blackouts "cannot be repeated."

But PG&E said there could be ten more years of shutoffs while it updates equipment to prevent future fires.

"Let me assure you, we do not like to turn off the power," CEO Bill Johnson said. "But we actually didn't have any catastrophic fires in Northern and Central California and that was the sole intent."

Southern California utility company Edison said it too may shut off power to thousands as winds pick up this weekend. The power was on when last week's deadly Saddle Ridge Fire broke out. Investigators are trying to determine if a live wire may have been the cause.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pge-power-company-ceo-says-california-blackouts-could-continue-for-another-decade-angering-regulators/

10 more long years?

What a pathetic way to run one of the largest economies in the world.

I wonder how many more will be run off to seek greener pastures?

[Sighlass]

When you let the lawyers have a field day suing companies over things they have little control over without tripling the costs to consumers this is what happens. I don't blame them for turning off the power, reel in your stupid green lawyer culture California.

[PeteS in CA]

The ten years refers to the time it will take for PG&E to bury all their thousands of miles of transmission lines, much of which traversed remote areas. Complicating it might be acquiring thousands of miles of whatever exotic materials are needed to insulate hundreds of kilovolts from the earth in which it is buried. Not at all pathetic.

[skeeter]

When you let the lawyers have a field day suing companies over things they have little control over without tripling the costs to consumers this is what happens. I don't blame them for turning off the power, reel in your stupid green lawyer culture California.

Its obvious the idiots running this state are happy to use PG&E as a whipping boy here. Our marxist fop governor is demanding they pay everyone $100 for what essentially was the result of rat policies. Pandering at its worst.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

The ten years refers to the time it will take for PG&E to bury all their thousands of miles of transmission lines, much of which traversed remote areas. Complicating it might be acquiring thousands of miles of whatever exotic materials are needed to insulate hundreds of kilovolts from the earth in which it is buried. Not at all pathetic.

It is indeed pathetic for a state to undertake actions which causes its citizens to have to go through pain like this, most of which is preventable in the first place.  What other state suffers likewise?

I am not hammering you.  I am hammering a state which, for example, prioritizes the welfare of a rodent instead of humans, like I observed when I worked In the San Joaquin Valley.  It has consistently prioritized environmental issues instead of a reliable and safe power supply for its citizens.

And what we are seeing are the effects of this prioritization.

[PeteS in CA]

It is indeed pathetic for a state to undertake actions which causes its citizens to have to go through pain like this, most of which is preventable in the first place.  What other state suffers likewise?

I am not hammering you.  I am hammering a state which, for example, prioritizes the welfare of a rodent instead of humans, like I observed when I worked In the San Joaquin Valley.  It has consistently prioritized environmental issues instead of a reliable and safe power supply for its citizens.

And what we are seeing are the effects of this prioritization.

My misunderstanding of your post. I'll see your rodent with a Delta Smelt and raise you a Fairy Shrimp. I grew up in Yolo County and knew Cache Creek before there was a casino named for it.