@PeteS in CA Serious question: Does the State of CA permit suing PG&E for forest fires? My understanding is, they were driven into bankruptcy protection because they got the snot sued out of them for a large, deadly fire, and that's why they shut the lights off at the drop of a hat.
I ain't gonna rag y'all because of the lousy National Government's policies. They're the ones that would rather watch the world burn before they let a timber company make a buck.
@Cyber Liberty, my understanding is that under CA law, if a fire probably was started by PG&E or SoCal Edison or etc., that utility is liable for all damage caused by that fire. My understanding is that Montana law is similar. I do not know whether PG&E (etc.) could turn around and sue the state or Feds for poor forest management, but I doubt it (or that such a case could win).
As for suing the Enviros who got courts to stop, hobble, and delay trimming back and cutting trees down to clear around power lines, well, sucks to be PG&E. There literally is - or was recently put out - a fire in an area that last year got courts to stop tree trimming that probably would have prevented this year's fire!
Near- and medium-term solutions to much of CA's fire and energy problems are "easy":
* Allow PG&E, etc., to trim back or cut down trees without Enviros and NIMBYs being able to hinder or stop it;
* Allow PG&E, etc. to upgrade existing power distribution transmission lines and add new transmission lines without hindrance;
* Build several new nuke plants (carefully placed, obviously) without hindrance;
* Build several new hydro dams with plants and upgrade existing hydro facilities without hindrance;
* Eliminate ALL subsidies of bird chopper and bird fryers, and end all mandated purchase percentages of bird-killing power;
* Build new and upgrade existing refineries without hindrance;
* Drill and frack without hindrance.
None of that is genius-grade insight, but until Enviros are
crushed, NIMBYs disempowered, and state and Federal governments and courts have an infestation of sanity, none of that will happen.