American Greatness writes about the problems power company Pacific Gas & Electric has in central and Northern California. The author takes the utility to task for under maintaining its infrastructure and for turning off power to customers when the wind blows during the fire season (mid-summer to the first significant rains, normally November, sometimes December).
I take issue with one serious omission that detracts from the column’s otherwise reasonable discussion. A major reason PG&E has skimped on maintenance is that the Public Utilities Commission - their regulatory body - has demanded they spend heavily on solar and wind power. Dollars put there can’t be spent on keeping up transmission lines and keeping trees and brush cut away from the lines and towers. Perhaps these priorities can be changed now that a whole town burned down and nearly a hundred died.
