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Um... PG&E was way behind on brush clearing. They still are. Of course, there are people that don’t want PG&E to trim their trees, hopefully those folks have g

Um... PG&E was way behind on brush clearing. They still are. Of course, there are people that don’t want PG&E to trim their trees, hopefully those folks have got religion now. The Santa Rosa fire was absolutely started by PG&E equipment and deferred brush clearing.

throwaway5752 7y ago
Yes. Nobody, including the person you replied to, is disputing that. But we're scapegoating PG&E for global warming. CA is a tinderbox compared to 20 years ago. Utilities are always behind on brush clearing everywhere. It's only now it's creating megafires. It's not environmentalists either. It's the average summer being 3-4 degrees F hotter than average and increasing.
- dbcurtis 7y ago
  No. I am not scapegoating PG&E for global warming. With proper line maintenance Santa Rosa would not have had 5 separate transformers start fires. The wind was bad enough that they probably would have also had to cut power to not spark any fires. Climate change is a thing, yes, but PG&E dodging necessary expenses is also a thing.
  - product50 7y ago
    Ok - so then suffer with power cuts. It is wrong to say that PG&E is a likely worse than any other US utility company. And playing safe than sorry is the natural outcome if we are going to blame them every fire.
    - lubujackson 7y ago
      Ok, so then why not do routine maintenance? Why do you support PG&E ignoring maintenance while taking home profits for decades? Or are you a shill?
- ncmncm 7y ago
  California just came out of many years of drought without those fires. The fires happened after an unusually wet year. It is negligence. Brush and tree clearance are not harder than 50 years ago. There was no sudden surge of trees and brush to cut. They just chose not to do it.
  - anjel 7y ago
    And that brush and tree maintenance is way cheaper than the cost of lost economic activity these intentional outages will generate. It's a liability waiver shakedown for sure.
  - throwaway5752 7y ago
    Didn't the preceding years of drought kill a bunch of trees, leaving standing fuel? Also, wasn't 2017 the hottest summer ever in California at the time, although I think 2018 broke that record, and I think it's on track to break the record again in 2019?
deleted 7y ago
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throwaway5752 7y ago

Yes. Nobody, including the person you replied to, is disputing that. But we're scapegoating PG&E for global warming. CA is a tinderbox compared to 20 years ago. Utilities are always behind on brush clearing everywhere. It's only now it's creating megafires. It's not environmentalists either. It's the average summer being 3-4 degrees F hotter than average and increasing.

dbcurtis 7y ago
No. I am not scapegoating PG&E for global warming. With proper line maintenance Santa Rosa would not have had 5 separate transformers start fires. The wind was bad enough that they probably would have also had to cut power to not spark any fires. Climate change is a thing, yes, but PG&E dodging necessary expenses is also a thing.
- product50 7y ago
  Ok - so then suffer with power cuts. It is wrong to say that PG&E is a likely worse than any other US utility company. And playing safe than sorry is the natural outcome if we are going to blame them every fire.
  - lubujackson 7y ago
    Ok, so then why not do routine maintenance? Why do you support PG&E ignoring maintenance while taking home profits for decades? Or are you a shill?
ncmncm 7y ago
California just came out of many years of drought without those fires. The fires happened after an unusually wet year. It is negligence. Brush and tree clearance are not harder than 50 years ago. There was no sudden surge of trees and brush to cut. They just chose not to do it.
- anjel 7y ago
  And that brush and tree maintenance is way cheaper than the cost of lost economic activity these intentional outages will generate. It's a liability waiver shakedown for sure.
- throwaway5752 7y ago
  Didn't the preceding years of drought kill a bunch of trees, leaving standing fuel? Also, wasn't 2017 the hottest summer ever in California at the time, although I think 2018 broke that record, and I think it's on track to break the record again in 2019?

deleted 7y ago

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