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Having the state (or even local municipalities) buy them out and turning the utility into a publicly-owned utility is one popular opinion I keep hearing. They m

Having the state (or even local municipalities) buy them out and turning the utility into a publicly-owned utility is one popular opinion I keep hearing. They might have more money to start burying lines if they didn't need to answer to investors.

gnarlysasquatch 7y ago
So then when there’s a fire, some locality gets sued into bankruptcy?
- dave5104 7y ago
  Then so be it? Seems better than having an entity so large that it's shutting power off to large chunks of the state.
  - delfinom 7y ago
    What? PG&E aren't shutting off power because they are large. They are shutting off power because there are massive windstorms hitting California right now that are hitting massive swaths of the state at once. Other utilities in California also are performing "public safety power shutoffs". Even LADWP, the PUBLIC utility of Los Angles has commenced "public safety power shutoffs" Mind you, the entire concept of "public safety power shutoffs" was 100% California state government approved in May. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-power-shutoff-wildfire-20190530-story.html https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-power-shuto...
- dehrmann 7y ago
  They can always claim sovereign immunity. Something rarely mentioned around government management of X (utilities, health care, police, etc.) is that it's harder to hold a bureaucracy liable for any wrongdoing.