5 ms·

How much would it realistically cost to rebuild the electrical infrastructure so this doesn't end up costing places like the state of California even more in da

How much would it realistically cost to rebuild the electrical infrastructure so this doesn't end up costing places like the state of California even more in damages? I know PG&E is pretty much bankrupt over this but I really see this on the utilities companies to replace their 100+ year old infrastructure with something that isn't a massive catastrophic risk factor for everyone, man woman child and critter, anywhere near those buzzing lines...

bob1029 4y ago
Too much. One option is to bury all those lines. This is possible in theory, but not in practice. If you did this, then you also have to worry about all the future issues with power lines you can't see or maybe even find anymore.
mistrial9 4y ago
PG&E is not "pretty much bankrupt" over this .. in fact, during the Enron power scandal, public court documents uncovered a decades-old transfer of cash out of the PG&E books (highly regulated) into new holding companies that were purchasing income-generating assets around the US, like under-valued power generation in the deep South for example. This was expressly forbidden in every regulatory ruling and yet upper management at the time found a way to do it "legally". It has continued in patterns like that for more than thirty years. The recent court-induced liability for death, and criminal conviction of PG&E, are only now changing systems in place for decades. You have been "had" -- source: attorney consulting on the Enron proceedings at the time of the blackouts
- jamal-kumar 4y ago
  I have a really hard time hearing out Americans who put things in condescending scare quotes it's like your worst national character trait
  - mistrial9 4y ago
    how would you write that? real question
    - jamal-kumar 4y ago
      Bleep? Is that you?
cardiffspaceman 4y ago
Let's not forget that California has multiple power companies. PG&E may be the largest one, but it doesn't serve the biggest city. Map of which parts of the state are served by which utility company: https://cecgis-caenergy.opendata.arcgis.com/documents/electric-utility-service-areas/explore https://cecgis-caenergy.opendata.arcgis.com/documents/electr...

bob1029 4y ago

Too much. One option is to bury all those lines. This is possible in theory, but not in practice. If you did this, then you also have to worry about all the future issues with power lines you can't see or maybe even find anymore.

mistrial9 4y ago

PG&E is not "pretty much bankrupt" over this .. in fact, during the Enron power scandal, public court documents uncovered a decades-old transfer of cash out of the PG&E books (highly regulated) into new holding companies that were purchasing income-generating assets around the US, like under-valued power generation in the deep South for example. This was expressly forbidden in every regulatory ruling and yet upper management at the time found a way to do it "legally". It has continued in patterns like that for more than thirty years. The recent court-induced liability for death, and criminal conviction of PG&E, are only now changing systems in place for decades. You have been "had" -- source: attorney consulting on the Enron proceedings at the time of the blackouts

jamal-kumar 4y ago
I have a really hard time hearing out Americans who put things in condescending scare quotes it's like your worst national character trait
- mistrial9 4y ago
  how would you write that? real question
  - jamal-kumar 4y ago
    Bleep? Is that you?

cardiffspaceman 4y ago

Let's not forget that California has multiple power companies. PG&E may be the largest one, but it doesn't serve the biggest city. Map of which parts of the state are served by which utility company: https://cecgis-caenergy.opendata.arcgis.com/documents/electric-utility-service-areas/explore https://cecgis-caenergy.opendata.arcgis.com/documents/electr...