In a last-ditch effort to prevent another wildfire in California, Pacific Gas & Electric shut down power in the northern part of the state during ferocious Santa Ana winds.

The outages began Oct. 9, affecting more than 730,000 customers from 34 different counties.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved PG&E’s wildfire mitigation plan back in May. The CPUC gave the state’s three utility companies, all of which are investor-owned, full decision-making capability to cut off power when a utility company’s field experts warn a shut-off must occur to best prevent wildfires due to weather forecasts and mitigating circumstances, such as drier than normal brush.

According to sciencefriday.com, reporters from KQED radio in San Francisco found that many residents want to know why PG&E can’t bury the power lines to avoid another wildfire in California. PG&E claims the cost would be $3 million per mile to reroute current transmission lines underground. With 81,000 miles of overheard transmissions lines to bury, the company says, the cost would be at least $243 billion.

Other listeners wondered if the state of California’s government should take over PG&E. But KQED explained that if that happens, then taxpayers would have to foot the bill for PG&E’s financial woes, which include bankruptcy, past wildfire liability settlements, current wildfire-related lawsuits, and the outdated and dangerous transmission lines.

Another problem is that PG&E’s power grid is outdated. A hodgepodge of connected transmission lines means that some areas that weren’t even expecting high winds saw the power shut off to accommodate the needs of an area that actually was expecting high winds.

Preventing Wildfire in California Comes with Its Own Costs

The Los Angeles Times profiled how the outages would affect a number of people in Lake County, population 65,000, many of whom are among some of the state’s poorest residents.

The Times talked to Brenna Delwisch, whose mother, Michele Newton, needs to be hooked up to a CPAP machine at night to ensure she breathes properly while sleeping. Newton suffered a stroke and aortic dissection several years ago, and as a result, she now has severe sleep apnea. Without power, there is no CPAP machine.

Awake the entire night, Delwisch finally had to wake up her mother at 5 a.m. She said she could no longer keep her eyes open to make sure her mom was still breathing.

Another Lake County woman pushed her brother-in-law’s oxygen machine a half-mile down the road to reach a senior center where the machine could be recharged. The heavy life-saving tool is three feet tall and provides the man with oxygen for about 16 hours once it is charged. He has COPD, and she said she worried about taking it away for several hours to recharge it because the man could end up hospitalized for what would have been a preventable situation had the power remained intact.

Lake County is bordered by Sonoma and Napa counties on the south and the Mendocino National Forest to the north. Small towns filled with many people who are elderly or disabled line the edges of Clear Lake, California’s largest lake that rests in the middle of Lake County.

Democratic Sen. Mike McGuire, who represents Lake County among others, told the Times that he feels PG&E needs to open its own emergency services division that is budgeted to provide assistance to vulnerable residents during power outages.

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.