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[Richard230]

I have been hearing reports on the news lately (the latest by a former president of the California PUC) that Northern California's electric supplier, Pacific, Graft and Explosion (PG&E), will need to jack up its electrical rates substantially in the future due to their liability for huge wildfires that they started in 2017, 2018 and 2019, which killed many people and destroyed hundreds of homes. And now they are under 33 criminal indictments by the Sonoma County DA for just the 2017 fire. And their liability for the 2018 and 2019 fires remain in the wings. If they are convicted, they will be required to pay huge fines, in addition to the separate civil penalties that are the result of the lawsuits by people impacted by the fires. Their likely plan to resolve these potential costs is said to be selling billions of dollars worth of bonds secured by their ratepayers who would be paying back these bonds for the next 25 or 35 years, the cost of which will be added to the monthly utility rates. And if they cause more fires they will just sell more bonds.   

Right now I am paying $.26 per KWH on the lowest tier. But if the rates keep going up substantially due to costs out of my control, solar panels are going to start looking more attractive, even though my home is shielded by the adjacent hill much of the time during the winter.   

[Crissa]

Yeah, putting the liability on the provider will increase the rates.

I'm not sure it's a viable solution.  We should have been having third-party inspections a long time ago...

At least I have the option of buying energy from solar farms.

-Crissa

[Oldun]

I don't see how PGE only have total liability for starting fires. What about all the greenclowns who stopped regular forest clearing and also the homeowners who had brush and trees growing all the way to their doorsteps? Running the twisties up the canyons i.e. Topanga, it was real easy to see that some time homeowners' penchant for Mother Nature's wild bush would bite them on their gluteus, big-time...

California has many laws that heavily restrict vital fire-prevention measures such as logging, removal of dead trees, and clearing of dry underbrush. Roost, your chickens have landed.

[Richard230]

I don't see how PGE only have total liability for starting fires. What about all the greenclowns who stopped regular forest clearing and also the homeowners who had brush and trees growing all the way to their doorsteps? Running the twisties up the canyons i.e. Topanga, it was real easy to see that some time homeowners' penchant for Mother Nature's wild bush would bite them on their gluteus, big-time...

California has many laws that heavily restrict vital fire-prevention measures such as logging, removal of dead trees, and clearing of dry underbrush. Roost, your chickens have landed.

With regard to the 2017 fires in Sonoma County, PG&E has admitted that their equipment started the fires and it was their fault. However, they don't agree that what they did or didn't do should be a criminal offense.

[MVetter]

I don't see how PGE only have total liability for starting fires. What about all the greenclowns who stopped regular forest clearing and also the homeowners who had brush and trees growing all the way to their doorsteps? Running the twisties up the canyons i.e. Topanga, it was real easy to see that some time homeowners' penchant for Mother Nature's wild bush would bite them on their gluteus, big-time...

California has many laws that heavily restrict vital fire-prevention measures such as logging, removal of dead trees, and clearing of dry underbrush. Roost, your chickens have landed.

What about all the greenclowns

greenclowns

oh god that poor corporation that neglected, gouged, and murdered its customers CAN'T ANYONE GET A FAIR SHAKE IN THIS COUNTRY?

[Crissa]

What about all the greenclowns who stopped regular forest clearing...

You are stating something that:

A) Didn't happen

B) There's not enough clearing that could happen

We literally just haven't spent enough money on forest management.  Above that, there might not be an 'enough'.

-Crissa

[princec]

I wonder also if it were possible there was something everyone has been doing for the last 100 years, massively more so in the last 20 or so, that could have possibly contributed to the drought conditions.

Cas

[Crissa]

Yeah.  These dry wind storms have been hitting significantly stronger, drier, and more frequently than any time in recorded history (which is only slightly over a hundred years, so not a great sample...) but that makes them hard to prepare for.

I have lived in or near the coastal forest for all my life and explaining to people who unusual these weather events have been - as in, they have never happened in my lifetime, and probably significantly longer.

We have records of more tsunamis than 50+ mph single-digit humidity events before the last ten years.

-Crissa

-Crissa