Op-ed from retired Cal Fire battalion chief: Profits from ashes
Ken Hale. Photo from LinkedIn.
– Pacific Gas and Electric’s (PG&E) history of negligence and corruption has reigned hell on California.
After 739 criminal convictions from Trauner Fire in Nevada County, California, in 1997, PG&E was investigated by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in 1998 for gross tree trimming violations. CPUC and PG&E entered into an agreement that was supposed to improve PG&E vegetation management practices.
It failed, as the following table shows.
Wildfire Data
2015: 252 wildfires
- Acres burned: 72,478
- Structures destroyed: 967
- Fatalities: 2
2016: 270 wildfires
- Acres burned: 1,035
- Structures destroyed: 1
- Fatalities: 0
2017: 449 wildfires
- Acres burned: 281,893
- Structures destroyed: 8,990
- Fatalities: 44
2018: 322 wildfires
- Acres burned: 159,408
- Structures destroyed: 18,868
- Fatalities: 85
2019: 266 wildfires
- Acres burned: 83,127
- Structures destroyed: 374
- Fatalities: 0
2020: 251 wildfires
- Acres burned: 65,087
- Structures destroyed: 208
- Fatalities: 4
2021: 238 wildfires
- Acres burned: 974,083
- Structures destroyed: 1,323
- Fatalities: 0
2022: 204 wildfires
- Acres burned: 76,788
- Structures destroyed: 78
- Fatalities: 0
2023: 158 wildfires
- Acres burned: 6,186
- Structures destroyed: 8
- Fatalities: 0
Total
- Wildfires: 2,410
- Acres burned: 1,720,085
- Structures destroyed: 30,817
- Fatalities: 135
Judge Thelton Henderson, the initial judge on the San Bruno Gas Explosion trial, placed PG&E under a federal monitor in 2017. This was an attempt to make PG&E trim the trees, as required by law. The monitor, Mark Filip, and his team inspected 71 miles of line after they were told this section was done by PG&E. They found almost 3,300 trees in violation.
The distance they inspected is 0.3% of the 25,000 miles of powerline in high-hazard areas. If the rest of its system was in similar condition, it means almost one million trees were threatening or in direct contact with PG&E powerlines.
In 2015, the Butte Fire in Amador County burned 70,868 acres, killed two people, and destroyed over 900 houses. California courts found that PG&E negligently caused this fire by not removing a tree that sagged into the powerlines.
Winds picked up in the North Bay in October of 2017. These winds are expected in the fall of any year. Branches contacted PG&E powerlines at multiple locations. Seven major fires ignited in three hours. The Wine Country Fires burned 43 people to death and destroyed 7,722 houses, all because PG&E had saved money by cutting back on tree trimming.
Camp Fire took off in the canyon below the town of Paradise, California in 2018. A century-old ring broke, allowing the 115,000-volt transmission line it held to contact the tower itself. The shower of molten steel ignited vegetation under the tower. This fire consumed 18,868 buildings and incinerated 85 people. Paradise was destroyed.
In 2020, Zogg Fire was ignited by a tree that had been identified by PG&E for removal more than a year earlier. Four people died including an 8-year-old girl and her mother. The tree was not removed to save money.
Dixie Fire exploded in 2021, burning almost a million acres and destroying the town of Greenville.
In 2007, CPUC began a remapping program to increase powerline hazard zones. This study would cost PG&E, Southern California Edison (SCE), and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), or the “Big Three”, a great deal of money for more comprehensive vegetation management. They opposed the entire process and delayed it for ten years. These delays continued through the Wine Country Fires of 2017.
A massive unidentified cyber breach occurred in 2016. The breach posed a substantial risk to the Bulk Power System (national electrical transmission system). After weeks of hiding the culprit, the Federal Energy Commission (FERC) assessed a fine of $2,700,000.00. The culprit was identified as PG&E. It was trying to cover up its culpability.
In 2016, PG&E was found guilty in federal court of obstructing an investigation into illegal actions it had taken before the gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno and obstructing the federal investigation.
This scenario repeats itself over and over again. Then ratepayers end up forking over cash, enough for PG&E to net $2.24 billion in 2023. PG&E paid Patti Poppe $17,000,000 in 2023 from multiple sources. How does this happen after all the death and destruction PG&E has wrought?
If you wonder why your electricity rates are so outrageous, look at the facts above. CPUC apparently let PG&E charge us for all the damage it has caused in the last 30 years. These amounts are disguised in PG&E’s General Rate Case (GRC) before the CPUC. These are our rates. An item included in every GRC is maintenance. Historically, PG&E underspends on maintenance and pockets the difference. The CPUC has granted PG&E four rate increases this year alone, with all this malfeasance. Why? Are they blind?
PG&E thinks it can manipulate agencies like CPUC. In 2012, CPUC found that PG&E had diverted more than $100,000,000 from maintenance and moved it to executive bonuses, dividends, and other things. An investigation revealed that PG&E executives had conversations with CPUC officers behind closed doors on subjects directly affecting PG&E’s operations and profit. This is how PG&E does business. Corruption by any other name is still corruption.
We need to stand up and fight. We propose direct elections of CPUC commissioners. Currently, they are appointed by a governor who is beholden to the Big Three for bailing him out on the recall election. Together, we can change the way business is done in this state and lower the rates we all pay.
-Ken Hale
Batt Chief, Ret. Cal Fire
Stop PG$E Now (stoppgenow.com)
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