by Julia Pierrepont III
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- As California continues to reel from wave after wave of devastating wildfires, it's becoming increasingly apparent that, in addition to the destructive impact of climate change, utility companies are often to blame for inadvertently setting the fires.
In particular, California's largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), has been cited for its unethical pursuit of profit over public safety, by postponing routine maintenance and replacement efforts in an effort to pump up their bottom line instead.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup on Monday ordered the company to answer a series of questions about the nature of the transmission line malfunction PG&E disclosed near Kincade Fire's origin point.
The Kincade Fire erupted last month in Sonoma County, which is famed for its sprawling vineyards and superb wine. The blaze scorched 78,000 acres (more than 31,000 hectares) and displaced tens of thousands of residents.
In addition to the latest mass wildfire, the litany of destruction that can be laid at PG&E's door to date is horrific.
In 2015, a tree that PG&E had failed to remove fell onto their powerline, sparked the Butte Fire, one of California's largest fires, and burned over 70,000 acres (more than 28,000 hectares) and killed two.
In 2017, state officials blamed PG&E for 17 of the 21 fires that ultimately torched more than 100,000 acres (more than 40,400 hectares) and burned 1,475 structures in Napa and Sonoma counties.
In 2018, a live wire broke free from an aging tower and sparked the Camp Fire, a cataclysmic conflagration that engulfed the nearby town of Paradise in Butte County, destroying nearly 14,000 homes and killing 85 people.
Regulatory investigations determined that PG&E's safety procedures were woefully lacking and in violation of state laws. They concluded the utility company should have done far more to ensure public safety.
Other court records show that PG&E's supervisors routinely ignored employees' concern about outdated or poorly maintained equipment and faulty analysis of the network.
A company email that came to light in court showed that PG&E's executives knew of potential failure points, yet put off costly repairs to enhance investor dividends instead.
California's top regulatory body, the Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), concluded that the company was driven more by profit than with safety, revealing that while PG&E collected over 224 million U.S. dollars from residents than they were authorized to do, they spent only less than 93 million dollars on equipment replacement and repair than they had budgeted to do.
"There was very much a focus on the bottom line over everything: 'What are the earnings we can report this quarter?' And things really got squeezed on the maintenance side," Mike Florio, a former commissioner at the CPUC, told New York Times.
"There is a climate change component to this, but there's also a failure of management and a failure of vision," Director of Stanford University's Climate and Energy Policy Program Michael W. Wara said of PG&E, who also serves on a statewide commission to assess the cost of California's wildfires.
"We have heard the calls for change and are committed to taking action by focusing our resources on reducing risk and improving safety throughout our system," said John Simon, PG&E's interim chief executive, promised in a recent statement.
Though PG&E's executives may have publicly acknowledged at least some of their mistakes and pledged to increase their focus on safety, the Golden State's Governor Gavin Newsom isn't buying it.
"They have simply been caught red-handed over and over again, lying, manipulating or misleading the public," Newsom said in an interview to New York Times. "They cannot be trusted."
Beset by mounting failures and liabilities, PG&E filed for bankruptcy protection in January, facing up to 30 billion dollars in wildfire liabilities and possessing an aging infrastructure badly in need of replacement.
Some California officials suggested PG&E learn from San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), which was forced to take prompt remedial action after it was sued in 2007.
SDG&E, one of Southern California's larger utility companies, has spent tens of millions to reduce fire-related risks by adding new weather watch stations and camera monitoring capabilities, and beefing up its satellite technology.
As part of his larger effort to build a safe, reliable and affordable energy future that continues the state's progress towards achieving its climate change goals, Newsom has prioritized efforts to hold PG&E accountable for its past errors and create a utility that prioritizes public safety first.
However, with erratic influence of climate change and an aging utility infrastructure to contend with, PG&E and other California's utilities have their work cut out for it.
