How does turning off the power in California prevent wildfires?
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Even well maintained electric lines are subject to failure from high wind conditions, often from trees. That isn’t a contradiction. A utility can only legally cut the trees within its right of way. When they do, they literally are often met with physical threats, lawsuits, and even firearms (I’ve seen all this at the utility I worked for). Then when it DOES catch fire, the same property owners start pointing fingers and looking for blame. I’m not defending PG&E because I have no idea what their maintenance situation is, but I know we were very proactive about clearing trees and it was THE most stressfull job at the utility. On top of that, the ROW easement often isn’t enough. We had a 20 foot wide easement for a line that went through a pine forrest. The trees were easily 50 feet taller than the 30 foot line, so even with perfectly clear easements, trees from outside the ROW cause a lot of the outages. And there is no way the homeowner is going to allow you to clear a 100 foot easement. PG&E could have had the most well maintained system in the world and this still could have happened.
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