By: Rachel Bierman
On the morning of November 8, 2018, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history began.[I] The Fire, known as the Camp Fire, burned a total of 153,336 acres, destroying 18,804 structures and resulting in 85 civilian fatalities. [ii] California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire, determined the fire was caused by electrical transmission lines owned and operated by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (“PG&E”), the nation’s largest utility with more than 5.5 million customers across California.[iii] The determined incendiary, a nearly 100-year-old Caribou-Palermo transmission line, has since 1921, has been in operation since 1921. [iv] The investigation further identified a second ignition sight caused by vegetation grown into electrical distribution lines also owned and operated by PG&E. [v]
As a result of the investigation and its involvement in the 2018 Camp Fire, PG&E plead guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of illegally setting a fire. [vi] The Company agreed to a $3.5 million fine as part of its criminal plea, as well as $500,000 to cover the cost of the investigation. [vii] The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) separately fined PG&E almost $2 billion for causing wildfires in 2017 and 2018.[viii]
In the past six years, PG&E’s power lines have incited more than 1,500 California wildfires. [ix] As these megafires continue to engulf California, causing billions of dollars in damage and devastating communities across the state, it puts forth the question, “What can be done?”
In an attempt to answer the foregoing question, it is imperative to shift focus toward PG&E’s gridline structure. Quite simply stated, the deadly outbreak of California wildfires can be directly attributed to PG&E’s failing infrastructure and needs to be rebuilt. [x] “California has an opportunity to build a power grid resilient to climate change by migrating the [overhead] transmission lines underground whenever possible.” [xi]
One possible solution to PG&E’s failing infrastructure is undergrounding, the process of burying overhead power lines, which would considerably lower the risk of fire caused by transmission lines. [xii] Underground power lines do not sway in the wind, vegetation cannot grow into powerlines underground, and underground powerlines do not sit on 100-year-old wooden poles that fall when companies like PG&E do not maintain them. [xiii] Despite the benefits of undergrounding, companies like PG&E find it expensive and cost-prohibitive. [xiv]
PG&E estimates the cost of converting overhead powerlines underground at around $3 million per mile.[xv]Therefore, total cost comes out to $243 billion to convert approximately 81,000 miles of overhead lines to underground. Scholars argue that while ratepayers desire undergrounding in order to prevent wildfires, they are not willing to take on the rate hikes that would likely ensue to cover the cost.[xvi] Actual costs are dependent on several factors, “including location and whether the installation is a new install or a migration of existing equipment.” [xvii] The estimated $243 billion expense does not factor in the reductions in price that may be possible by distributing costs, like by coordinating installation of fiber-optic cable and other telecommunication lines in the same trenches. [xviii] A recent independent audit found PG&E’s current undergrounding program costs were above industry standard due to delayed project costs and inflated cost estimates.[xix] The estimated $243 billion also does not reflect potential savings from cost-shifting to developers who put in underground powerlines when rebuilding areas destroyed by wildfires.[xx]
PG&E filed for bankruptcy in 2019 and incurred an estimated $30 billion or more in liabilities stemming from recent megafires like the Camp Fire.[xxi] Insurers already paid out over $24 billion in losses related to the 2017and 2018 fires in California; meanwhile, the estimated damage from 2019 is in the ballpark of roughly $25.4 billion.[xxii] PG&E’s public safety power shut off program (PSPS), used prevent further wildfires, causes unreliable power which severely threatens California’s economy. To explain, large, California-based tech companies, requiring massive amounts of power for operation, are beginning to move to other states, taking with them their share of the state’s revenues.[xxiii] Cost of undergrounding truly is outweighed by the amount of losses related to wildfire and wildfire prevention PG&E has implemented.
PG&Es current fire prevention methods are inadequate, and safety measures have not been appropriately enacted to prevent the future loss of life and property caused by wildfires. PG&E pledged to improve its practices and reduce the risks of fires by trimming and cutting vegetation along powerlines and also implementing the statewide PSPS program, which turns off large parts of the electrical system during windy and hot days to prevent fires.[xxiv] There is a high-risk of fire due to equipment failure, which requires utilities like PG&E to monitor their electrical systems vigilantly. [xxv]
During the investigation of the Camp Fire, CPUC found that PG&E “systematically failed to adequately inspect its lines.”[xxvi] The company regularly deferred maintenance on its oldest lines and failed to climb towers to inspect equipment not visible from the ground.[xxvii] What more, much of the current electrical grid is outdated. PG&E estimates that “the average age of its towers is 68 years, but the average mean expectancy is only 65 years.”[xxviii] The severe risks of overhead power line ignition combined with the danger posed by outdated equipment and the current inadequate fire prevention system put in place by PG&E pushes the benefits of undergrounding well above the cost.[xxix]
“Undergrounding should be given a priority position in the mix of fire risk reduction strategies – above both vegetation management and de-energization measures – to ensure that the state’s largest power provider is able to deliver energy effectively.”[xxx] Not all of the current electrical systems can be migrated underground, but there are high-risk areas where investment in undergrounding of power lines would save the state massive losses of life, health, and property.[xxxi]
[i] Priyanka Boghani, Camp Fire: By the Numbers, PBS: Frontline (Oct. 29, 2019), https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/camp-fire-by-the-numbers/.
[ii] Id.
[iii] Pacific Gas & Electric, https://www.pge.com/en_US/about-pge/company-information/profile/profile.page (last visited Sep. 21, 2020).
[iv] Deborah Brundy, Power Lines: Climate Change & the Politics of Undergrounding, 71 Hastings L.J. 1251, 1253 (2020).
[v] Cal. Dep’t. of Forestry and Fire Protection, Cal Fire News Release (May 15, 2019), https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/5121/campfire_cause.pdfhttps://www.fire.ca.gov/media/5121/campfire_cause.pdf.
[vi] Ivan Penn & Peter Eavis, PG&E Pleads Guilty to 84 Counts of Manslaughter in Camp Fire Case, N.Y. Times: Energy & Environment (June 18, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/business/energy-environment/pge-camp-fire-california-wildfires.html.
[vii] Id.
[viii] Id.
[ix] Morgan McFall-Johnsen, Over 1,500 California Fires in the Past 6 Years – Including the Dealiest Ever – Were Caused by One Company: PG&E. Here’s What it Could Have Done but Didn’t, Bus. Insider (Nov. 3, 2019, 9:52 AM), https://www.businessinsider.com/pge-caused-california-wildfires-safety-measures-2019-10.
[x] Deborah Brundy, supra note iv at 1254.
[xi] Id.
[xii] David R. Baker, Wine Country Fires: PG&E Often Diverts Money for Underground Power Lines, S.F. Chron., https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Wine-Country-fires-PG-E-often-diverts-money-for-12742239.php (Mar. 13, 2018).
[xiii] Id.
[xiv] Id.
[xv] Victor Glass & Ephram Glass, PG&E Case Study: Burying Lines to Prevent Wildfires is Cost Effective, T&D World (Apr. 01, 2020), https://www.tdworld.com/wildfire/article/21127664/pge-case-study-burying-lines-to-prevent-wildfires-is-cost-effective.
[xvi] Kenneth L. Hall, Out of Sight, Out of Mind 2012: An Updated Study on the Undergrounding of Overhead Power Lines, Edison Electric Inst. (2012), https://www.eei.org/issuesandpolicy/electricreliability/undergrounding/Documents/UndergroundReport.pdf
[xvii] Deborah Brundy, supra note iv at 1269.
[xviii] Jeffrey Pfeffer, Open Forum: Cost of Undergrounding Power Lines is No Excuse for PG&E, S.F. Chron. (Mar. 4, 2019), https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Open-Forum-Cost-of-undergrounding-power-lines-is-13658984.php.
[xix] Deborah Brundy, supra note iv at 1268.
[xx] Id.
[xxi] Ivan Penn & Peter Eavis, supra note vi.
[xxii] Deborah Brundy, supra note iv at 1259.
[xxiii] Id.
[xxiv] Id. at 1264
[xxv] Ivan Penn & Peter Eavis, supra note vi.
[xxvi] Deborah Brundy, supra note iv at 1264.
[xxvii] Id.
[xxviii] Id.
[xxix] Id. at 1263.
[xxx] Id. at 1254.
[xxxi] Id. at 1265