
California may go dark this summer, and most aren't ready - jelliclesfarm
https://m.sfgate.com/news/article/California-may-go-dark-this-summer-and-most-13840880.php
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ThrustVectoring
The article doesn't explicitly set out why PG&E is doing this: California's
completely insane policy on legal liability for wildfires.

When things get dry enough, pretty much any source of ignition will end up
with large swathes of the countryside set ablaze. Whoever or whatever
initially set things off is liable for 100% of the resulting damage, even if
it's _billions_ of dollars.

So when the choice is between providing power for a few tens of thousands of
people and risking billions of dollars of liability, the decision is obvious
for the power provider - shut things down, and let some other spark get blamed
for starting the inevitable wildfire. Note that this isn't socially optimal,
since the conditions for conflagration are still present, and things will
almost certainly get set off anyhow. It just removes the possibility of
blaming PG&E for it.

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jelliclesfarm
PGE used their money to pay shareholder profit rather than pay for maintenance
and forestry management.

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tomcam
I’m ready. I moved out of my beloved So Cal almost two decades ago when Enron-
caused rolling power outages hit.

