Burning Down the House

Baby, what did you expect? Gonna burst into flame

so some people are trying to blame the Camp fire on the California politicians instead of PG&E...one such guy is Rat, er, pardon me..Ron Fink over at Noozhawk..he is/was also on the shady anti-gov't non-profit SB County Taxpayers Association

Ron Fink-Noozhawk: Recently, the Wall Street Journal pointed out that PG&E had been required to divert hundreds of millions of operation-and-maintenance funds to build renewable energy projects as a means of solving weather-related global warming. This may have impacted their ability to properly maintain thousands of miles of electrical transmission lines in the area they serve.

well no not really...

the facts:
The 2017 fires are yet another example of the broken corporate culture and habitual behavior of PG&E negligence. Instead of spending the substantial revenue it generates from its services (PG&E reported nearly $18 billion of revenue in 2016 alone) for PG&E wildfire resources, they chose to divert this money towards corporate profits for its PG&E stock shareholders, and hefty bonuses for its executives (PG&E reported nearly $1.5 billion of profit in 2016). For example, in 2007, corporate whistle-blowers found that PG&E planned to spend $5 million it had raised from residents to replace a segment of pipeline in San Bruno county that had been determined as being dangerous. In lieu of replacing the pipeline, PG&E repurposed the money, and ultimately chose to pay nearly $5 million in bonuses to PG&E executives in 2009. In 2010, as noted above, a deadly fire resulted from poorly maintained gas pipelines in San Bruno claimed lives and destroyed buildings. Doubtlessly other examples of PG&E’s mismanagement of its finances to focus entirely on corporate profit and paying its executives would exist if PG&E provided more transparency into its vast operations.

WSJ INVESTIGATION
PG&E Knew for Years Its Lines Could Spark Wildfires, and Didn’t Fix Them

Documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal show that the utility has long been aware that parts of its 18,500-mile transmission system were dangerously outdated
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. diverted more than $100 million in gas safety and operations money collected from customers over a 15-year period and spent it for other purposes, including profit for stockholders and bonuses for executives, according to a pair of state-ordered reports released Thursday.

PG&E wasn't forced to invest in renewable energy.....these threats of power shut-offs are the result of mismanagement and are not the way to run a public utility

so maybe it's time for the gov't to step in and clean house