PD Editorial: Make PG&E pick up the pace burying power lines

One of the most-effective ways to prevent catastrophic wildfires is by burying electrical lines so they don’t spark such events. PG&E has promised to do so — over years. A Sonoma County legislator, state Sen. Mike McGuire of Healdsburg, wants them to quicken the pace.

As the newly appointed Senate majority leader, McGuire may have the clout to force action. He recently introduced legislation requiring the California Public Utilities Commission to expedite the burying of transmission lines — called “undergrounding” in utility lingo. For California to seriously reduce wildfire risks, McGuire’s Senate Bill 884 is an essential tool.

Since 2015, power lines have caused at least six of the state’s most destructive wildfires, as residents of Sonoma and other Northern California counties know firsthand. In addition, power companies have had to shut off electricity at times to mitigate the risk or spread of fires, causing untold personal hardships and extensive economic damage.

“Placing overhead lines underground reduces ignition risk by approximately 99 percent,” PG&E said in its 2022 Wildfire Mitigation Plan, released in February. It also reduces power shut-offs. Given that overwhelming safety improvement, one might think the company would want to move quickly to reduce its liability and help Californians.

Instead, its plan includes burying only 175 miles of lines this year toward an announced goal of 10,000 miles in high-risk areas in 10 years. It says it will do more every year, ramping up to 1,200 miles annually by 2026.

That’s not good enough for McGuire, and it shouldn’t be for his legislative colleagues. PG&E has set such goals in the past and failed to achieve them.

State regulators haven’t exactly pressed power companies to improve safety by burying lines in a strategic way. A new report from the state auditor said the state approved utilities’ fire risk-mitigation plans without ensuring the work would take place in the areas of greatest fire danger.

“Bare lines are of particular concern because nearly half of the fire incidents that utilities reported from 2015 through 2020 were caused by power lines coming into contact with foreign objects, including vegetation,” the report said. Up to 80% of PG&E’s power lines in high-fire-risk areas remain bare.

Burying utility lines protects them from tree, wind and ice damage. There’s also no denying that hidden lines are more aesthetically pleasing than ones cutting across wilderness areas and communities.

But the price tag for a buried line can be five to 10 times greater than for overhead distribution lines. Plus, there is the expense of dismantling existing lines. Even if utilities cover bare lines instead of burying all of them underground, the costs could run into tens of billions of dollars.

McGuire’s bill would minimize the effects on ratepayers by requiring utilities to use federal infrastructure money before tapping ratepayer funds. Telecommunications companies also would be required to bury their cables along the power line routes and share the costs, thereby gaining greater protection from wildfires and even fewer overhead wires.

To speed the work, the legislation sets deadlines for local governments to approve or deny permits and for rulings on any resulting lawsuits filed under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Burying power lines won’t be cheap, but it will be cheaper than the next major wildfire sparked by an overhead line.

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