Arizona is hotter and drier than CA but don't hear of so many wild fires.

That, and rugged terrain that makes accessibility really, really difficult.

Drier is subjective, inland California is just as dry as Arizona in the dry season.

CA does. You would not be hearing about these fires if there were no homes there.

wilderness areas instead of denser urban setting.
Transportation, utilities infra-structure, pollution caused by long commute by cars etc is reduced by denser urban setting.

Some gusts aren't they?

FUCKERS.

power if you are.

It is the winds up in the foothills where your power comes from, those lines if left on can catch fire up there and so to prevent that they turn the lines off which results in you having no power. YOUR house may be 100 miles from where they are turning it off.

Having said that, they will continue to do this until the bankruptcy judge and the state give them immunity.

Write your state rep. tell them to give PGE what they want in the short run otherwise your life will be hell. Worry about holding them accountable later, need power now.

It targets consumers directly, and legislators indirectly.

The energy companies are saying:

Want Reliable Electricity?
We can't afford to supply it without raising our rates, see.

Nice Oxygen Generator Grandma Has There
We wouldn't want nothin' should happen to your Grandma,
but you'll need to pay higher rates to keep it running, see.

Because they haven't properly maintained their damn lines. Where I live in Northern California there's a dormant power plant. It's time to get it up and running again.

And they're threatening their own consumers to put pressure on legislators. Of course, they'll need higher rates, too, to pay for "needed updates."

“You want to sue us? May we remind you who can turn off your power? For days at a time if we feel like it.”

Like oxygen concetrators for breathing that depend on electricity for power?

That’s just too bad. Make other plans

They don't care do they?

Just go ahead and die already!

PG&E SUCKS!!

How do I convince these fuckers that we don’t have wildfires at 106th and MacArthur? And if I’m on the same “grid” as the hills, separate us.

I hope every small business that loses money sues their ass.

I recall long spells of very dry weather in CA maybe a decade ago but the fires and blackouts weren't anywhere near this bad. Is the electrical grid just getting old and failing? Are some Dumpian nutcases going around setting them?

even people that live in California and should hear directly have not provided any useful information other than the power company is blacking out power to avoid fires. The national media has been about as useful as tits on a bull in providing insight.

So I am fucking left to guess. My guess is that due to demand for power and poor placement of generating plants, PG&E is having to overload high voltage transmission lines, causing them to run the risk of sparking. The obvious solution would be to build more power generating plants nearer users, easier said than done. Another possible solution would be to fucking replace antiquated high voltage lines with ones that can handle high loads without starting wildfires, but that too is enormously costly and not done overnight.

My feeling is that both PG&E AND State regulators are to blame, along with politicians. As the population of a region grows, facilities like power lines and adequate housing should be constantly reevaluated, with timely adjustments being made. Waiting until systems are overloaded leads to just what seems to be happening.

Everybody wants a house surrounded by tall tress, they look pretty. Nobody wants any trees cut down or the woods cleared out to prevent mega fires.

Overdevelopment in the most inaccessible sites possible has been going on for many decades.

Winds bring down limbs which take out power lines which spark and cause fires, there is no simple solution

I can spot the rotting even on ones that are standing. I have gotten to the point where I don't put stuff under trees and I am alert to loud cracks at night (though I have no idea what I will do if a 20 ton tree is falling on my house).

One thing that exist in our country that many places don't have, we are into open space around homes, many places have densely populated cities. But climate change is bringing disasters to areas of the world that once seemed immune to them. I guess Nature is slipping on it's glove while looking at us and saying "so you thought it was a good idea to mess with ME!!!?"