Pacific Gas & Electric is one of the largest utilities in the country. It services over 16 million people over 70,000 square miles in central and Northern California. The company is also responsible for a lot of wildfire destruction in the Golden State.
This all comes into play because PG&E has requested a 26% rate increase to help the company remain profitable while doing repairs that will help it bury 2,100 miles of power lines underground.
The company says about the only way it can keep the power system from causing wildfires during high wind conditions is to bury its lines.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) agrees but said it is only going to grant an increase of about half of what PG&E requested. So the increase for the 16 million people mentioned at the beginning of this story is going to average about 13%.
Under PG&E’s figures, the 13% will only bury about 1,000 miles of lines.
Source link: Insurance Journal — https://bit.ly/45UgEHh
