“The fires, he emphasized, are the result of a process of 20 years of major neglect: ‘Because you had the deregulation of the energy program, with Enron, and you had the bankruptcy of the state; and then you had practically what was a color revolution with Schwarzenegger [2003-2011] … who brought in a hard-core greenie and austerity program,’that cut all the fire infrastructure, “’so anything that you wouldn’t use except under emergency circumstances, was cut out of the budget for good.’”
A Note To Readers
A happy Thanksgiving to all.
Now to set the tone for this week’s report, immediately below this introduction is an item designed to be totally provocative. And the above quote is from that item.
Then the remainder of the report, after a short item on the weather and drought, examines several areas related to our wildfires that really have emerged as a serious discussion after President Trump provoked it with his tweets. Like him and, or, his tweets, or not, he has opened the debate on forest management and much more. That includes, not just forest management practices, but also what to do about the electrical power companies responsibility for the fires, building codes for houses in forested areas, the role of climate change and more.
I intoduce the section on the role of the electrical utilities with this paragraph: “To be followed up on in a later report is the story that began with the Enron criminal enterprise of electrical power deregulation of the 1990s. While the criminals from Enron did go to jail, the damage they wrought on California and other states has not ever been repaired or compensated. That bunch of criminals cost the state itself $30 billion. It cost ratepayers about $80 billion in California alone. And it did bankrupt PG&E. Perhaps PG&E could have begun hardening its equipment and putting some lines underground years ago had not the Enron scam done so much damage.”
So, read on, my friends.
