Liam Denning, Columnist

PG&E’s Wildfire Plan: 10,000-Mile Trench Warfare

With more destruction and blackouts ahead, a plan to take lines underground feels like a preemptive strike against criticism.

July 22, 2021 at 3:23 PM UTC

By Liam Denning

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

A costly combination.
Photographer: PHILIP PACHECO/AFP/Getty Images

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When you’ve been stuck in the bunker as long as PG&E has, going underground is second nature.

The California utility just touted a stunning proposal to fix its wildfire problem: Bury 10,000 miles of wires where the trees, lightning and Santa Ana winds can’t touch them. It’s not stunning in terms of the method. It’s the cost, with the $20 billion figure the company speaks of looking rather optimistic.