so the state,for decades has denied pge’s ability to maintain and upgrade their distribution facilities. so now those facilities cannot cope with demand, and overheat causing fires, the state blames pge, takes huge amounts of resources from them - resources that could have gone to fixing the problem, leaving pge the only recourse of shutting down the distribution facilities, denying power to millions of consumers. and yet the state continues to blame pge. am I getting this right?
It’s not just the state. Individual property owners play a large part also. When the clearing crews show up to clear a line a lot of property owners throw a fit. Allow only minimal trimming and so on.
Mostly. You left out the part where the state also forced PG&E to spend massive amounts on expensive Green energy subsidies and generation, reducing the money available for ROW maintenance. The detail behind your “takes huge amounts of resources from them”, on top of the direct taxes.
one correction
“and overheat causing fires”
The power lines do not “overheat”.
It is usually a wind caused tree or branch that causes a wire to get taken to the ground, and broken, where a spark on dry terrain causes a fire to start.