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I have seen no evidence of this. In fact, things have improved over the last few years.

I am not in PG&E's Service Territory, so you could be correct. PG&E was in bankruptcy. If it was not deferring maintenance, I am amazed. I know several Pacific Northwest utilities that are deferring wood power pole replacements and tree triming that would suffer a really huge problem after a major storm. These utilities have cost problems but are no where near bankruptcy. I was speculationg based, but if I am wrong, I apologize.

I tip my hat to the enlightened management of PG&E for their continued maitenance if they that is what happened.

We got pole maintenance two years ago with a number of replacements, new guys, and a broadband cable (that hasn't been activated for a year). The trimming got more aggressive when the tree services received credit for remove-and-treat. As a result they have to send forestry consultants to each property to request the removal from the property owner. In this political climate that much progress is amazing.

The biggest problem is that the specification for line clearance is ten feet. Even if the tree is dead and leaning 45° over the top of the lines (they're numerous), as long as it's ten feet away, the owner can prevent the utility from touching it. Worse, even if the owner wants it removed, if the forester doesn't mark it they still won't take it.

I work with the foresters (usually extremely attractive young women) to teach them about how this can be done in such a way that is both cheaper and better for the forest in the long run. I leaned on PG&E engineering to get them off their fat asses to remove an abandoned leg. I paid to have some split-top douglas firs removed because even though they were up to fifty feet from the wires, the split sections were long enough that when (not if) they broke they could fall on the lines (this is one of the few cases where I didn't do my own tree climbing... there are limits). I am removing all trees below the lines or training them to grow laterally in a couple of celebrated cases (nice mature tree, prominent location) as long as they have at least 20' of clearance. I grow fire retardant bushes (toyon) in those rights of way and round adjacent trees under the wires.

OTOH I have neighbors who own a grove of garbage eucalyptus trees that is leaning over the tops of the wires. Eucalyptus branches are very heavy and break VERY easily. It's a fire bomb with a short fuse. That grove is just below an abandoned Christmas tree farm with a crummy old cabin at the top housing a single mom and her young child. PG&E won't touch it.

IMHO, the property owner should be accountable to pay for tree maintenance in an existing right of way or have the utility fund it with a lein on the property. Such conditions as those above are unacceptible.