New Report: Calif. Gov't Fails To Enforce New Law That Could Have Prevented Wildfires
A new report revealed that incompetent state regulators in California failed to implement plans required by state law that could have prevented the devastating California wildfires.
Senate Bill 1028 required the three big California power companies, San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric, to provide detailed strategies for reducing fire threats, according to The San Diego Tribune.
The California Public Utilities Commission was responsible for reviewing the filings, making comments on the material and ensuring that the plans were being followed.
Well, it turns out the government regulators completely failed to issue directives to the power companies, and it’s been more than two years since the law was passed.
The government agency’s utter incompetence is finally getting attention now that dozens of lives have been lost and an entire town has been completely destroyed in the wildfires.
A spokesman for Edison, one of the power companies, put the blame on the regulators.
“At the time SB 901 was enacted, no CPUC rulemaking on prior legislation had been established,” the spokesman said.
“While the commission delayed enforcing the new law, wildfires suspected of being caused by overhead powerlines and other utility equipment killed at least 125 people,” the Tribune reported. “They also destroyed 18,000 buildings and charred hundreds of square miles of the California landscape.”
State Sen. Jerry Hill, the San Mateo Democrat who introduced SB 1028, expressed frustration with the government utility regulators.
“They have done absolutely nothing in those two years,” Hill said.
Hill also admitted that state lawmakers should have given the regulators a deadline.
“The unfortunate thing is we gave them that authority but we did not put a timeline on it,” Hill said.
This situation is just another example in a long list of government failure and incompetence.
“We assumed it would be prioritized, but sadly it takes a tragedy to realign priorities — and that’s what we’ve seen — tragedy and devastation,” Hill said.
Some believe the wildfires could have been prevented through proper forest management, but California’s state government failed on that front as well.
In August, Zinke said the “overload of dead and diseased timber in the forests makes the fires worse and more deadly.”
If the government is unable to follow through to prevent the loss of life and destruction of property from wildfires, why would anybody want the government to have control over something like health care?
When the government is in charge of something, it typically ends in disaster.
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