Fires and blackouts are California’s wake-up call on climate change. Will we listen?

Months before he died, former SMUD General Manager S. David Freeman wrote this op-ed with the hope that it would be published in The Sacramento Bee. Mr. Freeman died on May 12 at age 94, but we are publishing his words today with the permission of his family.

California fires and related electricity blackouts are a very visible equivalent of Pearl Harbor, the wake-up call that united and energized America to mobilize and win World War II. Mother Nature has demonstrated it can deliver a blow that over time could be worse than even a World War.

Climate damage demands a response on a scale that matches the awesome danger. But instead of taking advantage of the public attention created by the blackouts to enact laws to provide reliable electricity and minimize climate damage, Gov. Newsom and most elected officials in California focus on blaming PG&E.

I ask – with great sincerity – where is the vision? Where is the California leadership on the environment that we take for granted?

As a public power guy that has opposed PG&E for decades, no one can successfully call me a fan of PG&E. They certainly share some blame for our current predicament, as do we all. But there is a fundamental fact that must be stated.

If PG&E, or any other utility, did a perfect job of maintaining its overhead electric power lines, California would still suffer the fires and blackouts. And if you are the California governor and think PG&E is greedy then you should point your finger at the California Public Utilities Commission that determines the rates they charge and whose members you appoint.

The inconvenient truth (thanks, Al) is that overhead electric transmission and distribution lines that have delivered electricity to consumers very reliably for the past 50 years are now very unreliable. And as the climate continues to change for the worse, the winds will get stronger, the vegetation drier and the fires more frequent and fiercer.

So we must resist the urge to just blame PG&E and assert the vision and environmental leadership for which California rightfully claims fame. The enormity of the climate danger requires that we build a fireproof and flood-proof power grid and enact mandates to more speedily outlaw the burning of all fossil fuels.

Let me begin such a discussion by suggesting the elements of an appropriate “California Vision” response worthy of consideration.

As for the grid, one idea is to revive the California Power Authority (CPA), enacted during the California blackouts 20 years ago, and give it the authority and finances to take ownership and maintain our existing vulnerable transmission lines. Even more important, this CPA must be required to rebuild the California transmission grid underground and flood-proof.

I realize what I propose may require a trillion-dollar investment and a decade to complete. But it must be done because reliable electricity is the “heart” on which modern life depends. We must think of the overhead electric transmission line like our highways – so vital to every aspect of modern life that they are a governmental responsibility.

An investor-owned, regulated utility is just not suited to carry out the required mission. California’s inverse condemnation laws impose claims that have already driven PG&E to bankruptcy and there is no good reason for a private company to earn huge profits on the giant investment needed to rebuild the grid.

The job of rebuilding our transmission lines to restore their reliability is so big that it requires an organization whose sole job is to make it happen, and not a private company with a duty to shareholders to make a profit and diverted by the other functions of an electric utility.

To mitigate climate damage, enact a state law to require all California electric utilities to promote decentralized solar power and energy efficiency investments by financing such investments for their customers at reasonable interest rates with repayment, over time, on their bill.

Enact a law that requires all new power plants serving California customers to be powered by renewable energy. Enact a law to require that all electric power utilities selling power at retail to reduce their annual greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5 percent of their 2020 total each year until they reach zero in 20 years.

Enact a law requiring all new cars sold in California after 2025 be zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Such a legislative package would constitute a serious “California Vision” response to the climate emergency that would set an example for the whole world to follow.

This story was originally published May 22, 2020 at 6:00 AM.