Commentary: Would public ownership of Pacific Gas & Electric reduce the risk of wildfire?

This summer is yet another marked by wildfire in California. Blazes have ignited throughout the state, including a deadly one that exploded near the Oregon border in late July. The fall is likely to be worse.

Pacific Gas & Electric, serving most of Northern and Central California, has spent the summer preparing for another autumn of extreme fire risk. Nearly the entire state has been consumed by severe drought, and the seasonal winds will stress the company’s power lines and increase the risk of trees battering live wires. Since a single spark has the potential to ignite a catastrophic fire, PG&E will almost certainly have to shut off parts of its system when the Diablo winds pick up, a last resort measure to reduce risk.

The company first deployed this strategy at scale in 2019 with a series of power outages that wreaked havoc on communities and the economy. The first blackouts began just after midnight on