In the wake of last year’s deadly wildfires, California lawmakers proposed legislation to reduce future risk by reducing electric line exposure. Those ambitions didn’t amount to much, though. Two bills to encourage utilities to move lines off of poles and place them underground, particularly in high fire risk areas were scrapped. A third one was neutered, but is still moving forward.
Senate bill 70 was passed unanimously by the senate and is awaiting its fate in the assembly. Authored by Jim Nielsen (R – Tehama), it’s less ambitious than first drafted. It establishes a “working group” to “promote the undergrounding of electrical infrastructure and the implementation of a statewide joint trenching policy”. Any money to pay for it, though, would have be found later. Originally, it included stronger language that would have required utilities to put lines underground when rebuilding or cleaning up after a wildfire.
That said, it could be useful. Anything that encourages cooperation between electric and telecoms companies, and local and state agencies, when trenching projects are planned, is a good thing.
SB 584, authored by John Moorlach (R – Orange) was killed behind closed doors by the senate appropriations committee. It began the most ambitious undergrounding bill, earmarking $400 million a year to pay for utility line relocation. It was subsequently watered down to “an unspecified amount”, and finally left behind when legislative leaders cleared the appropriation committee’s suspense file.
Assembly bill 281, by Jim Frazier (D – Contra Costa) didn’t go anywhere either. It died without a hearing in the assembly utilities and energy committee. New rules this year allow committee chairs to simply ignore legislation they, or the lobbyists that stuff cash in their pockets provide them with sage advice, don’t like. In its various forms it would have loosened environmental reviews of undergrounding projects and/or given the California Public Utilities Commission the job of requiring utilities to move lines underground in high fire risk areas.