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by dgfdsgdsgv 2427 days ago
A dozen meters?! HA

Typically it's a hundred yards on either side of a high voltage line. And with the liabilities P&G is facing, I'd clear cut a hundred yards on either side of medium voltage lines too.

That's a 1km^2 of cleared forrest for every 10 km of line. California has (tens of?) thousands of km of lines.
1 comments
weyland108 2426 days ago
Why is that bad? Alternative is burning trees adding to pollution or people living in dark. You could offset the green coverage elsewhere in the state or country.
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zaroth 2426 days ago
No the alternative is extremely reliable electricity that runs year round, and an occasional forest fire.

Which of course the fires are going to burn no matter what PG&E does. “But for an electrical spark” is a great way to lay the blame but ignores the hundreds (thousands?) of forest fires each year that start from non-electric sources.

In the scale of the maintenance required to have zero risk of fire — hundreds of billions of dollars — the $4 billion in dividends is a rounding error.

CA is going to have to do the math and decide it’s not worth $100 billion in guaranteed economic depression due to cutting power to try to save a 5% chance of a $100 billion fire.

CA is also going to have to do the math that no one is going to pay to maintain a grid that’s fire proof but charges $3/kWh for power.

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