"PG&E paid top execs $17 million in bonuses from 2012 to 2017"
You really think 17 million would have made a difference? Is that enough money to even bury 1 mile of transmission lines at Californian's exorbitant infrastructure cost?
Why bury when all those lines needed was replacement of worn parts? Burying power cables is expensive and increases maintenance costs an order of magnitude.
Much cheaper to replace hooks that are worn through so the cables don’t fall off the tower and start a fire.
Should probably also add ground fault interruption as a protection measure too. I saw a quite-impressive video of some hardware that was going in on parts of the Australian grid that managed to turn off super-quick as the cable arced to the earth, limiting the heating energy tremendously.
Much cheaper to replace hooks that are worn through so the cables don’t fall off the tower and start a fire.