In some places, burying the electrical lines is all but
physically impossible, utilities and others argue.
In parts of California’s Sierra Nevada and other
ranges, for instance, that would entail excavating
into granite.
In Florida, Mike Hyland, senior vice president
of the American Public Power Association for
community-owned utilities, has seen utilities try
and fail to bury cable in the unstable sand.
Utility companies argue that in some parts of the
country, burying power lines would make problems
worse, especially as storms and sea rise worsen with
climate change. Hyland points to Superstorm Sandy
in 2012, when a nearly 14-foot tidal surge flooded
underground electrical networks even as the storm
toppled above-ground lines, depriving more than 8
million people of power.
For electric utilities looking at how to harden
their networks against the varied climate change
potpourri of sea rise, heavy rains, wind, drought
and wildfires, “it’s all these scenarios coming
at you,” Hyland said. “Plus at the end of the day
you’ve got a squirrel jumping on your lines.”
In California, state leaders and ordinary people
increasingly accuse PG&E of negligence for not
moving faster to safeguard power lines serving
more than 5 million homes and businesses.
California’s worst wildfire seasons on record,
in terms of property damage and deaths,
were in 2017 and 2018. State fire investigators
found sparks from PG&E electrical equipment
responsible for many of the fires. That includes
the state’s deadliest fire ever, a wildfire — started
by PG&E power lines — that killed 85 people
and all but wiped out the northern California
town of Paradise.