Posted by Irvine Sign Company
Posted by Irvine Business Sign Company
Re “The utilities and the California wildfires” (Editorial, Nov. 13):
Investor-owned utilities rely on shareholders to fund work that is critical in California, and the Southern California News Group’s suggestion that shareholders should be solely on the hook for wildfire liability dangerously ignores this essential source of infrastructure funding.
Your editorial argues that shareholders should pay for “any coming economic burden” from fires that involve utilities’ equipment. But it also argues that the utilities need to invest in safety upgrades.
Let me connect the dots: the utilities rely on shareholders to fund these critical upgrades and to fund the vast efforts the utilities are undertaking to mitigate the climate change that is literally fueling the fires.Bankrupting the utilities and cutting off a key source of funds (investors) for safety and wildfire prevention would massively compound the issue.
You say that the utilities need to “continue to dramatically increase the safety features in their lines, poles and transformers.”
This requires an enormous level of investment, which Southern California Edison has proposed to make as part of its Grid Safety and Resiliency Program application — and it will depend upon shareholders providing upfront funding at a reasonable rate.
Utilities are obligated to serve all customers, including those in high fire-risk areas, so it is appropriate that both customers and shareholders share responsibility for those risks.SCE’s proposal would increase the average monthly bill for a residential customer by about $1.20 to repay that funding over time. Not a bad investment for safety upgrades against future wildfires.
We also need to combat the climate change at the root of these fires, and it is our state’s utilities that are leading the initiatives to do that through massive-scale energy efficiency and clean energy efforts.
Bankrupting our utilities and limiting their ability to raise funds from shareholders would make it nearly impossible for the state to shift to renewable power and achieve its climate change goals, potentially perpetuating the fire risk.
Your editorial claims that ratepayers “just need the electricity.” But Californians need financially healthy utilities to provide it.
— Pedro Pizarro, Rosemead The letter writer is president and CEO of Edison International.
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