Katherine Blunt on Energy and Wildfires
On this episode of Free Range, Mike Livermore interviews Katherine Blunt, a journalist at the Wall Street Journal and the recent author of California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric and What it Means for America’s Power Grid.
Episode is an appropriate teaching tool for but not limited to the following topics & courses: wildfires, drought, climate change, public utilities, energy
Discussion Questions
- How might climate change exacerbate wildfire risks and other extreme weather events, challenging utilities’ ability to provide safe, reliable energy? What examples illustrate this?
- Why is it difficult to assign moral and legal blame for disasters caused by systemic corporate failures across diffuse hierarchies and decision-makers? How does this challenge accountability?
- How do utilities’ business models and financial incentives potentially contribute to underinvestment in infrastructure safety and resilience? What trade-offs result?
- What unique oversight challenges exist for regulators of investor-owned monopoly utilities providing an essential public service? How might accountability be strengthened?
- How did California’s early investments in renewable energy technology create positive spillovers while also exacerbating utilities’ financial stresses? What lessons exist for other jurisdictions?
- Why is it difficult for utilities to eliminate safety risks entirely even with substantial infrastructure investments? What strategies are available to manage challenges?
- How has public trust in utility oversight and governance eroded over time? What examples showcase this breakdown?
- What strategies highlighted aim to balance utilities’ private interests and public obligations to provide affordable, reliable, and clean energy? How might accountability be strengthened?
- How has the financial burden of managing utility wildfire risks shifted onto victims and electricity ratepayers in recent California wildfires? How does this raise equity concerns?
- What parallels exist between PG&E’s safety challenges in California and risks facing power utilities in other regions from extreme weather events?
- How might insights from energy journalism help inform debates around designing more resilient and equitable electricity systems? What connections seem salient?
- What most surprised you learning about the governance challenges facing utilities like PG&E as climate risks grow? How might this shape your thinking on reform priorities?
Additional Readings
- Katherine Blunt, “PG&E Fire Victims Will Soon Receive Final Compensation. They Won’t Be Made Whole,” WSJ (Dec. 20, 2023).
- Katherine Blunt, “The U.S. Power Grid Withstands the Heat, So Far,” WSJ (Jul. 23, 2023).
- Katherine Blunt, “Hawaiian Electric Knew of Wildfire Threat, but Waited Years to Act,” WSJ (Aug. 17, 2023).
- Katherine Blunt, Rebecca Smith, & Russell Gold, “PG&E: Wired to Fail,” WSJ (Dec. 28, 2019).
- Katherine Blunt & Russell Gold, “‘Safety Is Not a Glamorous Thing’: How PG&E Regulators Failed to Stop Wildfire Crisis,” WSJ (Dec. 8, 2019).
- Leslie Guliasi, Toward A Political Economy of Public Safety Power Shutoff: Politics, Ideology, and the Limits of Regulatory Choice in California, Energy Research & Social Science Vol. 71 (Jan. 2021).
- Alexandra B. Klass et al., Grid Reliability Through Clean Energy, 74 Stan. L. Rev. 969 (2022).
- Bob Needham, “5Qs: Klass on How to Make Energy More Reliable and Sustainable “
- Tim McDonnell, “Who Should Pay to Fix the Electric Grid?,” Quartz Magazine (Feb. 26, 2021).
- Welton, Shelley, Rethinking Grid Governance for the Climate Change Era, 109 Calif. L. Rev. 209 (2021).
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