California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric—And What It Means for America’s Power Grid

Wall Street Journal reporter Blunt debuts with a comprehensive investigation of the vulnerability of California’s power grid. After wildfires “killed more than a hundred people and razed hundreds of thousands of acres of vineyard and forest,” the author writes, the “chronic mismanagement [and] criminal neglect” at California’s Pacific Gas and Electric became clear. Blunt connects recent disasters, such as 2018’s Camp Fire that killed 85 people, to the history of California’s utility companies, showing how deregulation in the 1990s brought about an energy market that was ripe for manipulation. Blunt walks readers through how companies took advantage of it and brought electricity prices to record highs as PG&E fell into bankruptcy. Meanwhile, a push for renewable energy resulted in the creation of “sprawling solar farms” in the 2010s as aging gas and electric grids were neglected and became increasingly prone to catastrophe. Positing that California is a bellwether for other states, Blunt forecasts a rocky road ahead as “all of the nation’s investor-owned utilities are challenged to satisfy shareholders while making their infrastructure safer and more resilient.” Diligent reporting and a clear focus make this a must-read for anyone interested in the future of energy. (Aug.)