California Burning
The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric--and What It Means for America's Power Grid
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
2022 Winner of the Golden Poppy Award for Nonfiction (California Independent Booksellers Alliance)
A revelatory, urgent narrative with national implications, exploring the decline of California’s largest utility company that led to countless wildfires — including the one that destroyed the town of Paradise — and the human cost of infrastructure failure
Pacific Gas and Electric was a legacy company built by innovators and visionaries, establishing California as a desirable home and economic powerhouse. In California Burning, Wall Street Journal reporter and Pulitzer finalist Katherine Blunt examines how that legacy fell apart—unraveling a long history of deadly failures in which Pacific Gas and Electric endangered millions of Northern Californians, through criminal neglect of its infrastructure. As PG&E prioritized profits and politics, power lines went unchecked—until a rusted hook purchased for 56 cents in 1921 split in two, sparking the deadliest wildfire in California history.
Beginning with PG&E’s public reckoning after the Paradise fire, Blunt chronicles the evolution of PG&E’s shareholder base, from innovators who built some of California's first long-distance power lines to aggressive investors keen on reaping dividends. Following key players through pivotal decisions and legal battles, California Burning reveals the forces that shaped the plight of PG&E: deregulation and market-gaming led by Enron Corp., an unyielding push for renewable energy, and a swift increase in wildfire risk throughout the West, while regulators and lawmakers pushed their own agendas.
California Burning is a deeply reported, character-driven narrative, the story of a disaster expanding into a much bigger exploration of accountability. It’s an American tragedy that serves as a cautionary tale for utilities across the nation—especially as climate change makes aging infrastructure more vulnerable, with potentially fatal consequences.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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 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.
