The “settlement” between Edison and the PUC is a sham. Edison pays $55 million to the state general fund and then $17 million to inspect their own poles. The inspection looks to me like something Edison should be doing as part of their normal business. The payment to the state is ludicrous. The state was not hurt by this. And of course the next time Edison suggests a rate increase, I’ll bet it will include that $55 million as a normal cost of doing business, which the PUC will gladly pass on to us, the rate payers. Pretty cozy, but what about the people who lost their homes and businesses? Some will have adequate insurance, but some still haven’t rebuilt after six years, and even those of us who only had to evacuate spent several days loading up the cars and then putting the stuff back in our homes and staying up all night seeing if the fireman were able to stop the fire before it reached our homes.
All the money should have been spent to at least prevent this from happening again. Edison should have spent their $70 million and the money from cable companies to place the wires underground so this will never happen again. Or how about buying another water dropping plane?
Further, Edison should not be allowed to write off fines as part of normal business expenses which can then be passed to rate payers.
Scott Dittrich