Photo: August Complex Fire, 2020. Credit: Flickr/Pacific Southwest Forest Service, USDA
Tina Landis is the author of the book Climate Solutions Beyond Capitalism.
For millennia, wildfires have played a beneficial role within the ecosystems of North America. Lightning strikes and regular prescribed fires lit by the Indigenous people of the continent maintained the health of ecosystems by spurring new growth in plants, adding nutrients to soil, improving habitat for wildlife and reducing buildup of leaf litter that could later become devastating fires. When European colonizers arrived, they lacked the knowledge of the local ecology and outlawed prescribed fires as they displaced Native peoples and separated them from traditional practices, “protecting” forests for the lucrative timber industry.
More than a century of fire suppression combined with a warming climate has resulted in increasingly destructive wildfires. Eighteen of the 20 largest wildfires in California history have occurred since 2007, with the 2020 August Complex fire breaking records as the largest at over one million acres.
Wildfires pose an increasing risk to populations throughout the West and many other regions of the globe. Fire insurance is nearly impossible to purchase for a home in California with major insurers backing out of coverage in the state in recent years. As with all disasters under capitalism, only the wealthiest residents have a chance at recovery when they lose their homes to fire. Often homeowners in California are unable to rebuild after fires and are forced to leave the area, fueling waves of gentrification that come in the wake of these fires.
Smoke impacts from wildfires are becoming a significant health concern and are now a common occurrence in dry months and another example of how climate change is a class war. Wealthy residents can avoid exposure with newer, air-tight housing and ventilation systems that keep smoke out of their homes, while the rest of the population is exposed to toxic fumes that can have severe health impacts, cutting lives short. Working-class communities suffer higher smoke exposure due to older housing, lack of air filtration, as well as those who must go to work even when the air is unhealthy to breathe — like farmworkers, landscapers, construction workers, and those who rely on public transit.
Increasing temperatures and prolonged drought are adding to the intensity and frequency of fires. The annual amount of snowpack in the Sierras and the speed at which it melts also plays a role in fire risk. Snowpack historically melted slowly over many months from spring through late summer keeping vegetation green and soil hydrated for much of the year. In recent years, that snowpack tends to melt much more quickly, and in some years has been completely absent by late April, meaning vegetation dries out and becomes wildfire fuel much earlier in the year.
On top of increasing risk due to climate change, corporate negligence from the state’s largest energy provider – PG&E – plays a major role in increasing fire risk. The Dixie Fire in 2021, that grew to over 900,000 acres, was sparked by PG&Es aging power infrastructure as were thousands of other fires in recent years. The Camp Fire – the deadliest fire in the state’s history, which killed 85 people and destroyed the towns of Paradise and Concow – was sparked by power lines that were built in 1921. PG&E’s own estimates in 2017 determined that its energy transmission infrastructure was between 68 to more than 100 years old. From 2014 to 2020, the company’s faulty power lines caused an average of one fire per day, while at the same time they diverted $100 million that was earmarked for safety and maintenance to executive compensation.
Despite numerous lawsuits and public outcry, PG&E refuses to make the needed safety upgrades. Instead, they have been using Public Safety Power Shutoffs to skirt liability for sparking fires during high wind, high heat events, leaving tens of thousands to over a million residents without power for days.
Since 2017, PG&E has been responsible for fires that burned over 1.5 million acres, destroyed over 23,000 structures and killed 100 people. They have sparked countless fires over recent years, including many major fires, like the Kincade, Camp, Zogg, Tubbs, Nuns, Atlas and Dixie fires. Many lawsuits have been filed against them due to their ongoing negligence. In response to criminal charges brought against them by the California District Attorney, the company blamed climate change rather than taking responsibility for their role in the fires.
While wildfire risk is increasing with climate change, many of these large fires could have been avoided if the power infrastructure was maintained regularly, but PG&E has refused to underground their lines or upgrade their infrastructure. The company is also responsible for maintaining vegetation clearances around their power lines, yet they outsource this work to contractors who fail to adequately clear vegetation that then comes in contact with their aging, non-insulated, non-grounded power lines.
Why is this allowed to continue?
PG&E is one of the largest contributors to wildfires in the state yet they are able to continue to operate and make record profits for their shareholders. PG&E is not just one bad apple, but an example of the problem of capitalism that protects corporations’ right to profit above all else. Under capitalism, privately-owned utilities like PG&E must prioritize profits to please investors, and undergrounding lines and upgrading equipment is not profitable. The cost of any upgrades they may be forced to make or fines they receive for negligence is just passed on to customers through rate hikes, which have been skyrocketing over the last year.
Rather than implementing safety measures, it is more beneficial for them to pay lobbyists to win over politicians and regulatory boards, like the California Public Utilities Commission, to pave the way for them to continue with business as usual with little to no repercussions for their negligence. This is the goal of every capitalist: Lower your expenses to maximize profits and maintain monopoly control over a basic service that everyone relies on. As long as utilities are run for profit rather than for the public good, we will continue to suffer from their criminal neglect.
We cannot rely on private corporations and our so-called leaders in government to address the risks humanity is facing from climate change. We need to organize ourselves to demand the change that’s needed. PG&E should be immediately taken over by the state with Golden State Energy established as our energy provider, which would ensure safety measures are immediately implemented. Without the requirement of securing a return on shareholders’ investments, the nonprofit utility could provide lower rates to customers while reducing wildfire risk and expanding renewable energy sources.
