California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric—and What It Means for America's Power Grid
(OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen)

Katherine Blunt. (2022). California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric—and What It Means for America's Power Grid. Unabridged Books on Tape.

Katherine Blunt. 2022. California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric—and What It Means for America's Power Grid. Books on Tape.

Katherine Blunt, California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric—and What It Means for America's Power Grid. Books on Tape, 2022.

Katherine Blunt. California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric—and What It Means for America's Power Grid. Unabridged Books on Tape, 2022.

OverDrive Product Record

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• name: Katherine Blunt

title

California Burning

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   • bioText: Katherine Blunt covers renewable energy and utilities for The Wall Street Journal. Her team's reporting on PG&E has been honored with a Barlett & Steele award for business investigative journalism, the Thomas L. Stokes award for energy and environmental reporting, and was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She is based in San Francisco.
      
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California Burning

fullDescription

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.

reviews

1. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content: San Francisco-based Katherine Blunt, who covers renewable energy and utilities for the WALL STREET JOURNAL, provides an exceptionally well-researched, incisive analysis of the decline of the Northern California utility Pacific Gas and Electric. Narrator Nan McNamara is easy on the ears, and her relaxed presence and well-paced delivery make reams of detail easier to understand and assimilate. McNamara's urging tone takes center stage as she takes the listener through complex accounts of shareholders prioritizing ever greater dividends and state legislators pushing agendas that satisfy those who fund elections. Corporate malfeasance leads to lost lives and disastrous wildfires. If it weren't for the profound sadness of the potentially insoluble issues, portions of this audiobook would read like a disaster film screenplay. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
2. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     May 9, 2022
     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.

popularity

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shortDescription

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...

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The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric—and What It Means for America's Power Grid

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   • description: Business & Economics / Economic History
2. • code: BUS070040
   • description: Business & Economics / Industries / Energy
3. • code: SCI092000
   • description: Science / Global Warming & Climate Change