California just came out of many years of drought without those fires. The fires happened after an unusually wet year.
It is negligence. Brush and tree clearance are not harder than 50 years ago. There was no sudden surge of trees and brush to cut. They just chose not to do it.
Didn't the preceding years of drought kill a bunch of trees, leaving standing fuel?
Also, wasn't 2017 the hottest summer ever in California at the time, although I think 2018 broke that record, and I think it's on track to break the record again in 2019?
And that brush and tree maintenance is way cheaper than the cost of lost economic activity these intentional outages will generate.
It's a liability waiver shakedown for sure.
It is negligence. Brush and tree clearance are not harder than 50 years ago. There was no sudden surge of trees and brush to cut. They just chose not to do it.