Biggest corporate coverup ever (my article on wildfire whistleblower)

[Liberty Belle]

DUers - I wrote this trio of investigatative articles, the result of months of research in the first 2 cases. Lives are at stake here. Please help make sure everyone reads these!

ECM SPECIAL REPORT: INVESTIGATOR-TURNED-WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIMS FAULTY POWER LINE INSTALLATIONS CAUSED 2003 CEDAR AND PARADISE FIRES AS WELL AS WILDFIRES IN 2007; SDG&E DISPUTES CLAIM

February 24, 2009 (San Diego’s East County) — For $50,000, the cost of a single fire engine, SDG&E could fix an allegedly dangerous problem on power lines in San Diego County, according to electrical engineer and insurance investigator Ed Clark. Clark believes faulty installations caused the 2003 Witch and Paradise fires as well as devastating blazes in 2007. SDG&E disputes Clark’s claim and insists its lines are safe.

“This is the biggest corporate cover-up anyone has ever seen,” Clark told East County Magazine in an exclusive interview.
“You look at Enron; that was a $2.5 billion hit on the economy. In the Witch Fire alone, the losses exceeded $4 billion. If you go back to the Cedar and Paradise fires, which I think this also contributed to, it’s even more. Now you understand why SDG&E doesn’t want to fix this thing.”

Full story: http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/?q=456_whistleblower

2 other experts confirm Clark's contention that these lines are dangerous to the public: http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/?q=457_electrical_experts

Meanwhile SDG&E wants to march Sunrise Powerlink high-voltage power lines through fire-prone areas, a plan so dangerous even our Republican Supervisor, Dianne Jacob, has condemned the plan, stating the line is unnecesesary and that "Fire risk could not be mitigated." http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/?q=lakeside_protest

[InkAddict]

1. Quite a story, OP. I'm going to have to give it a

K&R - Reminds me of that "For want of nail..."

:cry: for the forests, wild animals, and homeowners...

[merh]

2. wow - where are the state and county officials that are responsible

for inspecting such things and ensuring the safety of the citizens?

K&R - thank you for writing this and posting it here

[Liberty Belle]

3. 4 of the 5 CPUC members are Schwarzenegger appointees.

He says jump and they ask how high, more or less.

The same 4 approved Sunrise Powerlink (high voltage towers and lines through fire-prone regions) even though their own 2 administrative law judges both said Powerlink was unnecessary and San Diego could produce enough of its own power without the line. The EIR concluded that the fire risks from the line are very high and cannot be mitigated.

I heard a Lakeside Fire Chief speak last week; he said planes can't scoop water out of the reservoir to fight fires if the lines go in, and he was never consulted about the EIR. Entire towns were blindsided, planners never notified.

Lakeside is the very town where 14 people died in the Cedar Fire, most trapped in a box canyon -- just like the ones where Powerlink would go.

SDG&E is already being sued for causing several fires. But if what the whistleblower says is true, they are responsible for even more--and the real technical cause of the fires has been swept under the rug, so they won't have to fix the lines.

As for County officials, only Jacob has been outspoken against Powerlink. Most others are in the pocket of SDG&E, I'm told, and some even own company stock.


Our public officials don't seem too interested in protecting people here from becoming crispy critters again.