By Samuel Strait – Reporter at Large – May 7, 2022 There for a lengthy period of time the annual attempt by Pacific Power, mostly successful, to raise the cost of electricity to Northern California, was submerged by the relatively stable cost of fueling its effort. It did give rise to another issue, that of maintaining its infrastructure and maintenance of its transmission lines. Now that carbon based fuels have exploded in cost, and the dangers fires sparked from power lines and brush filled right of ways have affected Pacific Power's bottom line and likely the ability to generously fund investor's portfolios, suddenly Pacific Power has identified a "need" for "wild fire mitigation strategy". This rather feckless attention to the customers it claims to serve, appears more to satisfy investors rather than those that pay ever increasing electrical rates, for the indifferent service Pacific Power provides. Already encumbered with years of increasing rates, and the collection of fees to remove Klamath River Dams, Pacific Power is attempting to leverage "fire suppression" into a quest to be approved of a 26% hike in electric costs to be born by the Utility's customers for something they should have been doing all along. In an announcement from Pacific Power about their intentions, there is the usual spin about how diligent they have been to keep cost increases down, before quickly reverting to the inevitable, Climate Change. Looks like that has become the normal solution for "all" issues of an ineffective government, that have now migrated over to major corporations. As with governments, the solution to all of Pacific Power's "fire suppression" problems is to hire more employees in the form of meteorologists, emergency management staff, and transmission line inspectors. Sound familiar? New equipment and brush management to mollify the customers, likely in token amounts, all to the tune of a mere $28 million to support "investments" already forced upon them. This is nothing but a Measure"R" and "S" ploy to deceive Pacific Power's customers that they are doing something more than what they already should have been doing without the need to gouge its customers even further. Naturally there is the usual line about being "industry leading", kind of sounds like a Newsom rip off, and concern for its customers. The California Public Utilities Commission will make a decision as to granting the rate hike after a suitable time for public comment. Normally the request for a rate hike can take up to eighteen months, but Pacific Power is seeking to ram the proposal through the CPUC with only a thirty day public comment period. The speed of this maneuver can only be likened to Pacific Powers attempt to deny the public's right to a proper review. The announcement continues with a long winded series of pronouncements over the company's concern for those that will not be able to afford the increased power bills. A litany of programs and cost savings for low income rate payers follow to increase the likelyhood that most rate payers will roll over and accept the dizzying upward trend of the rate increase. After all, billionaire Warren Buffet must not be denied any chance at a substantial profit from his investment in Pacific Power. When PG&E proposed a similar rate hike of 18%, for Northern California this year, the CPUC was flooded with calls from rate payers that short circuited the effort by PG&E to gouge its customers. Hopefully the same public engagement will occur to prevent the Pacific Power greed of a 26% increase on your power bill, never likely to diminish.