This context is super helpful to know what they are saying , they being "utility officials'" . Such a study needs to be completed by a neutral public policy think tank.

"utility officials said it probably doesn't make sense to bury them to try to prevent power outages."

Key word here is "probably "

If 400k residents lost power, and their trouble was worth $100 a day, there you have 40milliion dollars. Airlines get penalized for late flights. The math changes depending on what they measured.example: public policy demanding customer rebates by outage day would change the math.