Everytime I see above-ground wires strewn between fucking wooden posts sticking out of the ground, I'm reminded how poor our infrastructure is in the US. We need to have started investing in buried line decades ago. Edison himself would recognize the technology and that should concern us all.

My rural county got cut off for two weeks about three winters ago. It was traced back to the fact that power for over 150,000 people could be traced to one. fucking. line. coming over a hill and a blown-over tree took it. Ridiculous.

Instead of proper upgrades that utility company (PG&E here in California) chooses to pay out stock dividends to investors. Their negligence has resulted in death and destruction in the form of everything from fire their equipment has started to leveling entire blocks of cities like the infamous San Bruno gas line explosion. We need to get our priorities straight and stop giving these companies a pass.