SACRAMENTO, Calif. — PG&E Corp. put a cost estimate of more than $25 billion Thursday on its effort to plant thousands of miles of power lines underground in an effort to tamp down wildfire risks.
Eight months after announcing the project as the Dixie Fire raged through Northern California, the utility's chief executive defended the expense as a "game-changing investment" that will make customers safer. The project will take years.
PG&E committed to the project last summer just days after it acknowledged to investigators that its equipment was the likely cause of the Dixie Fire, which began when a tree brushed against the utility's power lines in a remote area of Plumas County.
