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<\/p>\nConnor Cipolla, an Eaton wildfire survivor, last year praised Southern California Edison\u2019s plan of burying more than 60 miles of electric lines in Altadena as it rebuilds to reduce the risk of fire.<\/p>\n
Then he learned he would have to pay $20,000 to $40,000 to connect his home, which was damaged by smoke and ash, to Edison\u2019s new underground line. A nearby neighbor received an estimate for $30,000, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cResidents are so angry,\u201d Cipolla said. \u201cWe were completely blindsided.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other residents have tracked the wooden stakes Edison workers put up, showing where crews will dig. They\u2019ve found dozens of places where deep trenches are planned under oak and pine trees that survived the fire. In addition to the added costs they face, they fear many trees will die as crews cut their roots.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe damage is being done now and it\u2019s irreversible,\u201d homeowner Robert Steller said, pointing Maiden Lane to where an Edison crew was working.<\/p>\n
For a week, Steller, who lost his home in the fire, parked his Toyota 4Runner over a recently dug trench. He said he was trying to block Edison\u2019s crew from burying a large transformer between two towering deodar cedar trees. The work would \u201cbe downright fatal\u201d to the decades-old trees, he said.<\/p>\n
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Altadena resident Robert Steller stands in front of his Toyota 4Runner that he parked strategically to prevent a Southern California Edison crew from digging too close to two towering cedar trees. <\/p>\n
(Ronaldo Bola\u00f1os \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
The buried lines are an upgrade that will make Altadena\u2019s electrical grid safer and more reliable, Edison says, and it also will lower the risk that the company would have to black out Altadena neighborhoods during dangerous Santa Ana winds to prevent fires.<\/p>\n
Brandon Tolentino, an Edison vice president, said the company was trying to find government or charity funding to help homeowners pay to connect to the buried lines. In the meantime, he said, Edison decided to allow owners of homes that survived the fire to keep their overhead connections until financial help was available.<\/p>\n
Tolentino added that the company planned meetings to listen to residents\u2019 concerns, including about the trees. He said crews were trained to stop work when they find tree roots and switch from using a backhoe to digging by hand to protect them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re minimizing the impact on the trees as we [put lines] underground or do any work in Altadena,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Although placing cables underground is a fire prevention measure, consumer advocates point out it\u2019s not the most cost-effective step Edison can take to reduce the risk. <\/p>\n
Undergrounding electric wires can cost more than $6 million per mile, according to the state Public Utilities Commission, far more than building overhead wires.<\/p>\n
Because utility shareholders put up part of the money needed to pay for burying the lines, the expensive work means they will earn more profit. Last year, the commission agreed <\/a>Edison investors could earn an annual return of 10.03% on that money.<\/p>\n Edison said in April it would spend as much as $925 million to underground and rebuild its grid in Altadena and Malibu, where the Palisades fire caused devastation. That amount of construction spending will earn Edison and its shareholders more than $70 million in profit before taxes \u2014 an amount billed to electric customers \u2014 in the first year, according to calculations by Mark Ellis, the former chief economist for Sempra, the parent company of Southern California Gas and San Diego Gas & Electric. <\/p>\n That annual return will continue over the decades while slowly decreasing each year as the assets are depreciated, Ellis said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re making a nice profit on this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Tolentino said the company wasn\u2019t doing the work to profit.<\/p>\n \u201cThe primary reason for undergrounding is the wildfire mitigation,\u201d he said. \u201cOur focus is supporting the community as they rebuild.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear if the Eaton fire would have been less disastrous if Altadena\u2019s neighborhood power lines had been buried. The blaze ignited under Edison\u2019s towering transmission lines that run down the mountainside in Eaton Canyon. Those lines carry bulk power through Edison\u2019s territory. The power lines being put underground are the smaller distribution lines, which carry power to homes.<\/p>\n A power line outside the home of Altadena resident Connor Cipolla.<\/p>\n (Ronaldo Bolanos\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n The investigation into the fire\u2019s cause has not yet been released. Edison says a leading theory<\/a> is that one of the Eaton Canyon transmission lines, which hadn\u2019t carried power for 50 years, might have briefly reenergized, sparking the blaze. The fire killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,000 homes, businesses and other structures.<\/p>\n Edison said it has no plans to bury those transmission lines.<\/p>\n The high cost of undergrounding has become a contentious issue in Sacramento because, under state rules, most or all of it is billed to all customers of the utility.<\/p>\n Before the Eaton fire, Edison won praise from consumer advocates by installing insulated overhead wires that sharply cut the risk of the lines sparking a fire for a fraction of the cost. Since 2019, the company has installed more than 6,800 miles of the insulated wires. <\/p>\n \u201cA dollar spent reconductoring with covered conductor provides \u2026 over four times as much value in wildfire risk mitigation as a dollar spent on underground conversion,\u201d Edison said in testimony<\/a> before the utilities commission in 2018.<\/p>\n By comparison, Pacific Gas & Electric has relied more on undergrounding its lines to reduce the risk of fire, pushing up customer utility bills. Now Edison has shifted to follow PG&E\u2019s example.<\/p>\n Mark Toney, executive director of the the Utility Reform Network, a consumer group in San Francisco, said his staff estimates Edison spends $4 million per mile to underground wires compared with $800,000 per mile for installing insulated lines.<\/p>\n By burying more lines, customer bills and Edison\u2019s profits could soar, Toney said.<\/p>\n \u201cFive times the cost is equal to five times the profit,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771327940_84_.jpeg\")
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