USEA's Power Sector Podcast

In today’s episode of the USEA Power Sector Podcast’s series on wildfires, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association CEO Duane Highley answered questions by journalist Herman K. Trabish about the impacts and costs of wildfires in the West, what those costs and impacts mean for electric cooperative utilities, and how electric co-ops can take steps to protect their customers.

In today’s episode of the USEA Power Sector Podcast’s series on wildfires, Commissioner Ann Rendahl of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission answered questions by journalist Herman K. Trabish about her observations from the recent Western Conference of Public Service Commissioners summit on the rapidly growing West-wide threat of wildfires and their impacts and costs to electric utilities and their customers.

In today’s segment of the USEA Power Sector Podcast series on wildfires, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CalFire, Staff Chief for Prescribed Fire and Environmental Protection Len Nielson answered questions by journalist Herman K. Trabish about the too-often overlooked wildfire mitigation strategy of prescribed, or controlled, burns and about they have been demonstrated to reduce the extent and impacts of the growing threat of wildfires.

In today’s episode of the USEA Power Sector Podcast series on wildfires, University of Texas at Austin Professor Joshua D. Rhodes answered questions by journalist Herman K. Trabish about about Texas wildfires, including the February 2024 Panhandle fire, the biggest ever in Texas, and how state policymakers can support wildfire prediction, prevention, and mitigation to protect electricity providers and their customers.

In today’s USEA Power Sector Podcast, Gitane De Silva, former CEO of the Canada Energy Regulator and founder and principal of public policy consultancy GD Strategic, answered questions by journalist Herman K. Trabish about Canada’s approach to the fast-growing costs and impacts of wildfires, and how those approaches might inform or compliment U.S. decisions.

In today’s USEA Power Sector Podcast series on wildfires, President Ryan Flynn and Vice President of Transmission and Distribution Operations Allen Berreth of Pacific Power answered questions by journalist Herman K. Trabish about the impacts and costs of wildfires in the Pacific Northwest, what those costs and impacts mean for electric utilities, and how electric utilities can take steps to protect their customers.

In this episode of the USEA Power Sector Podcast series on wildfires, Commissioner Letha Tawney of the Oregon Public Utilities Commission answered questions by journalist Herman K. Trabish about how policymakers and the power sector can address the impacts and costs of wildfires and protect electricity customers from the devastation and liability of the widening challenge of wildfires.

In this episode of the USEA Power Sector Podcast series on wildfires, Strategen Group Director of Regulatory Innovation Jennifer Potter, who spent 2018 to 2022 as a Commissioner with the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, answered questions by journalist Herman K. Trabish about the impacts and costs of Hawaii’s devastating Lahaina wildfire, how those impacts and costs have affected Hawaiian Electric customers and the Lahaina community, who in Hawaii should be responsible for them and how the question of responsibility for wildfires might be addressed nationally.

In this episode of the USEA Power Sector Podcast series on wildfires, Edison Electric Institute Executive Vice President, Clean Energy, and General Counsel Emily Sanford Fisher answered questions by journalist Herman K. Trabish about the growing impacts and costs of wildfires on electric utilities and their customers and about how and why to distribute those costs more equitably.

In this episode of the USEA Power Sector Podcast series on wildfires, University of California, Berkeley, Economist Severin Borenstein answered questions by journalist Herman K. Trabish about how policymakers and the power sector can address the impacts of wildfires and protect electricity customers from the burden of wildfire costs.