While The Rest Of Us Die 2x3

1. Even as the pandemic drags on,

2. we are seeing, smelling,

3. and tasting the next global catastrophe.

4. America already has totally broken and

5. destroyed infrastructure, right?

6. I mean, American water is undrinkable in plenty of cities.

7. Of course, you know, it's...

8. this is gonna get worse.

9. American taxpayers believed they'd struck a bargain with

10. the government and the energy industry.

11. We give you our money,

12. you keep up the infrastructure

13. required for our very survival.

14. But they broke that deal.

15. All of this devastation really came down to one hook that

16. hadn't been properly inspected for many years.

17. Companies we trusted have pocketed our money.

18. PG&E had ended up deferring maintenance for years,

19. upon years, upon years, while prioritizing profit.

20. To enrich themselves...

21. Lee Raymond was the CEO of Exxon for decades.

22. He was like Jabba the Hutt or something.

23. The energy industry has invested heavily on

24. selling us a brighter future.

25. We're continuously innovating.

26. While leaving us to stumble in the dark

27. towards the brink of extinction.

28. The real crime is that, because we weren't warned,

29. people were going about their business,

30. not knowing that this crisis is gonna ruin them.

31. For over 70 years, our leaders have told us one thing

32. under the bright lights...

33. The protection of the lives and property of Americans

34. is the responsibility of all public officials.

35. I care, we're trying.

36. We have it so well under control.

37. Help is here and we will not stop working for you.

38. But for decades, America's shadow government and its

39. powerful friends have spent trillions of dollars on an

40. agenda that serves their interests, not ours.

41. You guys paid for all this.

42. So, when the shit really hits the fan, we're on our own.

43. This is not science fiction.

44. This is reality in America right now.

45. The truth is, the rich and powerful will do

46. whatever it takes to save themselves...

47. While The Rest of Us Die.

48. All of Texas is facing an extremely dangerous

49. winter storm in the coming days.

50. February 13th, 2021,

51. a winter storm sweeping across the US

52. begins to bear down on the Lone Star State.

53. Overnight, historic and dangerous cold

54. taking aim at millions.

55. It will make movement virtually impossible.

56. 32 into Sunday afternoon. And then we stay below freezing

57. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

58. We don't get back above freezing until Friday afternoon.

59. In the rest of the country, the freezing weather prompts

60. warnings to stay indoors and keep warm.

61. But in Texas, the danger will be inside the house.

62. - It's like a walk-in freezer. - You'll see a blanket here.

63. It's really terrifying.

64. Before the storm has passed, 4 and a half million Texans

65. will be without power.

66. Some will freeze to death in their homes.

67. Senator Ted Cruze will escape to Cancun.

68. And those responsible will reap billions in profit,

69. while leaving most Texans wondering:

70. "How could this happen"?

71. The next few days are going to be very tough.

72. There's a high chance the power will be out

73. for a couple of days.

74. As the storm approaches, Texans are warned of power outages.

75. But only industry insiders would know

76. how bad things were about to get.

77. Or how vulnerable the state grid really is.

78. Bill Magnus is the CEO of ERCOT,

79. the manager of the state's power grid.

80. The storm and the extent of it has been extraordinary,

81. so we are seeing a whole lot of units coming off for reasons

82. that have to do with the weather.

83. But simply blaming the weather doesn't tell the real story.

84. While the winter storm sweeps across most of North America,

85. only in Texas did it precipitate a deadly crisis.

86. Because in Texas,

87. the electricity grid suffers from a fatal flaw.

88. They never invested the money needed to protect it against

89. even the storm's mildly freezing temperatures.

90. Something industry insiders kept secret from customers

91. like Alan Brockelman.

92. And I love snow too, but after this I'm just kidna...

93. Each day, they would predict,

94. temperatures would get lower and lower and lower.

95. But ERCOT didn't send anything out until the

96. just the day before, not even 24 hours before.

97. People in Texas were just gob smacked that, you know,

98. here we are, the energy capital of the world.

99. We brag about the fact that we produce more oil and gas than

100. any other state, and even a lot of countries.

101. We are the biggest producer of wind power in North America.

102. And yet, despite all of that, we're freezing in the dark

103. because we can't get that energy where it needs

104. to go during a crisis.

105. There wasn't enough juice in the system.

106. And what that meant for Texans was, the lights went out.

107. And, the lights didn't go out just for a little bit.

108. The lights went out for days and days.

109. And it went out at a really critical moment,

110. when it was freezing even inside your own house.

111. I know God is here, but who else?

112. We're supposed to take care of our people.

113. It was unbelievable.

114. Unbelievable - but perhaps inevitable.

115. The state's faith in rugged individualism,

116. coupled with a belief that private business does

117. everything better than government,

118. combined to make Texas the only state in America with

119. an isolated, privately owned power grid...

120. one outside the reach of state and federal oversight.

121. Most states have regulated electricity.

122. Our prices are capped.

123. But Texas, this state is about deregulation and they

124. Unable to draw on power from neighboring states,

125. Texans are now headed into a deadly crisis,

126. and completely at the mercy of ERCOT.

127. The grid company begins imposing rolling blackouts,

128. putting much of Texas in the dark as the storm gets worse.

129. It's a decision that will ultimately

130. claim the lives of hundreds.

131. Including an eight-year girl and a woman.

132. Dying from carbon monoxide poisoning,

133. after a car was left running in a garage to help create heat.

134. It's only months after the February Texas blackout that

135. the true picture of what actually happened

136. is beginning to emerge.

137. Patrick Luff is a personal injury lawyer in Dallas.

138. His firm is representing the families of dozens

139. who died in the storm.

140. These companies continue to be told:

141. "Here's exactly what you need to do to prevent

142. these sorts of disasters from happening again,

143. and it's not very expensive."

144. And yet, they make the conscious choice that

145. they're not going to fix their systems because

146. it's cheaper and easier for them to just continue

147. with business as usual.

148. There's a... icicle.

149. And it even got it literally actually touched the rail,

150. her wheelchair rail.

151. Shortly before the rolling blackouts plunged his

152. neighborhood into darkness, Alan finally receives

153. a warning message from the grid operator.

154. When you send me a text message and you say:

155. "15 to 45-minute blackouts, please sign this if you agree,"

156. and then you cut off the power for 40 hours...

157. Kids, grandmas, elderly, disabled.

158. Alan wasn't facing the crisis alone.

159. He and his son also cared for his mother, Kimberly,

160. who had been paralyzed in an accident.

161. Just grandma, son, and grandson.

162. Growing old together, looking after each other.

163. Supporting each other. That's what it was all about.

164. As the storm approaches,

165. Alan knows that his mother is vulnerable.

166. I remember taking this picture 'cause this is

167. when I really started getting worried.

168. Like a lot of people who are paralyzed,

169. their blood circulation isn't the same, right?

170. It was a big concern...

171. catching pneumonia.

172. The cold came in Saturday,

173. and then the blizzard came in the 14th.

174. And then, 24 hours after that, the power went out.

175. I stayed out for 15 hours... straight.

176. This is the front yard, no power.

177. On the next night, it went out again.

178. And it stayed out for 21 hours.

179. As the storm bears down, all across Dallas,

180. neighborhood after neighborhood watch

181. as ERCOT turns out their lights.

182. A white desert was what it was.

183. You didn't see grass. You didn't see anything.

184. All you saw was, was snow and icicles everywhere.

185. And everybody that was out trying to get firewood or

186. trying to get food or medicine or whatever,

187. was just kind of like a bunch of confused ants.

188. As Alan goes to sleep on the night of February 15th,

189. the power has now been out for 14 hours.

190. I woke up at 2:00 am. I remember her:

191. "Alan, Alan! My, my mattress is flattening.

192. The power's out"! I woke up and I was like,

193. oh, God, here we go.

194. She had the electric mattress so that she didn't get sores.

195. She was very fragile because of her blood circulation.

196. So, I mean, this was critical.

197. Alan carries his mother into the living room,

198. where a fire is burning.

199. I will not forget this for the life of me.

200. She looked at me and she was sitting right there,

201. and she said: "This feels like an attack".

202. I couldn't disagree with her on it, you know,

203. so I just told her: "Look, it's gonna be okay.

204. We're gonna get through this".

205. You know, just keep staying warm, stay by the fireplace,

206. and keep trying to get a hold of the electric company.

207. On the morning of February 19th,

208. the power finally comes back on.

209. She looked at me and she said: "We made it.

210. We made it through this. I'm so proud of you".

211. Hours later, Alan's son discovers

212. his grandmother in her bedroom.

213. So, I ran in there.

214. And, of course, there she was.

215. And foam was coming out of her mouth.

216. She was pale.

217. The last thing I want to happen is for my son, you know,

218. to, to walk in your room one day and find she

219. you know, not breathing.

220. It happened.

221. It happened.

222. Alan's mother Kimberly was just 56.

223. Only later did he learn that while his mother was shivering

224. at home for 40 hours, the lights in

225. downtown Dallas stayed on.

226. Dallas had all its lights on, all those pretty lights on.

227. All the skyscrapers and everything.

228. You know how much power we could have had?

229. That made me mad.

230. I mean, these guys in power,

231. it's all about money and greed, as far as I can see.

232. As people like Alan's mother freeze to death in their homes,

233. a system is in place to transform the tragedy into a

234. money-making opportunity for the very people

235. who created the crisis.

236. Alright, we're moving on from the Texas power outage

237. to the Texas power outrage.

238. In February 2021,

239. the energy capital of the world runs out of electricity.

240. While downtown Dallas remains lit up for Valentine's Day,

241. the Texas electricity company shuts off power to millions,

242. leaving some to freeze to death inside their homes.

243. And for an encore,

244. they demanded to be paid for doing it.

245. The real slap in the face after it is when this power

246. sort of came back, so did these

247. astronomical power bills for people.

248. At one point, one megawatt went from $50 to about $9,000.

249. So, how can a company get away with jacking up energy bills

250. more than 10,000%, after leaving millions

251. of their customers shivering in their homes?

252. The answer lies back in the 1990s.

253. You know when you work for Enron,

254. you're gonna see the newest thinking,

255. you're gonna see the newest products, the newest services.

256. You're gonna see the newest markets opening up.

257. The newest ways of thinking about things.

258. In the 90s, the powerful energy industry starts looking to

259. expand from oil and gas into the government regulated

260. electricity business.

261. A handful of legislators started pushing to open up

262. the markets and break apart the monopolies,

263. so that traders could buy and sell electricity in the

264. same way they sold stocks on the market.

265. Leading the charge for electricity deregulation was

266. a Houston-based energy company called Enron.

267. A company that had done something similar

268. with natural gas in the 80's.

269. Jeff Skilling, Enron's president and

270. chief operating officer.

271. Well, actually, our natural gas business was

272. extremely strong in the third quarter.

273. But, in addition, the power markets all around the world

274. are deregulating and Enron has a

275. significant position in those markets.

276. And so, that helped the quarter as well.

277. Enron begins lobbying states

278. all over the country to deregulate.

279. And, the two most prominent examples of that

280. would be California and Texas.

281. And, in both cases, they contributed to a disaster.

282. Most Americans probably hadn't heard of Enron

283. until a few weeks ago. But here in Texas,

284. the corporation's the stuff of legend.

285. Enron shares are gaining half a dollar on the day.

286. Let's take a closer look at that.

287. Enron executive Ken Lay finds Governor George W. Bush

288. is receptive to the idea that private companies

289. can do everything better than government

290. including cheaper electricity for Texans.

291. And while Enron lacks details about how deregulation will

292. actually lower prices, it makes up for it with enthusiasm

293. about its own corporate brilliance.

294. - When did the price change? - Is that your price?

295. - What is the real price? - Price!

296. The price was hidden,

297. and it took an incredible amount of work to dig it out.

298. Enron Online will change the markets for

299. many, many commodities.

300. I like to think about Enron as sort of an investment bank in

301. its operations, but sort of like a Silicon Valley startup

302. in its style. There is a certain kind of swagger

303. that developed over the course of the 1990s.

304. A great quote from some of the company's literature was that

305. they were always dissatisfied with the status quo,

306. and that they were always looking to see how things

307. could be improved.

308. What that led to was this incredible arrogance.

309. They ran this crazy series of commercials in 2000

310. called the Ask Why campaign.

311. Why? It is a small word.

312. That, again, just presented them as this

313. incredibly forward thinking, slick company.

314. And they were getting into all sorts of different markets.

315. You can't predict the weather.

316. There's nothing you can do about it.

317. As they got more press, and as they became more famous,

318. and as people like Jeff Skilling were hailed as geniuses...

319. And that's our vision.

320. We're trying to change the world.

321. they're suddenly unable to actually describe

322. what it is they do. If you look at, like,

323. letters to shareholders and stuff like that...

324. they'll start off with: "People don't understand what we are.

325. They have a hard time describing us,

326. but we know what we are".

327. At one point, they were having a hard time coming up

328. with the company's new vision statement.

329. And, Jeff Skilling said that somebody had come up with the

330. idea of just sort of calling it the world's coolest company.

331. Soon, the self-described "coolest company in the world"

332. will be responsible for the energy markets in the

333. two biggest states, a responsibility seemingly

334. lost on Enron's most senior management.

335. You know, the culture of Enron was one where

336. guardrails just didn't exist.

337. We have the people, and the skill base,

338. and experience to win in a competitive marketplace.

339. It was a culture where the top executives really saw

340. accounting rules, and rules for public companies,

341. as challenges to get around.

342. And they actually thought, you know: "Hey,

343. if we figure out a way around this accounting rule,

344. that's cause we're smart".

345. Reducing electricity cost is only one benefit...

346. from choice and competition.

347. It created a culture throughout the company

348. that the rules don't matter.

349. I'm gonna get some pricing for ya.

350. I'm gonna call you back.

351. You're dealing with a trading floor environment

352. where a lot of money is being passed around and,

353. it manifested itself in all the ways you might imagine from,

354. very fancy sports cars driving around Houston,

355. to a proliferation of topless bars to, you know, all,

356. all kinds of things.

357. They ran this this feature periodically

358. called Extreme Enron. And the idea was like,

359. these are what Enron workers are doing on their weekends.

360. And there are these completely ridiculous stories.

361. People who would go race hydroplanes.

362. One describes somebody who would go Orchid hunting.

363. But, they would sort of characterize it as like,

364. having to dodge alligators as you're looking for like the

365. perfect orchid and stuff like that.

366. They basically kind of encouraged risk taking.

367. One thing the company didn't seem to focus on was the

368. actual job of overseeing the power grid.

369. While Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay were the public faces of Enron,

370. behind the scenes were executives like Lou Pai,

371. a notorious partier who was handed the company's

372. new electricity arm.

373. Lou Pai has become sort of legendary.

374. He and others would go to Houston strip clubs and

375. sometimes even bring some of the strippers

376. back to the offices and so on.

377. Lou Pai's fondness for one exotic dancer eventually leads

378. to a costly divorce with his wife of 20 years...

379. forcing him to sell $250 million worth of Enron stock.

380. This is what's happening at the offices of Enron.

381. And despite this, first California and then Texas,

382. will go into business with Enron after being convinced to

383. deregulate with a promise of cheaper electricity.

384. They began by attracting the kind of people that are more

385. comfortable in an environment of change.

386. And now Enron is in control of the power grid.

387. In a preview of what will happen two decades later in Texas,

388. California experiences a record heat wave,

389. and power demand soars.

390. Almost the day this system was put into place,

391. the electricity traders began to manipulate it and

392. game the market.

393. They had these crazy sounding strategies.

394. Ricochet was one, Death Star was one,

395. Fatboy was another one.

396. And they found ways to like route power in certain ways

397. that would create, like, blockages or spikes or

398. like a quick need for power.

399. And then they would quickly profit from these different

400. weird things happening in the California market.

401. Consumer advocate Harvey Rosenfield says Californians

402. are being held hostage by a failed experiment in

403. deregulation of electric utilities.

404. Our view of it is it was blackout blackmail.

405. Tim Belden, who ran Enron's west coast operation,

406. said that there was chaos in California and,

407. chaos drove high prices and,

408. therefore, chaos was good for Enron.

409. Chaos was profitable.

410. California's decision to hand over its power grid to the

411. private sector proves disastrous.

412. Enron is a company that deals with everyone

413. with absolute integrity.

414. In the chaos, Gray Davis becomes only the second

415. governor in US history to be successfully recalled.

416. This recall has been like a roller coaster.

417. Enron's ride also ends.

418. Enron, now the biggest bankruptcy in US history.

419. No training manual...

420. Despite gouging Californians by manufacturing

421. an electricity crisis, the company is still

422. hemorrhaging hundreds of millions.

423. Since scamming customers worked so well,

424. it tried to do the same with the IRS.

425. That ended less well.

426. The whole truth and nothing but the truth...

427. Jeff Skilling goes to prison for financial fraud.

428. Ken Lay avoids prison by dying of a heart attack.

429. But Lou Pai, the electricity executive,

430. slips away to Colorado,

431. where he's purchased 77,000 acres of land.

432. And a mountain.

433. But the story of Enron is more than just a

434. cautionary tale about the damage one company with

435. bad actors at its helm can wreak on citizens.

436. I think I think we've done an incredibly poor job

437. of learning the lessons of Enron.

438. As Enron's stock...

439. We've wrapped a whole bunch of stories around the company.

440. We've got a great cast of characters to work with.

441. But some of the fundamental lessons of Enron

442. are still out there.

443. And those lessons, like it's dangerous to embrace

444. magical thinking around the infallibility of

445. the private sector, live on...

446. most of all in Texas.

447. In Texas, deregulation means that Texas has given

448. its own jurisdiction over its grid.

449. And there, the ideas of market uber alles and,

450. the public sector be damned, and regulation be damned,

451. are very strong.

452. And so, the utilities do not invest in protecting

453. the power lines and the power stations.

454. Because they would prefer to hand that money

455. to the share owners, right?

456. Well, lo and behold, then we get this insane cold snap and

457. there's total chaos.

458. That's what happens after 20 years of

459. refusing to invest in infrastructure.

460. It means we're not ready for climate chaos.

461. Not ready, as it turns out, because private industry

462. conspired to maximize profits and hide the truth,

463. leaving the rest of us to face a climate out of control.

464. When the power went out in February,

465. I think the country was well aware that people didn't have

466. power and water, but the other part of this crisis that

467. did not get a ton of attention, is the methane disaster.

468. As pipelines freeze, drilling sites in Texas oil fields

469. have nowhere to send the gas that's being extracted.

470. They are forced to burn off almost everything,

471. in a process known as flaring.

472. That was happening in the most productive oil field

473. in the country, the Permian Basin in west Texas,

474. where there are hundreds and thousands of oil

475. and gas wells that are releasing methane,

476. a powerful greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.

477. As people are freezing to death inside their homes,

478. the Permian Basin is on fire.

479. In a single day, at least 1.6-billion cubic feet of

480. natural gas is burned off.

481. Enough to power thousands of homes for an entire year.

482. What is really striking here is how little we know about

483. how much gas was released.

484. And this comes back to gaps in our regulatory system,

485. where companies don't necessarily have to report

486. when there's a disaster, that they are releasing

487. vast amount of pollution in the air.

488. That actually is one of the most significant takeaways,

489. I think, from February.

490. For decades, some of the wealthiest industries in the

491. country have done everything in their power to prevent

492. the rest of us from understanding the damage

493. they have done in order to profit.

494. As the Texas freeze gets people asking questions,

495. the oil and gas industry, and the government

496. work together to obscure the truth.

497. I think perhaps the most shameful aspect of this entire

498. crisis was that everybody rushed to score political points,

499. even before they made sure people were safe.

500. Our governor went on the cozy environs of Fox News

501. to blame renewables.

502. It's just foolish to think that we can disband the use of

503. fossil fuel and have a safe and comfortable nation.

504. Even before he addressed the people of Texas about,

505. about the degree of the crisis.

506. So, and this shows how the Green New Deal would be a

507. deadly deal for the United States of America.

508. Behind the scenes, a sophisticated PR machine

509. is practicing modern day alchemy

510. transforming an oil and gas fiasco into

511. one made of renewable energy.

512. What was remarkable about the Texas freeze was that the

513. denial camp, the people who have spent a lifetime fighting

514. against renewable energy and fighting for fossil fuels

515. jumped in ahead of the real crisis and

516. started blaming the wind turbines. And saying:

517. "The whole crisis is caused by frozen wind turbines".

518. And it stuck because it was almost a man bites dog story.

519. Like, oh, the solution to climate change fails in the

520. moment of need, in what is sort of a climate event.

521. It was picked up by mainstream media.

522. It was in New York Times articles, on CNN articles.

523. Everybody was saying it by Monday or Tuesday of that week.

524. Officials imposed rolling blackouts,

525. saying the lack of energy is due in part to frozen

526. wind turbines in west Texas knocked offline.

527. Turned out to be not true at all.

528. The power from wind turbines makes up only about 20%

529. of the electricity supply in Texas.

530. Almost all of the power shortages actually came

531. from natural gas and coal.

532. In fact, later documents recovered through public

533. records requests showed that the government, itself,

534. was consulting with known climate deniers.

535. Taking messaging advice. Alex Epstein was one of them.

536. He's a guy who wears a t- "I heart fossil fuels".

537. And Steve Milloy, long time climate denier.

538. He's known for fighting what he calls "junk science".

539. Those two ramped up very quickly over the weekend,

540. and started amplifying this, this misstatement of facts.

541. What would this have looked like 20 years ago in Texas,

542. dealing with these kinds of weather conditions?

543. Well, you know, there'd still be difficulties.

544. But, you know, you wouldn't have your grid relying on

545. windmills that are frozen.

546. The Texas Permian Basin is ground zero in the war over

547. whether the future of American energy lies in

548. oil and gas, or renewables.

549. Stretching for hundreds of miles,

550. the Permian Basin accounts for nearly half of

551. all US oil production.

552. If things go as planned,

553. only Saudi Arabia will produce more by 2029.

554. No more coal! No more oil!

555. Keep that garbage in the soil!

556. But as the world moves to phase out fossil fuels,

557. that industry, with its powerful lobby, is under siege.

558. And it seems willing to try just about anything

559. to stay in business.

560. Back in the 1980s,

561. the natural gas industry's enemy was electricity

562. and it battled for America's hearts and minds

563. and kitchen appliances.

564. Four decades later, the natural gas industry is still at it.

565. And one way the gas industry has been doing this is,

566. by hiring social media influencers...

567. My reporting found that these influencers were all

568. talking about the virtues of cooking with gas,

569. and it tied back to this broader industry campaign to

570. try to prevent cities from pursuing

571. these electrification campaigns.

572. So, this was a very 21st century kind of misinformation

573. campaign on how the gas industry was using social media

574. in a more sophisticated way to fight climate action.

575. For decades the oil and gas industry has known that clean

576. energy would be essential to preventing a global catastrophe.

577. But also bad for profits.

578. How dare you!

579. So, in the classic strategy, if you can't beat em, join em',

580. the fossil fuel industry began advertising that

581. they are part of the solution.

582. At Chevron, we believe the future of energy

583. is lower carbon.

584. We see a flood of advertising where the,

585. the oil industry is showing itself as the

586. greenest thing that can be.

587. "We're paying attention to emissions,

588. we know this is serious. We're very, very smart,

589. by the way, and we're figuring it out.

590. So, back off, everybody".

591. Exxon ran multimillion dollar ads from 2016 through just

592. before the pandemic hit, about their algae program.

593. Some farms grow food. This one grows fuel.

594. Which is a side, side project for them.

595. Way less funding than their multibillion dollar exploration

596. for new oil for us to burn.

597. That could one day power planes...

598. Propel ships...

599. And fuel trucks.

600. And it gave the impression that you might be putting algae

601. derived biofuel in your gas tank really soon.

602. When, in fact, it's not soon at all.

603. Or even, at all.

604. Despite those biofuel ads, a decade earlier,

605. the company concluded that it would never replace oil.

606. We looked at everything.

607. I mean, we looked from soup to nuts.

608. That none of these technologies were gonna be

609. competitive against oil.

610. Lee Raymond was the CEO of Exxon for decades.

611. I mean, he was like a character

612. he was like Jabba the Hutt or something.

613. Like a character out of a weird sci-fi movie.

614. Totally stubborn on climate change.

615. Unmovable.

616. And also, we think, the architect of their

617. backlash campaign, their denial campaign,

618. at least authorizing it, in the mid 90s through when he left.

619. Did we aggressively fight against...

620. some of the science? Yes.

621. Did we join some of these shadow groups to

622. work against some of the early efforts?

623. Yes, that's true. But, there's nothing,

624. there's nothing illegal about that.

625. Companies like Exxon spend hundreds of millions to delay

626. action on climate change to maximize their profits,

627. knowing full well the deadly consequences for the rest of us.

628. We lost a generation, to be honest. I mean,

629. we could have taken action on this in the 80s.

630. We certainly had enough knowledge, and enough warning,

631. and enough certainty to take action in the early 90s,

632. to start cutting emissions.

633. In fact, Exxon's own documents say:

634. "If society's gonna take this seriously,

635. they ought to start cutting emissions in the 90s".

636. Through the 90s, through the 2000s, really,

637. into the Obama era. We've done nothing.

638. We've done very little.

639. And in the meantime, emissions go up.

640. The concentration in the atmosphere goes up.

641. The warming is going up. And it's like a runaway train.

642. And when a privately run energy utility prioritizes profits

643. over everything else, doing nothing can lead to

644. a state burning out of control.

645. As soon as I started driving north from San Francisco,

646. on the horizon you could just see this clear

647. black line in the sky.

648. And it was a color that I've never seen before.

649. It was like thick oil, black, dark, bruised purple, green.

650. And it was all of these houses and lives

651. just being lofted into the sky.

652. In 2018, California has already been through two seasons

653. of record-breaking, deadly wildfires.

654. In 2017, you had the Tubbs Fire down in Ventura, California.

655. It burned past Christmas and was the largest wildfire

656. in state history.

657. In 2018, you had the car fire, which spawned a

658. fire tornado in the Mendocino Complex, which...

659. less than a year after the Thomas Fire,

660. earned the role of biggest fire in state history.

661. Oh, my god!

662. So, by the time November rolled around, you know,

663. Thanksgiving was coming. It was still really dry.

664. Rain hadn't come.

665. But I think for a lot of Californians,

666. there is this expectation of, oh, fire season's over now so,

667. things will just go back to normal.

668. But climate change has stripped normal' of its meaning.

669. And a small town named "Paradise" is about to

670. become anything but.

671. They've got 60 people here, going round,

672. trying to subvert their own government's willingness

673. to get everybody on board.

674. Even for the rather pathetic proposals,

675. which the United States has brought forward.

676. Decades ago, some of America's largest companies joined

677. forces to cast doubt about climate change.

678. Knowing that they would profit more if we did nothing.

679. One of those companies was the California

680. electricity utility PG&E.

681. It there anything anyone wants to say?

682. No, your honour.

683. No, your honour.

684. Very well.

685. PG&E is the same company accused in the movie,

686. Erin Brockovich, of poisoning a California town back in 1993

687. by dumping toxins into the local water supply.

688. In the matter of the plaintiffs of Hinkley, California vs.

689. Pacific Gas and Electric, the causes of action against

690. Pacific Gas and Electric are upheld.

691. In 2018, PG&E is back in the news

692. this time for something they failed to do

693. that resulted in more devastating losses.

694. It was around 6:30 in the morning.

695. On the morning of November 8, San Francisco Chronicle

696. reporter Lizzie Johnson wakes up to reports of a new wildfire.

697. I drove up the skyway to get there, and it was just...

698. Total and utter devastation.

699. You know, most of the downtown was burning.

700. Homes were burning.

701. It was hard to find a place that was untouched by it.

702. And scattered amidst the scene were all of these just

703. burned and gutted cars that...

704. people hadn't made it out or, were forced to make a really

705. hard decision to run because maybe they had run out of gas,

706. or their tires had deflated.

707. And, you know, just seeing that,

708. you realized that there were thousands of people

709. whose lives have been utterly changed...

710. within a few hours.

711. It was the worst thing I've ever seen.

712. The, the smoke was so thick that satellites up in

713. outer space could see it.

714. And the closer you got, the smoke just

715. took over everything, to the point where all you

716. could see was black and orange smoke.

717. By the time Johnson arrives in Paradise,

718. the wildfire has already traveled eight miles,

719. consuming everything in its path.

720. Yeah, just got a report from 21-0-7 Delta.

721. They're trapped in a road with multiple residences.

722. Taking refuge in a creek.

723. I've got one patient with chest pains.

724. However, we can't get in at this time.

725. We've got explosions, structures on fire.

726. And we're taking refuge in our vehicle.

727. Before the fire hit Paradise, it steamrolled this tiny

728. unincorporated town called Concow.

729. Which is just, you know, clusters of people

730. scattered around this lake,

731. a few miles over the mountains from Paradise.

732. And those people truly had no warning at all.

733. They were the ones that were calling 9-1-1 saying,

734. you know: "There are flames outside my window".

735. And the 9-1-1 dispatcher was like:

736. "No, the fire is not here. You're wrong.

737. Like, it's fine". And it wasn't fine.

738. There is a woman who ran out of her home,

739. and got stuck under a truck and had to breathe air

740. out of the tire to survive.

741. And she was terribly burned, but she lived.

742. Her roommate died under the truck next to her.

743. But, even the fact that she made it is incredible.

744. There were a couple of people who helped an elderly man

745. canoe out into the middle of this lake, to survive the fire.

746. And so, those are the stories of heroism that just...

747. are things that you would only expect to see in a movie.

748. So, you know, it was a huge toll,

749. but it could have been a lot worse,

750. given how many people were trapped.

751. On the same morning that Johnson is in Paradise

752. witnessing the devastation, investigators from Cal Fire

753. are on the scene investigating what started it.

754. They noticed that on a transmission tower owned by

755. the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, this hook had snapped,

756. and it looked like a high voltage line had fallen and

757. hit the tower, and sprayed metal into the grass.

758. Of course, they have to verify all of those findings.

759. So, that's where the FBI got involved.

760. The snapped hook was nearly a hundred years old.

761. Had PG&E inspectors looked at it,

762. they would have found the metal was dangerously eroded.

763. And it turned out that PG&E

764. had ended up deferring maintenance

765. for years upon years upon years while prioritizing profit.

766. And so, all of this devastation really came down to one hook

767. that hadn't been cataloged, that hadn't been properly

768. inspected for many years.

769. And had they just replaced it,

770. all of these lives would have been spared.

771. PG&E decided it was more profitable to let its

772. infrastructure rot, even if that meant people died.

773. Why do we allow them and other companies

774. to keep getting away with it?

775. I wish there was some way to take back...

776. what happened, or to take away the impact...

777. the pain that these people have suffered.

778. But I know that can't be done.

779. Our equipment started that fire,

780. destroyed the towns of Paradise, Concow,

781. severely burned other parts of Butte County.

782. In 2020, the utility company PG&E pleads guilty to 84 counts

783. of manslaughter for its role in causing the fire that

784. destroyed Paradise, California.

785. So, your honour, I make this plea

786. with great sadness and regret.

787. And with eyes wide open to what happened to

788. and to what must never happen again.

789. Thank you, sir.

790. It was the costliest natural disaster on the planet in 2018,

791. causing an estimated $16.5 billion in losses.

792. The courts fine PG&E just $3.4 million.

793. If it were a person,

794. PG&E would spend the rest of its life in prison.

795. But PG&E is not a person.

796. So, while its executives earn millions in salary and

797. performance bonuses, none of them is charged, personally,

798. for what happened.

799. And Paradise was not an isolated incident.

800. PG&E is a deadly recidivist.

801. In 2017, Cal Fire determined that faulty PG&E equipment

802. started 17 major wildfires that killed 22 people.

803. That same year, the company's CEO made over $7 million.

804. In 2016, the company was convicted in connection to a

805. pipeline explosion that killed 8 people.

806. As the CEO came home with nearly 11 million.

807. In 2021, PG&E said its equipment may have started

808. one of the largest fires in state history.

809. It was criminally charged, yet again,

810. this time for starting a massive wildfire

811. north of San Francisco.

812. In 2020, the CEO made over 6 million.

813. Alice Stebbins was the executive director of the

814. Public Utilities Commission that regulates PG&E in California.

815. PG&E is unique because of its size.

816. But it's also, you know, let's face it,

817. they're a publicly traded company.

818. What's their number one thing? Money.

819. The Pacific Gas and Electric Company became the largest

820. power provider in California by snapping up

821. a lot of smaller utilities.

822. So, that transmission line that started the camp fire off of

823. the highway in Pulga, was originally owned by

824. the Great Western Power Company.

825. And PG&E bought it.

826. And, the way that the district attorney in Butte County

827. describes it as, it's like buying a used car,

828. and then not taking it in for maintenance,

829. not changing the oil, and basically

830. running that car until it fails.

831. It's called the 'run to failure approach'.

832. But as climate change makes these fires worse and worse,

833. and more people are living in the forest,

834. that run to failure approach doesn't work anymore.

835. And so, now PG&E has a crisis on its hands because

836. they have all of this vulnerable infrastructure

837. that they need to harden.

838. And it's a massive undertaking that is just...

839. trying to correct years of negligence,

840. and that priority on profit because they could.

841. But now that doesn't work anymore.

842. When did big business become more important...

843. than the ratepayers and the taxpayers?

844. And why is that okay? I mean, it makes me so sad.

845. Especially after all the fires. After all the destruction.

846. After all the death. And I just,

847. I'm tired of the lip service.

848. It's like, do something.