Neither are the overwhelming majority of electrical outages. Then again firemen don't usually respond to electrical outages, and most electrical outages don't trigger evacuations, so there's that.
Besides the claim was "virtually never has an outage" not "virtually never has a widespread outage".
And im not talking the boonies. Im talking just outside San Francisco.
Aside from the market manipulation outages of 2001 and the initial round of public safety shutoffs, there weren't widespread interruptions of service. In fact last year the only rolling blackouts in the Bay Area were more or less accidental as whatever city (Alameda? Palo Alto?) jumped the gun.
Gas is way more reliable than electricity in CA.
Meanwhile Texas had widespread natural gas outages in 2021 and 2022. It's been a few years since I've had a power outage out here, and given the current state of PG&E's gas infra I wouldn't exactly call it reliable.
The thing with a power outage is that you'll sit around and enjoy having gas appliances. Whereas with a gas outage, you'll sit around and hope your house doesn't blow up.
Oh if we're talking the rest of California… it's less of a service outage and more like a mass evacuation (8,000+ families). Then again I'd say regular leaks, fires, and explosions do not a reliable delivery system make.
But anyways, how many people died from the wildfires started by power lines?
Certainly fewer than succumb to natural gas related causes. Nationwide somewhere around 15 people die annually from pipeline related incidents, over 400 from carbon monoxide poisoning. Safety with electrical stuff marches forward. Fault (ground, arc) interrupters, fused plugs, polarized and grounded receptacles. Safety with gas handling has basically stagnated and we can't even get gas powered appliances to not leak gas.
California's got a long history of safety problems with natural gas:
Not to the same degree they don't. Evacuations due to safety issues and service disruptions with gas are common. Evacuations due to safety issues with electrical service are not.
Another tragedy of the commons: Leaking gas infrastructure pollutes, causes explosion risks, and puts a greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, and gas companies just have subscribers pay for the losses. Not that PG&E didn't socialize risk while privatizing profit regarding fires.
Besides the claim was "virtually never has an outage" not "virtually never has a widespread outage".
Aside from the market manipulation outages of 2001 and the initial round of public safety shutoffs, there weren't widespread interruptions of service. In fact last year the only rolling blackouts in the Bay Area were more or less accidental as whatever city (Alameda? Palo Alto?) jumped the gun. Meanwhile Texas had widespread natural gas outages in 2021 and 2022. It's been a few years since I've had a power outage out here, and given the current state of PG&E's gas infra I wouldn't exactly call it reliable.The thing with a power outage is that you'll sit around and enjoy having gas appliances. Whereas with a gas outage, you'll sit around and hope your house doesn't blow up.