CALIFORNIA BURNS AS GOV. MOONBEAM’S ‘REGULATORY CAPTURE’ DAWDLES: Look no further than the Golden State for a perfect illustration of the dire effects of special interests and government insiders controlling oversight of a vital public service like wildfire management and the utility companies that supply power throughout the state.

The Washington Free Beacon’s Susan Crabtree explains why it’s taken nine years for state officials and utility industry experts to come up with a desperately needed map of fire-prevention measures in California’s many areas that are prone to conflagrations sparked by powerline and equipment failures. The recent Camp Fire that is now the worst-ever in California history was reportedly caused by failure of a PG&E powerline.

Outgoing Gov. Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown’s 12-year tenure overlapped with much of the growing wildfire problem, which he now ridiculously attributes to “climate change.” Between Brown’s incompetence and that of federal land managers driven by ludicrous environmentalist notions of forestry non-intervention, will California literally burn to the ground?