You certainly did not grasp all the ramifications I cited for outages. Of course storms precipitated the events, but continued outages were prolonged by all the reasons mentioned by other FR posters: Inability to trim trees, lack of maintenance on infrastructure because of EPA mandates steering capital away from transmission upgrades, etc.
You just don't want to deal with the facts, I see.
The only infrastructure change that would have prevented this would be to bury the utility lines underground. That is prohibitively expensive and there are many, many other more pressing infrastructure needs in the Northeast, such as aging water, sewer and road systems, which is why you don't see utility line burial happening much in older suburbs.
Second, local opposition to tree-trimming is often driven by aesthetic concerns, as many homeowners don't want their pretty trees in their front yards mangled by utility crews. The EPA has nothing to do with that.
Third, as I noted, this was an event with no significant lead warning. Most of the time, regional outages such as this one are due to systems where there is a lead forecast warning - hurricanes, blizzards, ice storms, etc - and outside utility crews often have a 2-3 day head start to the affected region to help restore power. There was no such warning for this event. Derechos often just pop up and promulgate themselves for hundreds of miles. Hence the longer-than-expected delays in getting electric service restored.
I have no problem attacking EPA idiocy. However, our attacks need to be tied to the facts of a given situation, otherwise the liberal idiots can point to posts such as yours as proof that EPA critics are unreasonable and out of touch.