Yes, Entirely idiotic. If you base your opinions on anything/everything local politicians say i'm sorry to tell you that you are in fact the hopeless one here. Form your own educated opinion ffs. Do you know WHY those Governors are saying these things and making these BS threats this year when in the past few years Politicians have praised the Utilities response? Let me fill you in... its because of $$$$$$. (Shocking i know...). These companies are in the process of filling new Rate cases with the State this year. Guess who doesn't want to pony up the $$ and backing needed to keep improving the grid?
Much like you, these politicians want million dollar service for $5.99... Thats not how it works. You want to have a bullet proof system? Ok Convert all of NJ to Underground Service with Automated Meters. You want to guess how many $Billions that would cost? Do you also want to guess who doesn't want to pay for it? Yes... these same politicians you mentioned and us customers. People need to re-align their expectations with reality. Fact is 99.999% of the time there is no issue. Weather events happen, hurricanes, tornados, floods, snow and ice storms etc. You can have all the contingency in the world but mother nature is still going to do what it wants when it wants.
Also you know these are private companies, private businesses that are trying to make money and not Government entities providing some kind of entitlement service right? So why would a company overstaff and pay huge amounts of salary when 99% of the time that level of staffing would be extremely unnecessary? Name one business that does this and doesn't go under in short order... Come on, common sense goes a long away, i just wish it was more common than it apparently is.