Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

3 days ago

Trump Says He’s Willing to Let Migrant Farm Laborers Stay in US

3 days ago

US Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks Will Expire on Sept. 30

3 days ago

Eyeing Arctic Dominance, Trump Bill Earmarks $8.6 Billion for US Coast Guard Icebreakers

4 days ago

Trump’s Sweeping Tax-Cut and Spending Bill Wins Congressional Approval

4 days ago

Americans Celebrate Their Independence With Record-Breaking Travel Numbers

4 days ago

US Supreme Court to Decide Legality of Transgender School Sports Bans

4 days ago

Nvidia Set to Become the World’s Most Valuable Company in History

4 days ago

Poll: 41% in US ‘Extremely Proud’ to Be American, Near Historic Low

4 days ago
Walters: Newsom Now Owns the Wildfire and PG&E Crisis
dan_walters
By Dan Walters, CalMatters Commentary
Published 6 years ago on
October 30, 2019

Share

The careers of political executives — presidents, governors and big-city mayors — are often defined, fairly or not, by how they respond to crises.
Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, Franklin Roosevelt and the Great Depression, John Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis and Jimmy Carter and the Iranian hostage seizure are examples.


Dan Walters
Opinion
There are also telling examples among California’s recent governors.
Pat Brown’s absence from the state when the Watts riots erupted in 1965 doomed his bid for a third term and son Jerry Brown’s clumsy response to a Mediterranean fruit fly infestation in 1980 likewise undermined his hopes for a U.S. Senate seat.
Pete Wilson’s decisive management of natural and human-caused calamities in the early 1990s helped him win a second term. But his successor, Gray Davis, fumbled an energy crisis a decade later, and was recalled.
When Jerry Brown returned to the governorship in 2011, he was much older and more circumspect. He dealt adroitly with the near-collapse of the Oroville Dam in 2017 — making sure that those managing the dam and the evacuations had ample resources and avoiding grandstanding. He replicated that quiet approach when wildfires erupted, including one that wiped out the town of Paradise last year.
And then there is Gavin Newsom.

Newsom Loves the Limelight

Just months into his governorship, he was confronted with still another spate of fierce wildfires and the bankruptcy of the nation’s largest investor-owned utility, Pacific Gas and Electric. PG&E’s wind-blown transmission lines apparently caused some of the biggest fires, leading to enormous damage claims.

“I own this. I’ve been in office now nine months. My Public Utilities Commission, which has new leadership as of a few weeks ago, owns this.” Gov. Gavin Newsom
Newsom has rejected Brown’s diffident example in favor of a high-profile commander-in-chief approach, with personal appearances at command centers and fire refugee sites and multiple news conferences and media interviews.
“I own this,” Newsom told Capital Public Radio. “I’ve been in office now nine months. My Public Utilities Commission, which has new leadership as of a few weeks ago, owns this.”
One shouldn’t be surprised. Newsom loves the limelight, loves making bold gestures and loves the sound of his own voice.
However, this is a very complex crisis, involving decades of expanding human habitation in fire-prone areas, climate change, a liability law that’s unworkably simplistic, the proper role of a state-regulated utility and other factors too numerous to list.
Photo of a burning house
Vines surround a burning building as the Kincade Fire burns through the Jimtown community of unincorporated Sonoma County, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Changing Ownership Does Not Change the Essential Conflict

Politicians criticize PG&E for shutting off service when fire danger rises, causing inconvenience to customers, but then denounce the company for not acting sooner when fire erupts — all the while ignoring the fact that their laws and Public Utilities Commission decrees dictate much of what the utility does.
When PG&E shut down service in fire-prone areas earlier in the month, Newsom was quick to complain. “What has occurred in the last 48 hours is unacceptable,” Newsom said. “We are seeing the scale and scope of something that no state in the 21st Century should experience.”
After fire broke out in Sonoma County, perhaps due to a PG&E line downed by very high winds, Newsom again denounced the company. “I have a message for PG&E: Your years and years of greed. Years and years of mismanagement. Years and years of putting shareholders over people are over,” the governor wrote on Twitter on Friday. He also suggested that billionaire Warren Buffet should buy the company.
However, changing ownership does not change the essential conflict between Californians’ desire to live in scenic areas with convenient electrical service and what Brown has called “the new normal” of wildfires.
Talk’s cheap. Newsom, having claimed ownership of the wildfire/PG&E crisis, now must deliver or become another political executive who flinched.
CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary
[activecampaign form=31]

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

How Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Make China Great Again

DON'T MISS

What’s Caitlin Clark Worth to the WNBA? A Lot More Than Her $78,066 Salary.

DON'T MISS

Trump to Sign Tax-Cut and Spending Bill in July 4 Ceremony

DON'T MISS

Madre Fire Spurs Evacuations Across 3 Counties, Grows to More Than 70,000 Acres

DON'T MISS

Clovis, Sanger, Madera, and Bass Lake Will Light the Sky With Fireworks Shows Tonight

DON'T MISS

Oil Dips Ahead of Expected OPEC+ Output Increase

DON'T MISS

613 Killed at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites, Near Humanitarian Covoys, Says UN

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Authorities Investigating Suspicious Death of Transient Man

DON'T MISS

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

DON'T MISS

Israeli Military Kills 20 in Gaza as Trump Awaits Hamas Reply to Truce Proposal

UP NEXT

July 4th Quiz: Test Your Knowledge of the Founding Fathers

UP NEXT

Presidential Election Reveals Big Shift in California Voting Patterns. Will It Last?

UP NEXT

From Victims to Perpetrators: Israeli Soldiers’ Nazi Comparisons and the Unfolding War Crimes in Gaza

UP NEXT

Dear Mayor and City Council, Fresno’s Housing Bottlenecks Are a Modern Form of Redlining

UP NEXT

A Path Forward on Immigration Reform That Strengthens America

UP NEXT

Israel Faces Genocide Accusations Amid Gaza Food Aid Killings

UP NEXT

I Detest Netanyahu, but on Some Things He’s Actually Right

UP NEXT

Much of LA’s Community of Immigrants Is Hiding, Leaving a Hole in the Fabric of the City

UP NEXT

Things Netanyahu Might Say if Injected With Truth Serum

UP NEXT

California Politicians Ignore Ag’s Troubles, but Boost Movie Business

Trump Calls Musk’s Formation of New Party “Ridiculous” and Confusing

10 hours ago

Fresno DUI Driver Slams Into CHP Motorcycle, Tow Truck on Highway 99

16 hours ago

Russia Downs 120 Ukrainian Drones Overnight, Defense Ministry Says

16 hours ago

Israel Sends Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Talks Ahead of Netanyahu Trip to US

16 hours ago

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Grows to Nearly 80,000 Acres, 30% Contained

16 hours ago

Musk Announces Forming of ‘America Party’ in Further Break From Trump

16 hours ago

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 59, Including 21 Children

17 hours ago

California’s Politics Drifts Right While New York’s Leans Left

17 hours ago

How Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Make China Great Again

2 days ago

What’s Caitlin Clark Worth to the WNBA? A Lot More Than Her $78,066 Salary.

2 days ago

TikTok Building New Version of App Ahead of Expected US Sale, the Information Reports

TikTok is building a new version of its app for users in the United States ahead of a planned sale of the app to a group of investors, The I...

10 hours ago

A logo is displayed over a door at the U.S. headquarters of the social media company TikTok in Culver City, California, U.S. January 17, 2025. (Reuters File)
10 hours ago

TikTok Building New Version of App Ahead of Expected US Sale, the Information Reports

Boxes of aid are stacked as Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it has commenced operations to begin distribution of aid, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 26, 2025. (Reuters File)
10 hours ago

Hamas Government Office Rejects US Accusation of Involvement in Gaza Aid Site Attack

A volunteer searches for flood victims after deadly flooding in Kerr County, Texas, U.S., July 6, 2025. REUTERS/Sergio Flores
10 hours ago

Death Toll From Texas Floods Reaches 78, Trump Plans Visit

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk listens as US President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington, DC, U.S. on November 13, 2024. (Reuters File)
10 hours ago

Trump Calls Musk’s Formation of New Party “Ridiculous” and Confusing

A 22-year-old suspected DUI driver crashed into a parked CHP motorcycle and tow truck on Highway 99 near Fresno, narrowly missing an officer and bystanders, CHP said Saturday, July 5, 2025. (CHP)
16 hours ago

Fresno DUI Driver Slams Into CHP Motorcycle, Tow Truck on Highway 99

A service member of a drone unit of the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade named after King Danylo of the Ukrainian Armed Forces controls a heavy combat drone while it flies over positions of Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk Region, Ukraine June 12, 2025. (Reuters File)
16 hours ago

Russia Downs 120 Ukrainian Drones Overnight, Defense Ministry Says

An Israeli tank maneuvers in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 6, 2025. (Reuters/Amir Cohen)
16 hours ago

Israel Sends Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Talks Ahead of Netanyahu Trip to US

The Madre Fire near New Cuyama has burned nearly 80,000 acres as of Sunday, July 6, 2025, morning, prompting widespread evacuation orders and warnings across three counties. (CalFire)
16 hours ago

San Luis Obispo’s Madre Fire Grows to Nearly 80,000 Acres, 30% Contained

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend