SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas & Electric expected to restore power Thursday to virtually all the 120,000 people it intentionally blacked out to avoid the risk of catastrophic wildfires. The nation’s largest utility cut the juice on Wednesday in 10 Northern and central California counties because of concerns that dry,...
PG&E Begins New Mass Power Shutoff Over Fire Danger
SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas & Electric Co. was set to begin shutting off power Wednesday to some 375,000 people in 18 Northern and central California counties as the region faces extreme fire weather that’s lasted since October. A virtually rainless fall has left brush bone-dry and forecasts called for...
CEO says PG&E Got Complacent About Power Outages
SACRAMENTO — The head of Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. has told a California legislative committee that the utility became complacent about power shutdowns after successfully completing a few smaller ones. Utility CEO Bill Johnson made the comments Monday in testimony before a California legislative committee that also detailed a...
Governor Threatens Possible PG&E Takeover if No Plan is Made
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday threatened a possible takeover of Pacific Gas & Electric unless it can emerge from bankruptcy ahead of next year's wildfire season with a plan focused on safety. The utlitity is blamed for sparking deadly wildfires across the state with its outdated equipment. Newsom called...
Wildfire Erupts Near Reagan Library in Southern California
SIMI VALLEY — A new wildfire erupted Wednesday in wind-whipped Southern California, forcing the evacuation of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and nearby homes, as both ends of the state struggled with blazes, dangerously gusty weather and deliberate blackouts. The brush fire broke out just before dawn in the Simi...
PG&E Says Power Lines May Have Started 2 More Fires
SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas & Electric Co. power lines may have started two wildfires over the weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area, the utility said, even though widespread blackouts were in place to prevent downed lines from starting fires during dangerously windy weather. The fires described in PG&E...
Bigger, Longer Blackouts Could Lie Ahead Across California
SAN FRANCISCO — A wildfire in California wine country that may have been caused by a high-voltage transmission line called into question Pacific Gas & Electric's strategy of selectively cutting off power in windy weather to prevent blazes, and could force it to resort to even bigger blackouts affecting millions...
Opinion: Valley Should Not Be Held Captive to PG&E Failures
The residents of the Central Valley are faced with a utility service company that, in the past two decades, has become a tax collector forced to be under the protection of the federal bankruptcy court for the second time. In this situation, debtors and sophisticated investors seek to game the...
Newsom Wants PG&E to Pay Powerless Customers $100 Each
Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized PG&E for its performance during the largest planned power outage in California history to avoid wildfires and urged the utility to compensate affected customers with a bill credit or rebate worth $100 for residential customers or $250 for small businesses. Newsom said Monday that the shutoffs affected too many customers...
PG&E Faces Gripes Over Deliberate Blackouts
LOS ANGELES — Even as the winds gusted dangerously as forecast, California's biggest utility faced hostility and second-guessing Thursday for shutting off electricity to millions of people to prevent its equipment from sparking wildfires. Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized Pacific Gas & Electric and ordinary customers complained about the inconveniences caused by the...