SAN FRANCISCO — California's largest power company is getting battered in midday trading Monday on reports that it's considering bankruptcy protection in the face of potentially crippling liability damages from a spate of wildfires. No cause has been determined for the source of California's Camp Fire, but PG&E reported an...
Walters: Rethinking California's Electric Utilities
California’s two major electric power utilities are on the hot seat as Capitol politicians ponder whether they should be protected from the financial consequences of last month’s killer wildfires. Downed power lines owned by Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison are suspected of sparking the fires that killed...
What Happens if PG&E Goes Bankrupt?
Investigators are massing. Lawsuits are mounting. The death toll in Butte County's historic Camp Fire stands at 88, so far. Another year, another megafire, another calamity in which faulty Pacific Gas and Electric equipment is a prime suspect. And once again, Californians face a familiar question: What’s going to happen...
Did PG&E Problem Spark Deadly Paradise Blaze?
A utility is facing increasing criticism following a deadly blaze that leveled a Northern California town and killed at least 42 people. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. told state regulators last week it detected a problem on an electrical transmission line near the town of Paradise minutes before the Camp...
5 Found Dead in Cars as Fire Incinerates N. California Town
PARADISE, Calif. — Five people were found dead in their burned-out vehicles after a Northern California wildfire incinerated most of a town of about 30,000 people with flames that moved so fast there was nothing firefighters could do, authorities said Friday. Only a day after it began, the blaze near...
Money Starts Flowing to Pass, Defeat Fresno Parks Measure
Financial backers are coming forward to support and oppose Measure P with the early filings showing parks supporters writing big checks. The municipal ballot initiative calls for a 3/8 of a cent sales tax for parks and related programs in the city of Fresno that would generate about $38 million annually...
Five Years Later, Tally Shows Gerawan Workers Want UFW Gone
“No Union. No Union.” That was the refrain from ALRB field examiner Veronica Cervantes as she read off ballots Tuesday from a 2013 election asking Gerawan Farming workers whether they wanted United Farm Workers union representation. At the end of the nearly five-hour count, 1,098 ballots indicated that Gerawan workers...
Do You Want to Pick Up Tab for PG&E's Wildfire Negligence?
SACRAMENTO — California's utility regulators would have the option of letting power companies charge their customers for some of the costs of lawsuits stemming from disastrous 2017 wildfires under legislation that will go before the Assembly and Senate this week. After weeks of meetings, a legislative conference committee advanced its...
How To Stay Cool in Fresno's Record-Busting Triple-Digit Heat
Fresno has set a very uncomfortable record. Friday saw the city's temperature reach triple digits for the 22nd-straight day, eclipsing the previous mark of 21 days at or over 100 degrees first set in 2005, according to the National Weather Service in Hanford. In addition, the weather experts say that Fresno...
PG&E Expects To Pay $2.5 Billion For Wine Country Wildfires
SAN FRANCISCO — A Northern California utility said Thursday that it expects to pay at least $2.5 billion in connection with deadly wildfires that whipped through wine country last October — some of them ignited by its fallen power lines. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. also warned that its liability...