SAN FRANCISCO — Millions of Californians spent part of the week in the dark in an unprecedented effort by the state's large electrical utilities to prevent another devastating wildfire. It was the fifth time Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has preemptively cut the power but by far the largest to...
Power Outages Begin in California Amid Hot, Windy Weather
SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas & Electric shut off power to more than a million people Wednesday for what could be days on end, in the most sweeping effort in state history to prevent wildfires caused by windblown power lines. The move came after two years of catastrophic fires sent...
California Faces Historic Power Outage Due to Fire Danger
SAN FRANCISCO — Two years to the day after some of the deadliest wildfires tore through Northern California wine country, a utility announced Tuesday it will shut off power to more than 800,000 customers in the largest preventive outage in state history — to try to prevent wildfires caused by...
Report: PG&E Ignored Repairs on Aging Power Lines
SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas & Electric, which is blamed for some of California's deadliest recent fires, knew for years that dozens of its aging power lines posed a wildfire threat but avoided replacing or repairing them, it was reported Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal, using company documents obtained under the federal...
PG&E to Pay $1 Billion to Local Governments for Wildfire Damage
SACRAMENTO — A California utility agreed Tuesday to pay $1 billion to 14 local governments to cover damages from a series of deadly wildfires caused by its downed power lines. The settlement is a sliver of the more than $30 billion in potential damages Pacific Gas & Electric is facing...
California Approves Power Outages to Prevent More Wildfires
SACRAMENTO — California regulators on Thursday approved allowing utilities to cut off electricity to possibly hundreds of thousands of customers to avoid catastrophic wildfires like the one sparked by power lines last year that killed 85 people and largely destroyed the city of Paradise. Utilities' liability can reach billions of...
Judge: PG&E Put Profits Over Wildfire Safety
SAN FRANCISCO — A U.S. judge berated Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. on Wednesday, accusing the nation's largest utility of enriching shareholders instead of clearing trees that can fall on its power lines and start fires and making "excuses" to avoid turning off electricity when fire risk is high. Judge...
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...