The tiny Sierra community of Big Creek, which is home to Southern California Edison employees, lost many homes in the Creek Fire on Saturday, said Chris Donnelly, chief of the Huntington Lake Volunteer Fire Department. Donnelly's description of the devastation there was confirmed by Toby Wait, a Big Creek resident...
SoCal Edison Pays $900K to Resolve Kern County Wildfire Claim
Southern California Edison has paid $900,000 to resolve a federal claim for damages from a 2014 wildfire that burned Forest Service lands in Kern County, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott said Monday. The 4,392-acre Way Fire started on Aug. 18, 2014, in Wofford Heights in Kern County. Federal authorities alleged that...
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...
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...
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...