California’s wildfire risk keeps getting worse. Now a decade of blackouts lie ahead
The states 2019 fire season was relatively mild, but included nine public safety power shutoffs. Is it making the system safer? In 2019, millions of Californians experienced a wildfire safety blackout, some for nearly a week at a time, as the troubled utility company Pacific Gas & Electric and other investor-owned utilities grappled with replacing one devastating disaster with another, comparatively manageable one. 2019 was not an anomaly, but the beginning of a new way of life for many California residents. While de-energization for fire safety has been state policy…
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