State Tells Vulnerable Fire Areas: ‘Do Not Expect Fire Warnings, Reliable Power, or Communications’ in Santa Anas
Written by 991KBU on May 31, 2019
Buy a generator and a portable radio … you’re on your own.
That’s the message from the president of the California Public Utilities Commission … the agency in charge of ensuring safe and reliable electrical service in Malibu and every other place in the state.
Meeting in San Francisco yesterday … the CPUC approved an emergency wildfire action plan submitted by Southern California Edison .. the electric utility blamed for recent fires that killed 47 people in Southern California … and that took out 1 point 6 billion dollars worth of houses in the City of Malibu alone.
CPUC President Michael Picker says your state government will no longer guarantee safe and reliable power …. something that state law actually requires them to do.
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“These new rules cannot solve all of our problems related to increasingly fierce wildfires.
“And all of us who live in those areas have to prepare for wildfires assuming that you may not get adequate warning of outages either from the utility, from your local emergency responders ‘cause of the failure of electric systems or because of the potential loss of communications.”
The wildfire plan includes emergency tree cutting.
It includes intentional blackouts when it looks like the Santa Ana winds will blow strong.
California Governor Gavin Newsom is warning these outages could last for a really long time.
Quoting now … “We’re worried about it because we could see people’s power shut off not for a day or two but potentially a week.
“It’s a good thing” says the governor “unless you’re impacted.”
Edison is also … on a rush basis … inspecting and reinspecting all of its power poles … transformers and power lines in high fire risk areas … 450 thousand pieces of equipment.
Picker … the CPUC president … has doubts about that.
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“Given the overall volume of planned inspections — 450,000 pieces of equipment by the height of the 2019 fire season — it’s unclear how Southern California Edison can perform detailed inspections of this volume of equipment in so short a time.
“But without better data and a stronger record we’re not prepared to stop SCE from carrying out its new inspection program.”
Fellow CPUC commissioner Martha Guzman says SCE has a huge amount of work in the high fire risk areas,
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“I just want to make sure that we’re mindful of the heavy lift in terms of expense and time that it’s going to take to implement these plans as they get updated in the coming years.”
A major part of the Edison fire plan is what they call PS PS — Public Safety Power Shutofffs.
You may call that an intentional blackout.
The plan approved by the CPUC yesterday lets SCE off the hook for dealing with the consequences of its intentional blackouts.
The CPUC is allowing Edison to leave the responsibility for emergency shelter locations to local and state emergency management partners.
SCE will also not be providing backup power generators for the essential service providers.
It’s a big fat you’re on your own.
That’s no overstatement.
Again … CPUC president Michael Picker
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“I will just repeat my warning that, that given the changes that we’re seeing in weather and the changes that we are seeing in fire fuels, that nobody who lives in wildfire hazard zones should count on a warning… or should count on having reliable electricity.
“This is a new set of conditions that puts large part of the state at great risk simply because the reliability cannot be guaranteed.”
Reliability cannot be guaranteed …
That’s the new official policy of your State of California.
And minutes after making that announcement … the president of the CPUC announced he will retire after almost five years on a job …
That’s five years dominated by devastating … deadly wildfires caused by the companies he oversees.
Michael Picker said Thursday he will wait to leave his job as president of the state’s utility regulator until Gov. Gavin Newsom names his successor.
