Southern California Edison

Southern California Edison will pay $2.2 billion to settle insurance claims from a deadly, destructive wildfire sparked by its equipment in 2018.

B. Don Russell wasn’t thinking about preventing a wildfire when he developed a tool to detect power line problems before they cause equipment failures, blackouts or even deadly accidents.

The CEO of the nation’s largest utility is expected to face angry California lawmakers on Monday over the company’s decision to turn off power for millions of people to prevent its outdated equipment from starting wildfires.

California regulators opened a formal investigation Wednesday into pre-emptive power outages that blacked out large parts of the state in October, drawing strong rebukes from public officials and residents who said the shut-offs were too broad and poorly executed.

Hundreds of thousands of California residents braced for another possible power outage as the state’s two largest utilities warned that a return of dangerous fire weather could prompt shut-offs across the state.

Less than two weeks after blacking out much of Northern California, the state’s largest utility is warning that dangerous fire weather could prompt it to shut off power to over 200,000 customers.

When California’s largest utility warned it would cut power to thousands to prevent its equipment from starting wildfires during warm, windy weather, officials in the wealthy wine region of Sonoma County sprang into action.

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.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday that lawmakers should consider changing California’s strict law that makes utilities pay for wildfire damage caused by their equipment, regardless of fault, a controversial proposal that has failed to gain traction in the past.

A state commission met for the first time Monday, tasked with answering the difficult question: Who should pay for California’s increasingly devastating and costly wildfires?

Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. is promising to spend more than $2 billion this year to improve wildfire prevention after its equipment was blamed for causing more than 1,500 Northern California wildfires since 2014.

Up to 5 million California customers could temporarily lose power this year in the name of wildfire prevention if regulators approve Pacific Gas & Electric’s $2.3 billion safety proposal submitted Wednesday.

Two women who lost their homes in the Woolsey Fire sued Southern California Edison Friday, alleging serious problems exist with the effectiveness of the utility’s risk-management practices and that it mismanages its electrical facilities during fire conditions in Southern California.

California utilities plan to insulate power lines, increase inspections and build new weather stations in areas at high risk for wildfires in an effort to combat increasingly destructive blazes.

The California Legislature voted Friday to allow power companies to raise electric bills to cover the cost of lawsuits from last year’s deadly wildfires amid fears that Pacific Gas & Electric Co., would otherwise face financial ruin.

The California Public Utilities Commission has secretly used millions in tax dollars to thwart a now stalled corruption probe into the agency, three public officials wrote in a strongly-worded letter sent Friday to the state’s Attorney General.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has agreed to pay $86.5 million over 164 allegedly improper backdoor communications it had with state regulators over a five year period that critics seized on as proof of an overly cozy relationship.

PG&E joined forces with more than 100 workers from Southern California to restore power to the Peninsula following storm-related outages.

Forecasters at the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center said in its monthly update Thursday that California has a 95 percent chance of experiencing El Niño this year.