‘This is about greed;’ Newsom blames power shutoffs on utilities

Hundreds of thousands of Californians could be going without electricity as powerful winds once again blast the state with heat and dry weather, creating an extreme risk of wildfires this week, as fires ignited throughout the state on Thursday, Oct. 24.

Governor Gavin Newsom said during a news conference Thursday in Los Angeles that the state’s three largest power companies were planning possible shutoffs for at least 527,000 customers.

That’s the most since Pacific Gas & Electric turned off electricity for millions of people in the abrupt Northern California blackout earlier this month.

Electric utilities and state officials hope the planned outages will reduce the number of fires started by power lines emitting sparks in high winds. Newsom and Cal Fire officials compared this week’s winds to similar conditions the state saw in late 2017, when the Thomas fire destroyed thousands of homes in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

From state offices in downtown L.A., Newsom said he was deeply frustrated with PG&E and other utilities. He blamed them for the power crisis consuming his first term as governor, saying they’re responsible for decades of “mismanagement” of the state’s power system.

MORE: This map shows where SCE is considering shutting off power

“It is infuriating,” Newsom said.

The governor lit in to the companies — including PG&E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric. He suggested large corporate owned utilities were incapable of meeting the challenge of an increasingly hot and dry state, where a spark from electric equipment could lead to death and destruction on a massive scale.

“It’s more than just climate change. It’s about the failure of capitalism to address climate change,” Newsom said. “It’s about decades of mismanagement. It’s a story about greed.”

The governor and other state officials on Thursday detailed weeks of talks with the three utilities to set standards for how future power shutoffs should work.

Public officials, seemingly caught off guard by the scope of the PG&E blackout that started Oct. 9, are now trying to hash out standards the companies have to meet.

Those include the number of days in advance they must inform the public of power shutoffs and the weather conditions that require them, said Mark Ghilarducci, the director of California’s Office of Emergency Management.

The problem is not just getting notified that a power shutoff can happen — it’s also about when the utilities must power down to prevent fires from happening in the first place.

Ghilarducci pointed to the recent Saddleridge fire that started in Sylmar on Oct. 10 — residents, many who noticed high winds that night, said they were surprised Edison didn’t turn off their power. That was after the company warned thousands the same day they were considering doing so.

That night, some watched as a ring of fire expanded from the base of an Edison power pylon in the Sylmar neighborhood, then spread to Granada Hills and Porter Ranch. Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated, nearly 8,800 acres were burned, and 18 structures were destroyed.

The utilities need to “drive down the inconsistency of this process,” Ghilarducci said.

“If you do that, you increase their ability to make the right call.”

An Edison spokeswoman declined to comment on Newsom’s remarks or on the state of the talks between utilities companies and OES.

In a statement, company officials said they have “done everything (they) can to minimize the impact,” of power shutoffs. They said they would “continue to coordinate closely with federal, state and local officials on these matters.”

Edison was planning the largest potential power shutoff on Thursday among the three utilities  — more than 386,000 of their customers could have their lights turned off if conditions get dangerous enough. By early Thursday evening, more than 31,000 were without power.

Powerful Santa Ana winds were blowing throughout Southern California on Thursday, and the red-flag warning in place for most of the region was scheduled to last through Friday evening, according to the National Weather Service.

At the news conference, Cal Fire Chief Thom Proter pointed to a map of California — wide swaths of red covered most of L.A. County, and nearly all of eastern Riverside and San Bernardino counties. All but a sliver of coastline in Orange County was also under the red-flag warning.

Temperatures were expected to be between 90 and 100 degrees in most areas through Friday.

Ruby Gonzales and City News Service contributed this story.