Anger drives calls for state to act fast to curb outages
SACRAMENTO — As fires rage across California and millions of people lose electricity because of planned blackouts, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers face demands that they do something and the reality that nothing they do will make an immediate difference.
They must respond to anger from voters who have lost power for days or fled their homes because of wildfires that utilities’ equipment may have started. But current law gives Pacific Gas and Electric Co. broad authority to shut off electricity to avoid sparking more fires, and wildfire mitigation efforts such as upgrading PG&E’s power grid and thinning out overgrown forests will
take years.
“There’s a lot of anger right now that the politicians and governor are responding to,” said Patrick McCallum, who leads the wildfire victim advocacy group Up From the Ashes.
“People are in shock. They have PTSD,” he said. “There is just kind of an automatic human response to say, ‘Something has got to be different.’ ”
The timing also makes political intervention difficult. The Legislature is out of session until January, and most bills lawmakers pass next year won’t take effect until 2021.
That has led some critics to demand Newsom call a special session, which would bring lawmakers back to the Capitol now. Any bills they pass could take effect 90 days after the session ends.
“We cannot go another week like this,” said state Sen. Brian Dahle, RBieber (Lassen County). “It’s untenable, it’s inhumane, it’s cruel and it is our duty to address these issues immediately.”
But Newsom has expressed no interest in a special session, saying the Legislature has already taken major action by passing a bill in July setting up a fund financed by utilities and their customers to compensate wildfire victims for their property losses. The bill also mandates safety investments from the utilities and creates a safetycertification process for them.
The governor said a special session would be more symbolic than substantive.
“I want to fulfill the commitments we already made,” he said at a news conference Monday. “It’s about implementation. It’s not always about the novel.”
Several Democratic lawmakers said the state can be most effective by focusing on setting up the wildfire fund, enforcing related safety inspections and working to get PG&E out of bankruptcy and under new management.
“There will be plenty of time for a postmortem on this,” said Sen. Bill Dodd, DNapa, who represents areas hit hard by the Kincade Fire. “I don’t think substantive legislation is going to be born until we get back.”
In the meantime, a committee of 10 senators whose districts have been hit hard by shutoffs will investigate the blackouts. They are set to hold an oversight hearing Nov. 18 and will produce legislative recommendations.
Lawmakers have already floated possible measures to be introduced when they are back in session in January. Here are some of the most highprofile:
PG&E public administrator: One of the most farreaching proposals could wrestle management of PG&E away from its executive team and have the state Public Utilities Commission appoint a temporary public administrator.
Assemblyman Marc Levine, DSan Rafael, said his proposed bill would allow the state to step in temporarily only if PG&E fails a test measuring its safety record, financial health and infrastructure reliability. The administrator would remain in charge until PG&E can show it is meeting performance requirements in those areas.
Creating power microgrids: Some lawmakers are pushing to decentralize the power system in response to PG&E warnings that planned blackouts are likely during fire seasons for up to a decade.
That could mean breaking up the utility and creating more local power providers, as San Francisco and San Jose politicians have proposed. On a smaller scale, it could include building local microgrids, which use solar panels, batteries and other sources to provide emergency power.
Sen. Henry Stern, DMalibu (Los Angeles County), plans to introduce legislation to support more home energystorage systems, through state rebates, and microgrids to provide power for hospitals, nursing homes and schools.
“I still consider a lack of a backup plan to this power shutoff system reckless,” he said.
Republicans: Pause cleanenergy mandates: Two Republican legislators say the state could help fix PG&E’s problems by temporarily lifting cleanenergy mandates for the utility.
Sen. Jim Nielsen of Gerber (Tehama County) and Assemblyman James Gallagher of Nicolaus (Sutter County), both of whom represent areas ravaged by the Camp Fire a year ago, plan to introduce a bill that would delay requirements that investorowned utilities phase out their use of fossil fuels.
They said their plan would free up money for utilities to remove fireprone vegetation and harden their electrical grids by replacing outdated towers and equipment.
“Every dollar spent on overpriced renewable energy is a dollar that can’t be spent preventing wildfires,” Gallagher said.
Democrats, who firmly control both legislative houses, quickly rejected the idea. Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, DSan Diego, said more reliance on fossil fuels “exacerbates the climate change that is causing the extreme weather and wildfires we are facing.” Chronicle staff writer Alexei Koseff
contributed to this article.