State’s heat, poor planning led to August power outages

SACRAMENTO — Energy regulators on Wednesday blamed blackouts last summer that affected hundreds of thousands of Californians on poor planning, electrical market problems and an extreme heat wave that blanketed the West.

The 131-page report covered events of Aug. 14 and Aug. 15 when the state’s power grid ordered utilities to cut electricity to customers on a rotating basis for around an hour at a time. More than 800,000 homes and businesses were affected over the two days. It was the first such order since 2001.

Gov. Gavin Newsom demanded an investigation. An analysis was prepared by the California Public Utilities Commission, the state Energy Commission and the California Independent System Operator, which manages the state’s power grid.

The report said the outages didn’t have a single root cause but there were a series of contributing factors.

California was sweltering under a “historic” heat wave, with temperatures 10 to 20 degrees above normal affecting 32 million residents and the temperature didn’t cool off much overnight, meaning air conditioners continued to run, the report said.

DETROIT — Tesla Inc. is balking at recalling about 159,000 vehicles with potentially defective touch screens, so U.S. safety regulators are moving to force the company to take action.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Wednesday sent a letter to Tesla saying it has tentatively determined that the screens are defective and pose a safety risk because they can cause backup cameras to go dark and defrosters to malfunction.

MERCED — Two inmates — including one facing a murder charge — who escaped with four others from a jail in central California over the weekend were arrested near the border with Mexico hours after another escapee was nabbed west of Fresno, authorities said Wednesday.

Fabian Cruz Roman, 22, and Andres Nunez Rodriguez, 21, were captured Tuesday south of San Diego, said Deputy Daryl Allen, a spokesman with the Merced County Sheriff’s Office.

The remaining fugitives were identified as Jorge Barron, 20, of Atwater; Gabriel Francis Coronado, 19, of Atwater and Manuel Allen Leon, 21, of Vallejo.