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"content": "\u003cp>While his neighbors’ homes in the Berkeley Hills sat in the dark during a recent PG&E outage, Howard Matis had working lights, a cold fridge and a fully functional garage door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two Tesla Powerwall batteries he installed just days before high winds prompted the utility to shut off electricity to millions in Northern California kept the power on in his house.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">“How can we build a system so all those investments that people are making can bring a benefit to the grid as a whole?”\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>Anne Hoskins, Sunrun\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Home solar suppliers have seen a surge in interest since the PG&E shutoffs began. Most battery owners are still early adopters, but as prices come down, the technology is sparking a debate over whether California’s electric grid will be supplied by far-reaching transmission lines or powered by hyper-local sources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Solar panels on the roof charge Matis’ battery system, which can power most of his house. During an outage, those panels generally don’t work when they’re interconnected with the grid. A battery system, though, can store the solar energy and “island” a property from the grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You see the garage door,” Matis said. “It’s too heavy for my wife to lift. That’s why we have electricity. If we had a real fire right now, a lot of people couldn’t flee.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lessons From Experience\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He knows what it’s like to escape a wildfire. In 1991, the Oakland Hills fire consumed his neighborhood. Vehicles jammed the roads, so a policeman loaded Matis and his son into another car.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This incredibly brave woman drove on a twisty road,” he recalled. “She couldn’t see through the flames. And then she drove us to safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of his neighbors died trying to escape. Matis’ neighborhood is more fire aware now and the power lines are buried underground. But the people there are not immune from PG&E’s blackouts or from the frustration they cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve talked to PG&E in the past, and I realized they didn’t know what they’re talking about,” Matis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility would disagree, but other companies see an opportunity in that resentment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve had a very big uptick,” said Anne Hoskins, chief policy officer at Sunrun, which sells solar and battery systems. The company saw 15 times more web traffic to its battery pages than usual during the most recent outages. “We have a better way than relying on this over-century-old system that has to take power from far distances to serve communities and people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hoskins said home batteries aren’t just for emergencies. Homeowners can use them every day to store solar power for use when the sun goes down. Other solutions, like portable gas generators, are a temporary measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re loud,” Hoskins said. “They’re dirty. And that also contributes to the problem, in our view, that we’re facing, which is climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, batteries are expensive. Telsa’s Powerwalls, the kind Howard Matis has in his garage, cost around $6,500 each, plus thousands more in installation. CEO Elon Musk recently \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1188880437067665408?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tweeted\u003c/a> that the company was knocking $1,000 off the price of their systems for Californians affected by the outages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A 30% federal tax credit for solar and battery systems helps reduce the cost. So does California’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.selfgenca.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Self-Generation Incentive Program\u003c/a>, which provides rebates \u003ca href=\"https://www.tesla.com/support/energy/powerwall/learn/incentives\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in the thousands of dollars\u003c/a>. The California Public Utilities Commission recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/recent-changes-to-californias-self-generation-incentive-program-explained\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">carved out $100 million\u003c/a> in rebates for low-income households or communities in high fire-risk areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Companies like Sunrun also offer leasing options with little money down for home batteries . That adds about $40 a month to a solar lease. But potentially, wealthier Californian homeowners could buy their way out of blackouts, leaving everyone else feeling the brunt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sharing the Benefits\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So what you want to do is get ahead of that and figure out, okay, how can we build a system so all those investments that people are making can bring a benefit to the grid as a whole?” Hoskins said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She added that’s possible with “virtual power plants.” In \u003ca href=\"https://ebce.org/ebce-expands-its-renewable-energy-and-storage-portfolio-with-three-new-contracts/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">one project\u003c/a> planned by \u003ca href=\"https://ebce.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">East Bay Community Energy\u003c/a> in West Oakland, 500 low-income households will get solar and batteries. During times of high demand, those systems will feed power back onto the grid for everyone to use, almost like a traditional power plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea is that locally produced power reduces the need for big transmission lines to bring it in from far away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s definitely some truth to that, but there’s also some real cost to trying to operate smaller grids independently,” said Severin Borenstein, an energy economist at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California utilities could spend billions on these microgrids, he says, but they’ll also need to spend billions on improving the existing grid to prevent fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we make all these investments, if we load it all into electricity rates, we’re going to have even higher electricity rates,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Higher PG&E rates could encourage more Californians to install solar and batteries to avoid the rising costs. But when households make their own electricity, they buy less from PG&E, so the utility gets less revenue for grid improvements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I have been arguing is that we really need to take some of these programs and take them off of electricity bills and put them into the state budget,” Borentsein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Either way, PG&E’s blackouts and ongoing bankruptcy could add urgency to these conversations, as California looks for ways to create a safer and more reliable grid.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>While his neighbors’ homes in the Berkeley Hills sat in the dark during a recent PG&E outage, Howard Matis had working lights, a cold fridge and a fully functional garage door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two Tesla Powerwall batteries he installed just days before high winds prompted the utility to shut off electricity to millions in Northern California kept the power on in his house.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">“How can we build a system so all those investments that people are making can bring a benefit to the grid as a whole?”\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>Anne Hoskins, Sunrun\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Home solar suppliers have seen a surge in interest since the PG&E shutoffs began. Most battery owners are still early adopters, but as prices come down, the technology is sparking a debate over whether California’s electric grid will be supplied by far-reaching transmission lines or powered by hyper-local sources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Solar panels on the roof charge Matis’ battery system, which can power most of his house. During an outage, those panels generally don’t work when they’re interconnected with the grid. A battery system, though, can store the solar energy and “island” a property from the grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You see the garage door,” Matis said. “It’s too heavy for my wife to lift. That’s why we have electricity. If we had a real fire right now, a lot of people couldn’t flee.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lessons From Experience\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He knows what it’s like to escape a wildfire. In 1991, the Oakland Hills fire consumed his neighborhood. Vehicles jammed the roads, so a policeman loaded Matis and his son into another car.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This incredibly brave woman drove on a twisty road,” he recalled. “She couldn’t see through the flames. And then she drove us to safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of his neighbors died trying to escape. Matis’ neighborhood is more fire aware now and the power lines are buried underground. But the people there are not immune from PG&E’s blackouts or from the frustration they cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve talked to PG&E in the past, and I realized they didn’t know what they’re talking about,” Matis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility would disagree, but other companies see an opportunity in that resentment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve had a very big uptick,” said Anne Hoskins, chief policy officer at Sunrun, which sells solar and battery systems. The company saw 15 times more web traffic to its battery pages than usual during the most recent outages. “We have a better way than relying on this over-century-old system that has to take power from far distances to serve communities and people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hoskins said home batteries aren’t just for emergencies. Homeowners can use them every day to store solar power for use when the sun goes down. Other solutions, like portable gas generators, are a temporary measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re loud,” Hoskins said. “They’re dirty. And that also contributes to the problem, in our view, that we’re facing, which is climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, batteries are expensive. Telsa’s Powerwalls, the kind Howard Matis has in his garage, cost around $6,500 each, plus thousands more in installation. CEO Elon Musk recently \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1188880437067665408?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tweeted\u003c/a> that the company was knocking $1,000 off the price of their systems for Californians affected by the outages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A 30% federal tax credit for solar and battery systems helps reduce the cost. So does California’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.selfgenca.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Self-Generation Incentive Program\u003c/a>, which provides rebates \u003ca href=\"https://www.tesla.com/support/energy/powerwall/learn/incentives\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in the thousands of dollars\u003c/a>. The California Public Utilities Commission recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/recent-changes-to-californias-self-generation-incentive-program-explained\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">carved out $100 million\u003c/a> in rebates for low-income households or communities in high fire-risk areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Companies like Sunrun also offer leasing options with little money down for home batteries . That adds about $40 a month to a solar lease. But potentially, wealthier Californian homeowners could buy their way out of blackouts, leaving everyone else feeling the brunt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sharing the Benefits\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So what you want to do is get ahead of that and figure out, okay, how can we build a system so all those investments that people are making can bring a benefit to the grid as a whole?” Hoskins said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She added that’s possible with “virtual power plants.” In \u003ca href=\"https://ebce.org/ebce-expands-its-renewable-energy-and-storage-portfolio-with-three-new-contracts/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">one project\u003c/a> planned by \u003ca href=\"https://ebce.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">East Bay Community Energy\u003c/a> in West Oakland, 500 low-income households will get solar and batteries. During times of high demand, those systems will feed power back onto the grid for everyone to use, almost like a traditional power plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea is that locally produced power reduces the need for big transmission lines to bring it in from far away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s definitely some truth to that, but there’s also some real cost to trying to operate smaller grids independently,” said Severin Borenstein, an energy economist at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California utilities could spend billions on these microgrids, he says, but they’ll also need to spend billions on improving the existing grid to prevent fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we make all these investments, if we load it all into electricity rates, we’re going to have even higher electricity rates,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Higher PG&E rates could encourage more Californians to install solar and batteries to avoid the rising costs. But when households make their own electricity, they buy less from PG&E, so the utility gets less revenue for grid improvements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I have been arguing is that we really need to take some of these programs and take them off of electricity bills and put them into the state budget,” Borentsein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Either way, PG&E’s blackouts and ongoing bankruptcy could add urgency to these conversations, as California looks for ways to create a safer and more reliable grid.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>To be taken to the company’s interactive map of where PG&E has blacked out power, \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://critweb-outage.pgealerts.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">click here\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>. PG&E says the map is updated every 15 minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>To be taken to the company’s interactive map of where PG&E has blacked out power, \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://critweb-outage.pgealerts.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">click here\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>. PG&E says the map is updated every 15 minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>For two days, life in Northern and Central California was completely upended by PG&E’s power shutdowns, affecting hundreds of thousands of customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thursday night, Gov. Gavin Newsom called a primetime press conference to publicly dress down the state’s largest investor-owned utility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom placed the blame for the chaos squarely on the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote citation=\"Fremont Sustainabiity Coordinator Rachel DiFranco, speaking about city fire stations with small-scale power grids\"]‘There, we don’t have anything to worry about.’[/pullquote]“This is not, from my perspective, a climate change story as much as a story about greed and mismanagement over the course of decades,” he said. “Neglect. A desire to advance not public safety, but profits. Over the course of years and years and years, the kind of hardening of the grid was not done. Those were decisions made by Pacific Gas and Electric.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rewind to 8 a.m., Wednesday, when Rachel DiFranco, Fremont’s sustainability coordinator, drove to work expecting PG&E’s blackouts to roll across the city within hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local officials and first responders were stressed about the potential impacts. But one key aspect of public safety they could scratch off their list of anxieties: three Fremont fire stations outfitted with a sophisticated power system designed to keep running when the grid goes down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There, we don’t have anything to worry about,” DiFranco said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because Fremont is one of the first cities in the U.S. to install a microgrid, a small, self-contained electrical system, around a fire station. Fremont’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/startup-microgrids-fire-stations#gs.9d2sl3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">microgrid\u003c/a> includes solar panels, batteries and a generator. Control software allows the stations to operate independently from PG&E’s grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The controller cuts over and pulls that power from the solar and battery,” DiFranco said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, PG&E invested billions of dollars to inspect its lines, build \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1942292/pge-wants-to-make-a-massive-investment-in-weather-stations-heres-why\">weather stations\u003c/a> to monitor fire conditions, and take other measures to protect it from liability in connection with sparking another fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the shutoffs that disrupted life throughout the Bay Area this week underscored, once again, that PG&E’s grid technology is old and lacks flexibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It didn’t take long for lawmakers to \u003ca href=\"https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/10/10/pge-power-shutoffs-state-sen-scott-wiener-proposes-clear-standards/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">jump\u003c/a> on PG&E. They accused the investor-owned utility of applying a jackhammer approach to a precision problem. The outages renewed questions about why the company did not include resilient grid technology like Fremont’s in its wildfire mitigation \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11750896/cpuc-pge-deenergization-wildfire-safety-power-shutoffs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">plan\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco State Sen. Scott Wiener said in an interview with \u003ca href=\"https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/10/10/pge-power-shutoffs-state-sen-scott-wiener-proposes-clear-standards/\">KPIX\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/10/10/pge-power-shutoffs-state-sen-scott-wiener-proposes-clear-standards/\"> 5\u003c/a> that the shutdowns need to be as focused as possible. State Sen. Jerry Hill \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11779285/life-in-pges-blackout-outrage-and-optimism-on-day-2-of-outages\">sent\u003c/a> a letter to regulators on Wednesday pushing them to review the shutoffs and regulate them more aggressively in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sumeet Singh, the executive in charge of PG&E’s wildfire response, explained in a press conference that the utility cut power as a “last resort” to ensure the safety of its customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh said that one reason the shutoffs were impacting so many people is that regulators expanded guidelines for power shutoffs to include high-voltage lines. The utility complied, affecting many more customers than otherwise would have occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Public Utility Commission is examining how projects like the one in Fremont can help shore up the system and make power shutoffs less disruptive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, similar projects are at the Santa Rita \u003ca href=\"https://building-microgrid.lbl.gov/santa-rita-jail\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">jail\u003c/a> in Alameda County and a Kaiser \u003ca href=\"https://lookinside.kaiserpermanente.org/powering-up-for-health/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hospital\u003c/a> in Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least one Bay Area microgrid deployed during the outages last week. Stone Edge Farm, an organic farm and vineyard, is located in an area of Sonoma affected by the shutdowns. The farm’s solar and battery system kept power to three households, a woodworking shop, two car storage barns, trailers, a spa, and a refrigeration van that stored food for local restaurants, according to an email on Friday afternoon from the farm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, California lawmakers passed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB1339\">SB 1339\u003c/a>, which required the California Public Utilities Commission to support the commercialization of more systems by Dec. 1, 2020. Last month, the power regulator opened a \u003ca href=\"https://apps.cpuc.ca.gov/apex/f?p=401:56:0::NO:RP,57,RIR:P5_PROCEEDING_SELECT:R1909009\">proceeding\u003c/a> to coordinate microgrids in high fire-risk areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Renewable energy advocates say that the outages should refocus PG&E on newer technologies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are going to see more microgrids as part of the overall strategy,” Michael Colvin, director of the Environmental Defense Fund’s California Energy program said. “The shutoffs will drive these investments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Diego Gas and Electric operates a microgrid at \u003ca href=\"https://www.sdge.com/more-information/environment/smart-grid/microgrids\">Borrego\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.sdge.com/more-information/environment/smart-grid/microgrids\">Springs\u003c/a>, and the utility has submitted a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sdge.com/sites/default/files/S1950020-0519_poster4_.jpg?nid=12796\">plan\u003c/a> to regulators to build more throughout San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom praised the company, calling it “arguably one of the nation’s most effective and efficient” investor-owned utilities. For years, SDG&E has been turning off power lines when the wildfire risk is high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fremont’s $2.4 million project was developed by Gridscape Solutions, a renewable-energy-project developer based in the city itself. The California Energy Commission chipped in $1.8 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because the solar panels and batteries offer a consistent source of power, the city estimates that the system will save $250,000 in power costs over a 10-year period, and that it will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80,000 pounds each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Personal Systems\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few weeks ago, when Derek Krause, a retired firefighter, was at home in the Oakland foothills, he looked out the window and saw that the rest of the neighborhood, unlike in his house, was black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The grid was down, Krause, realized. But a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sunrun.com/solar-battery-storage\">battery\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.sunrun.com/solar-battery-storage\">pack\u003c/a> and solar panels he’d installed were keeping his lights on. Most of the time, his system is dormant, quietly feeding power back to PG&E’s grid, and giving Krause a break on his electricity bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with exploring commercial microgrids, commission officials expanded \u003ca href=\"http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M312/K684/312684664.PDF\">incentives\u003c/a> for residential solar and battery systems like the one Krause owns. This \u003ca href=\"https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/pge-puts-its-widescale-fire-prevention-power-outage-plan-into-effect#gs.9gi2zv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">includes\u003c/a> $100 million for fire-prone districts, the money designated for low-income households and homes with people with chronic medical conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elon Musk, CEO of automaker Tesla, and Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun, a solar energy company, were quick to promote their products as a consumer solution for the recent power outages on social media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/LynnJurich/status/1182391894740877313?s=20\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1182089226826813440?s=20\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with manufacturing cars, Tesla also makes solar roofs and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/04/18/474346868/a-rare-look-inside-the-gigafactory-tesla-hopes-will-revolutionize-energy-use\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">batteries\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, as he struggled to find out whether his home would be one of the hundreds of thousands affected by PG&E’s shutoff, Krause’s memory of the last shutoff provided peace of mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had no luck using the PG&E website,” he said. “There was some kind of a map, but I plugged my address in and it said the system was down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Audrey Lee, an executive at Sunrun, the residential solar and battery company that made Krause’s system, said the company’s products can allow consumers to keep the power on even when the grid is down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s real for customers right now,” Lee said of the shutoffs. “We knew this was coming but it doesn’t rise to top of mind until it really happens.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a recent report, her company argued for a mass deployment of batteries and residential solar power across neighborhoods. Sunrun described this as a \u003ca href=\"https://investors.sunrun.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/126/sunrun-illustrates-potential-for-home-solar-and-batteries\">virtual\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://investors.sunrun.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/126/sunrun-illustrates-potential-for-home-solar-and-batteries\">power\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://investors.sunrun.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/126/sunrun-illustrates-potential-for-home-solar-and-batteries\">plant\u003c/a> that operates like a neighborhood version of Fremont’s fire stations. The company is \u003ca href=\"https://investors.sunrun.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/185/sunrun-solar-and-battery-systems-to-help-replace-retiring\">piloting\u003c/a> a project in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sunrun expects the tailwind of the shutoff events to drive homeowners’ interest in backup power systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its pitch to customers is that the solar-and-battery systems are cleaner than diesel generators in emergencies and save customers money on their energy bills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The scary story to me is that if people invest in fossil fuel generators en masse,” Lee said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For two days, life in Northern and Central California was completely upended by PG&E’s power shutdowns, affecting hundreds of thousands of customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thursday night, Gov. Gavin Newsom called a primetime press conference to publicly dress down the state’s largest investor-owned utility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom placed the blame for the chaos squarely on the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘There, we don’t have anything to worry about.’",
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"citation": "Fremont Sustainabiity Coordinator Rachel DiFranco, speaking about city fire stations with small-scale power grids",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“This is not, from my perspective, a climate change story as much as a story about greed and mismanagement over the course of decades,” he said. “Neglect. A desire to advance not public safety, but profits. Over the course of years and years and years, the kind of hardening of the grid was not done. Those were decisions made by Pacific Gas and Electric.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rewind to 8 a.m., Wednesday, when Rachel DiFranco, Fremont’s sustainability coordinator, drove to work expecting PG&E’s blackouts to roll across the city within hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local officials and first responders were stressed about the potential impacts. But one key aspect of public safety they could scratch off their list of anxieties: three Fremont fire stations outfitted with a sophisticated power system designed to keep running when the grid goes down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There, we don’t have anything to worry about,” DiFranco said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because Fremont is one of the first cities in the U.S. to install a microgrid, a small, self-contained electrical system, around a fire station. Fremont’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/startup-microgrids-fire-stations#gs.9d2sl3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">microgrid\u003c/a> includes solar panels, batteries and a generator. Control software allows the stations to operate independently from PG&E’s grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The controller cuts over and pulls that power from the solar and battery,” DiFranco said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, PG&E invested billions of dollars to inspect its lines, build \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1942292/pge-wants-to-make-a-massive-investment-in-weather-stations-heres-why\">weather stations\u003c/a> to monitor fire conditions, and take other measures to protect it from liability in connection with sparking another fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the shutoffs that disrupted life throughout the Bay Area this week underscored, once again, that PG&E’s grid technology is old and lacks flexibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It didn’t take long for lawmakers to \u003ca href=\"https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/10/10/pge-power-shutoffs-state-sen-scott-wiener-proposes-clear-standards/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">jump\u003c/a> on PG&E. They accused the investor-owned utility of applying a jackhammer approach to a precision problem. The outages renewed questions about why the company did not include resilient grid technology like Fremont’s in its wildfire mitigation \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11750896/cpuc-pge-deenergization-wildfire-safety-power-shutoffs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">plan\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco State Sen. Scott Wiener said in an interview with \u003ca href=\"https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/10/10/pge-power-shutoffs-state-sen-scott-wiener-proposes-clear-standards/\">KPIX\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/10/10/pge-power-shutoffs-state-sen-scott-wiener-proposes-clear-standards/\"> 5\u003c/a> that the shutdowns need to be as focused as possible. State Sen. Jerry Hill \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11779285/life-in-pges-blackout-outrage-and-optimism-on-day-2-of-outages\">sent\u003c/a> a letter to regulators on Wednesday pushing them to review the shutoffs and regulate them more aggressively in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sumeet Singh, the executive in charge of PG&E’s wildfire response, explained in a press conference that the utility cut power as a “last resort” to ensure the safety of its customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh said that one reason the shutoffs were impacting so many people is that regulators expanded guidelines for power shutoffs to include high-voltage lines. The utility complied, affecting many more customers than otherwise would have occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Public Utility Commission is examining how projects like the one in Fremont can help shore up the system and make power shutoffs less disruptive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, similar projects are at the Santa Rita \u003ca href=\"https://building-microgrid.lbl.gov/santa-rita-jail\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">jail\u003c/a> in Alameda County and a Kaiser \u003ca href=\"https://lookinside.kaiserpermanente.org/powering-up-for-health/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hospital\u003c/a> in Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least one Bay Area microgrid deployed during the outages last week. Stone Edge Farm, an organic farm and vineyard, is located in an area of Sonoma affected by the shutdowns. The farm’s solar and battery system kept power to three households, a woodworking shop, two car storage barns, trailers, a spa, and a refrigeration van that stored food for local restaurants, according to an email on Friday afternoon from the farm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, California lawmakers passed \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB1339\">SB 1339\u003c/a>, which required the California Public Utilities Commission to support the commercialization of more systems by Dec. 1, 2020. Last month, the power regulator opened a \u003ca href=\"https://apps.cpuc.ca.gov/apex/f?p=401:56:0::NO:RP,57,RIR:P5_PROCEEDING_SELECT:R1909009\">proceeding\u003c/a> to coordinate microgrids in high fire-risk areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Renewable energy advocates say that the outages should refocus PG&E on newer technologies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are going to see more microgrids as part of the overall strategy,” Michael Colvin, director of the Environmental Defense Fund’s California Energy program said. “The shutoffs will drive these investments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Diego Gas and Electric operates a microgrid at \u003ca href=\"https://www.sdge.com/more-information/environment/smart-grid/microgrids\">Borrego\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.sdge.com/more-information/environment/smart-grid/microgrids\">Springs\u003c/a>, and the utility has submitted a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sdge.com/sites/default/files/S1950020-0519_poster4_.jpg?nid=12796\">plan\u003c/a> to regulators to build more throughout San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom praised the company, calling it “arguably one of the nation’s most effective and efficient” investor-owned utilities. For years, SDG&E has been turning off power lines when the wildfire risk is high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fremont’s $2.4 million project was developed by Gridscape Solutions, a renewable-energy-project developer based in the city itself. The California Energy Commission chipped in $1.8 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because the solar panels and batteries offer a consistent source of power, the city estimates that the system will save $250,000 in power costs over a 10-year period, and that it will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80,000 pounds each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Personal Systems\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few weeks ago, when Derek Krause, a retired firefighter, was at home in the Oakland foothills, he looked out the window and saw that the rest of the neighborhood, unlike in his house, was black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The grid was down, Krause, realized. But a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sunrun.com/solar-battery-storage\">battery\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.sunrun.com/solar-battery-storage\">pack\u003c/a> and solar panels he’d installed were keeping his lights on. Most of the time, his system is dormant, quietly feeding power back to PG&E’s grid, and giving Krause a break on his electricity bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with exploring commercial microgrids, commission officials expanded \u003ca href=\"http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M312/K684/312684664.PDF\">incentives\u003c/a> for residential solar and battery systems like the one Krause owns. This \u003ca href=\"https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/pge-puts-its-widescale-fire-prevention-power-outage-plan-into-effect#gs.9gi2zv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">includes\u003c/a> $100 million for fire-prone districts, the money designated for low-income households and homes with people with chronic medical conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elon Musk, CEO of automaker Tesla, and Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun, a solar energy company, were quick to promote their products as a consumer solution for the recent power outages on social media.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Along with manufacturing cars, Tesla also makes solar roofs and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/04/18/474346868/a-rare-look-inside-the-gigafactory-tesla-hopes-will-revolutionize-energy-use\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">batteries\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, as he struggled to find out whether his home would be one of the hundreds of thousands affected by PG&E’s shutoff, Krause’s memory of the last shutoff provided peace of mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had no luck using the PG&E website,” he said. “There was some kind of a map, but I plugged my address in and it said the system was down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Audrey Lee, an executive at Sunrun, the residential solar and battery company that made Krause’s system, said the company’s products can allow consumers to keep the power on even when the grid is down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s real for customers right now,” Lee said of the shutoffs. “We knew this was coming but it doesn’t rise to top of mind until it really happens.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a recent report, her company argued for a mass deployment of batteries and residential solar power across neighborhoods. Sunrun described this as a \u003ca href=\"https://investors.sunrun.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/126/sunrun-illustrates-potential-for-home-solar-and-batteries\">virtual\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://investors.sunrun.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/126/sunrun-illustrates-potential-for-home-solar-and-batteries\">power\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://investors.sunrun.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/126/sunrun-illustrates-potential-for-home-solar-and-batteries\">plant\u003c/a> that operates like a neighborhood version of Fremont’s fire stations. The company is \u003ca href=\"https://investors.sunrun.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/185/sunrun-solar-and-battery-systems-to-help-replace-retiring\">piloting\u003c/a> a project in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sunrun expects the tailwind of the shutoff events to drive homeowners’ interest in backup power systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its pitch to customers is that the solar-and-battery systems are cleaner than diesel generators in emergencies and save customers money on their energy bills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The scary story to me is that if people invest in fossil fuel generators en masse,” Lee said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Why Is This Happening? Answers to Your Questions on the PG&E Shutdown",
"headTitle": "Why Is This Happening? Answers to Your Questions on the PG&E Shutdown | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Pacific Gas & Electric has generated confusion — not to mention outrage — with its power grid shutdowns. The situation continues for a second day in 34 California counties. On social media and phone calls to KQED’s Forum radio program, people throughout PG&E’s service area have asked how and why the investor-owned utility took this step. KQED reporters have some answers to some of the questions that have come in …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why Is PG&E Turning the Power Off? Is This PG&E’s Fault?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bottom line, PG&E doesn’t want to risk having its power lines start another fire, so it is pre-emptively turning the power off during this week’s dry, windy weather. The company made the decision based on information from its wildfire center, where meteorologists keep watch on fire conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E’s power lines have sparked many catastrophic wildfires in California, including last year’s Camp Fire in Butte County that caused 85 deaths, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire in 100 years. PG&E lines started more than a dozen fires in 2017. Less than a month ago, the company agreed to pay billion in a settlement with victims of the recent fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The shutoffs are part of its wildfire mitigation \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11750896/cpuc-pge-deenergization-wildfire-safety-power-shutoffs\">plan\u003c/a>, mandated by the state and agreed to by the California Public Utilities Commission, the state’s top power regulator. — \u003cem>Kevin Stark\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Who Made This Decision and When?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If past practice tells us anything, PG&E has been making and remaking this decision, with the help of its meteorological team, over several days. The utility says it considers weather, fuel and other conditions and observations, as well as the need for notice by state and local parties, when it decides to implement shutoffs. As we’ve seen over the last few days, the planned outage times can change with shifting conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fact is, there’s nothing new about turning off power lines when conditions get risky: San Diego Gas and Electric, with the permission of the CPUC, has mitigated fire risk this way since 2012. What is new \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/uploadedFiles/CPUC_Public_Website/Content/News_Room/Public-Safety-Power-Shutoff-Policies-and-Procedures-September-2018.pdf\">are the guidelines PG&E filed\u003c/a> just a year ago for its public safety power shutoff procedures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the last couple of years, the CPUC has required investor-owned utilities to describe their processes for arriving at decisions like the one affecting nearly three dozen California counties right now. PG&E shut off power two times last year; the last time PG&E called a public safety power shutoff, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/uploadedFiles/CPUC_Public_Website/Content/Utilities_and_Industries/Energy_-_Electricity_and_Natural_Gas/PGE%20PSPS%20Report%20Letter_06-21-19.pdf\">for two days in June\u003c/a>, it affected about 22,000 customers in the North Bay and the Sierra foothills, including Butte County and Paradise. — \u003cem>Molly Peterson\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why Are the Shutoffs So Widespread?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Essentially, PG&E says that current conditions warrant extreme caution. The utility does its own predictive analysis, with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en_US/safety/emergency-preparedness/natural-disaster/wildfires/psps-weather-map.page?WT.mc_id=Vanity_weather\">dedicated page\u003c/a> offering a 7-day forecast of the possibility of a public safety power shutoff. As a rationale for the current outages, members of PG&E’s meteorological team have pointed out that Diablo and Santa Ana winds, along with low humidity and dry surface fuels, are making the state vulnerable to wildfire. Apart from PG&E’s in-house operation, the National Weather Service has issued \u003ca href=\"https://www.weather.gov/mqt/redflagtips\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Red Flag Warnings\u003c/a> for large chunks of California, and PG&E says these are “in alignment” with its own analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment, says these dangerous winds, though occurring annually, haven’t been this widespread in the state since the Wine Country Fires of 2017, before PG&E had instituted its de-energization protocol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wara also says PG&E may have had to cast a wide net because the energy infrastructure of California wasn’t built to accommodate the kind of fire risk we’re now experiencing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’ll have a power line that will serve one valley and then go up and over a ridge to serve the next valley,” Wara told KQED’s Miranda Leitsinger. “And that means that if you have to turn that light off, you could black out both valleys in addition to the ridgetop — even though the risk is only on the ridgetop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, is a longtime critic of the company who is \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/TedrickG/status/1182312963090182145\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">questioning\u003c/a> the widespread nature of the outage. In a letter sent to the California Public Utilities Commission Wednesday, he wrote:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I strongly disagree with the binary position currently offered by PG&E – they can turn the power off and shut down the economy and livelihoods of millions in California, an action which may protect us from wildfire, or they can roll the dice and continue with the lights on, and risk an enormous fire starting from their power lines. This situation is not acceptable nor sustainable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hill wrote that a public safety power shutoff must be a surgical, last resort measure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In any event, PG&E will have to say more about the choices it made: The utility must file a CPUC report with information related to its decisionmaking 10 days after the shutoff event ends. —\u003cem>Molly Peterson\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This Is Intolerable. Why Can’t PG&E Just Bury The Lines?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For new construction, PG&E places most power lines underground, so its main issue is dealing with 81,000 miles of existing overhead lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s no small feat. A little back-of-the-envelope math: Strung together, the lines could extend there and back from San Francisco to Buenos Aires about four times. Burying lines is very expensive. On its website, PG&E estimates it would cost $3 million per mile to puts its lines underground. So $3 million x 81,000 miles = $243 billion, which is more than California’s entire 2019 budget. One \u003ca href=\"https://www.eei.org/issuesandpolicy/electricreliability/undergrounding/Documents/UndergroundReport.pdf\">report\u003c/a> suggests that burying lines in urban places can be even more expensive — up to $5 million a mile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, consumer safety advocates \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/soapbox/article222387335.html\">argue\u003c/a> that leaders in Sacramento should require the utility to bury lines in heavily populated, high-risk fire areas. — \u003cem>Kevin Stark\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why Can’t the State Take Over PG&E and Solve This Mess?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not beyond the realm of possibility, though there’s no real model for a state taking over a publicly traded utility of this size. We also have yet to see the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11718683/pge-bankruptcy-filing-poses-big-questions-challenges-for-gov-newsom\">political\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11718683/pge-bankruptcy-filing-poses-big-questions-challenges-for-gov-newsom\">will\u003c/a> for this to occur. One reason is that taxpayers would have to take on the financial responsibility that just bankrupted PG&E — liability for its aging, unsafe electrical grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If there were a way to untangle PG&E’s many stakeholders and its various functions — don’t forget, it’s a gas company, too — other challenges would emerge: For one, figuring out how to value its massive assets and sorting out how the state would foot the bill for them, especially since ratepayers have already been paying for the system. Also, the main wildfire problems of aging, poorly maintained electrical transmission lines in rural, fire-prone areas, as well as more frequently occurring climate change-driven severe weather, are not going away, no matter who is in charge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public power \u003cem>does \u003c/em>exist in California — Sacramento and Los Angeles both have it, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">San\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">Francisco\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">is\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">offering\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">to\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">buy\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">PG\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">&\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">E\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">’\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">s\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">assets\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">within\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">city\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">limits\u003c/a>. But that’s different than completely ending PG&E as we know it and making it a public, state-run power company. It’s worth mentioning that PG&E workers largely oppose this option.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One idea that’s been floated: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11739802/money-for-victims-uncertainty-for-pge-everythings-on-the-table-in-newsoms-new-wildfire-plan\">Breaking\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11739802/money-for-victims-uncertainty-for-pge-everythings-on-the-table-in-newsoms-new-wildfire-plan\">up\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11739802/money-for-victims-uncertainty-for-pge-everythings-on-the-table-in-newsoms-new-wildfire-plan\">PG\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11739802/money-for-victims-uncertainty-for-pge-everythings-on-the-table-in-newsoms-new-wildfire-plan\">&\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11739802/money-for-victims-uncertainty-for-pge-everythings-on-the-table-in-newsoms-new-wildfire-plan\">E\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11739802/money-for-victims-uncertainty-for-pge-everythings-on-the-table-in-newsoms-new-wildfire-plan\">into\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11739802/money-for-victims-uncertainty-for-pge-everythings-on-the-table-in-newsoms-new-wildfire-plan\">smaller\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11739802/money-for-victims-uncertainty-for-pge-everythings-on-the-table-in-newsoms-new-wildfire-plan\">companies\u003c/a>. — \u003ci> Marisa Lagos\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why Are These Winds So Dangerous?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are known as “Diablo winds,” although they’re not necessarily hot. They are, however, pretty typical for this time of year. Their speed and dryness make them especially good at fanning and spreading flames. That can turn a potentially manageable wildfire into an out-of-control inferno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These winds that are so good at driving wildfires actually start out cold\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> Early autumn’s big, cold air masses, brought by the\u003ca href=\"https://www.weather.gov/jetstream/jet\"> jet stream\u003c/a>, first move over Washington and Oregon then head to the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. This cold air is drier because it holds less moisture, and it has relatively higher pressure than the warmer air sitting over California. The meeting of these air currents propels the winds over the Sierra. As the winds move downslope, they speed up, the air compresses and warms, and the humidity plummets. This removes moisture from the landscape, and makes any spark more likely to start a wildfire. — \u003cem>Danielle Venton\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Will Any Good Come Of This Shutdown?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, one thing is that the outages are testing the region’s emergency response system. They could expose weaknesses that can be fixed before the next major earthquake hits — for example, Caltrans administrators realized they needed to install a backup generator at the Caldecott Tunnel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The shutoffs underscore another fact: PG&E’s grid technology is outdated and clunky. The utility proactively shut off power on Wednesday morning, only to have people wake up to no electricity, less-than-gusty wind conditions, and warnings that the lights could remain off for days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The disruption could serve as a focusing event for California to invest in local wind, solar, battery storage and other technologies that would turn neighborhoods into small power islands, called microgrids, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.navigantresearch.com/team/peter-asmus\">Peter\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.navigantresearch.com/team/peter-asmus\">Asmus\u003c/a>, a director at Navigant Research, a market research firm for the power sector.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Forecasts are often wrong,” he said. “In an ideal situation, you would have the flexibility to make real-time adjustments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Puerto Ricans lived without electricity for months after Hurricane Maria ravaged the island in 2017. Now its main utility \u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesellsmoor/2019/02/12/puerto-ricos-utility-prepa-plans-to-divide-island-into-renewable-energy-microgrids/#4c0e345755fc\">plans\u003c/a> to divide the entire island into a series of microgrids that could offer resiliency and flexibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E has not widely adopted that technology. But, Asmus suggested, “the shutoffs are going to drive California to be the leader in microgrids in the U.S.” — \u003cem>Kevin Stark\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Will These Power Shutoffs Work?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ll have to wait and see. There are many other ways fires can start: discarded cigarette butts, overheated cars idling over dry vegetation, chains dragging on the ground and sparking. — \u003cem>Danielle Venton\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Why Is This Happening? Answers to Your Questions on the PG&E Shutdown | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Pacific Gas & Electric has generated confusion — not to mention outrage — with its power grid shutdowns. The situation continues for a second day in 34 California counties. On social media and phone calls to KQED’s Forum radio program, people throughout PG&E’s service area have asked how and why the investor-owned utility took this step. KQED reporters have some answers to some of the questions that have come in …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why Is PG&E Turning the Power Off? Is This PG&E’s Fault?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bottom line, PG&E doesn’t want to risk having its power lines start another fire, so it is pre-emptively turning the power off during this week’s dry, windy weather. The company made the decision based on information from its wildfire center, where meteorologists keep watch on fire conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E’s power lines have sparked many catastrophic wildfires in California, including last year’s Camp Fire in Butte County that caused 85 deaths, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire in 100 years. PG&E lines started more than a dozen fires in 2017. Less than a month ago, the company agreed to pay billion in a settlement with victims of the recent fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The shutoffs are part of its wildfire mitigation \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11750896/cpuc-pge-deenergization-wildfire-safety-power-shutoffs\">plan\u003c/a>, mandated by the state and agreed to by the California Public Utilities Commission, the state’s top power regulator. — \u003cem>Kevin Stark\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Who Made This Decision and When?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If past practice tells us anything, PG&E has been making and remaking this decision, with the help of its meteorological team, over several days. The utility says it considers weather, fuel and other conditions and observations, as well as the need for notice by state and local parties, when it decides to implement shutoffs. As we’ve seen over the last few days, the planned outage times can change with shifting conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fact is, there’s nothing new about turning off power lines when conditions get risky: San Diego Gas and Electric, with the permission of the CPUC, has mitigated fire risk this way since 2012. What is new \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/uploadedFiles/CPUC_Public_Website/Content/News_Room/Public-Safety-Power-Shutoff-Policies-and-Procedures-September-2018.pdf\">are the guidelines PG&E filed\u003c/a> just a year ago for its public safety power shutoff procedures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the last couple of years, the CPUC has required investor-owned utilities to describe their processes for arriving at decisions like the one affecting nearly three dozen California counties right now. PG&E shut off power two times last year; the last time PG&E called a public safety power shutoff, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/uploadedFiles/CPUC_Public_Website/Content/Utilities_and_Industries/Energy_-_Electricity_and_Natural_Gas/PGE%20PSPS%20Report%20Letter_06-21-19.pdf\">for two days in June\u003c/a>, it affected about 22,000 customers in the North Bay and the Sierra foothills, including Butte County and Paradise. — \u003cem>Molly Peterson\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why Are the Shutoffs So Widespread?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Essentially, PG&E says that current conditions warrant extreme caution. The utility does its own predictive analysis, with a \u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en_US/safety/emergency-preparedness/natural-disaster/wildfires/psps-weather-map.page?WT.mc_id=Vanity_weather\">dedicated page\u003c/a> offering a 7-day forecast of the possibility of a public safety power shutoff. As a rationale for the current outages, members of PG&E’s meteorological team have pointed out that Diablo and Santa Ana winds, along with low humidity and dry surface fuels, are making the state vulnerable to wildfire. Apart from PG&E’s in-house operation, the National Weather Service has issued \u003ca href=\"https://www.weather.gov/mqt/redflagtips\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Red Flag Warnings\u003c/a> for large chunks of California, and PG&E says these are “in alignment” with its own analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment, says these dangerous winds, though occurring annually, haven’t been this widespread in the state since the Wine Country Fires of 2017, before PG&E had instituted its de-energization protocol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wara also says PG&E may have had to cast a wide net because the energy infrastructure of California wasn’t built to accommodate the kind of fire risk we’re now experiencing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’ll have a power line that will serve one valley and then go up and over a ridge to serve the next valley,” Wara told KQED’s Miranda Leitsinger. “And that means that if you have to turn that light off, you could black out both valleys in addition to the ridgetop — even though the risk is only on the ridgetop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, is a longtime critic of the company who is \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/TedrickG/status/1182312963090182145\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">questioning\u003c/a> the widespread nature of the outage. In a letter sent to the California Public Utilities Commission Wednesday, he wrote:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I strongly disagree with the binary position currently offered by PG&E – they can turn the power off and shut down the economy and livelihoods of millions in California, an action which may protect us from wildfire, or they can roll the dice and continue with the lights on, and risk an enormous fire starting from their power lines. This situation is not acceptable nor sustainable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hill wrote that a public safety power shutoff must be a surgical, last resort measure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In any event, PG&E will have to say more about the choices it made: The utility must file a CPUC report with information related to its decisionmaking 10 days after the shutoff event ends. —\u003cem>Molly Peterson\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This Is Intolerable. Why Can’t PG&E Just Bury The Lines?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For new construction, PG&E places most power lines underground, so its main issue is dealing with 81,000 miles of existing overhead lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s no small feat. A little back-of-the-envelope math: Strung together, the lines could extend there and back from San Francisco to Buenos Aires about four times. Burying lines is very expensive. On its website, PG&E estimates it would cost $3 million per mile to puts its lines underground. So $3 million x 81,000 miles = $243 billion, which is more than California’s entire 2019 budget. One \u003ca href=\"https://www.eei.org/issuesandpolicy/electricreliability/undergrounding/Documents/UndergroundReport.pdf\">report\u003c/a> suggests that burying lines in urban places can be even more expensive — up to $5 million a mile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, consumer safety advocates \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/soapbox/article222387335.html\">argue\u003c/a> that leaders in Sacramento should require the utility to bury lines in heavily populated, high-risk fire areas. — \u003cem>Kevin Stark\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why Can’t the State Take Over PG&E and Solve This Mess?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not beyond the realm of possibility, though there’s no real model for a state taking over a publicly traded utility of this size. We also have yet to see the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11718683/pge-bankruptcy-filing-poses-big-questions-challenges-for-gov-newsom\">political\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11718683/pge-bankruptcy-filing-poses-big-questions-challenges-for-gov-newsom\">will\u003c/a> for this to occur. One reason is that taxpayers would have to take on the financial responsibility that just bankrupted PG&E — liability for its aging, unsafe electrical grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If there were a way to untangle PG&E’s many stakeholders and its various functions — don’t forget, it’s a gas company, too — other challenges would emerge: For one, figuring out how to value its massive assets and sorting out how the state would foot the bill for them, especially since ratepayers have already been paying for the system. Also, the main wildfire problems of aging, poorly maintained electrical transmission lines in rural, fire-prone areas, as well as more frequently occurring climate change-driven severe weather, are not going away, no matter who is in charge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public power \u003cem>does \u003c/em>exist in California — Sacramento and Los Angeles both have it, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">San\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">Francisco\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">is\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">offering\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">to\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">buy\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">PG\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">&\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">E\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">’\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">s\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">assets\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">within\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">city\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion\">limits\u003c/a>. But that’s different than completely ending PG&E as we know it and making it a public, state-run power company. It’s worth mentioning that PG&E workers largely oppose this option.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One idea that’s been floated: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11739802/money-for-victims-uncertainty-for-pge-everythings-on-the-table-in-newsoms-new-wildfire-plan\">Breaking\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11739802/money-for-victims-uncertainty-for-pge-everythings-on-the-table-in-newsoms-new-wildfire-plan\">up\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11739802/money-for-victims-uncertainty-for-pge-everythings-on-the-table-in-newsoms-new-wildfire-plan\">PG\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11739802/money-for-victims-uncertainty-for-pge-everythings-on-the-table-in-newsoms-new-wildfire-plan\">&\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11739802/money-for-victims-uncertainty-for-pge-everythings-on-the-table-in-newsoms-new-wildfire-plan\">E\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11739802/money-for-victims-uncertainty-for-pge-everythings-on-the-table-in-newsoms-new-wildfire-plan\">into\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11739802/money-for-victims-uncertainty-for-pge-everythings-on-the-table-in-newsoms-new-wildfire-plan\">smaller\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11739802/money-for-victims-uncertainty-for-pge-everythings-on-the-table-in-newsoms-new-wildfire-plan\">companies\u003c/a>. — \u003ci> Marisa Lagos\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why Are These Winds So Dangerous?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are known as “Diablo winds,” although they’re not necessarily hot. They are, however, pretty typical for this time of year. Their speed and dryness make them especially good at fanning and spreading flames. That can turn a potentially manageable wildfire into an out-of-control inferno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These winds that are so good at driving wildfires actually start out cold\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> Early autumn’s big, cold air masses, brought by the\u003ca href=\"https://www.weather.gov/jetstream/jet\"> jet stream\u003c/a>, first move over Washington and Oregon then head to the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. This cold air is drier because it holds less moisture, and it has relatively higher pressure than the warmer air sitting over California. The meeting of these air currents propels the winds over the Sierra. As the winds move downslope, they speed up, the air compresses and warms, and the humidity plummets. This removes moisture from the landscape, and makes any spark more likely to start a wildfire. — \u003cem>Danielle Venton\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Will Any Good Come Of This Shutdown?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, one thing is that the outages are testing the region’s emergency response system. They could expose weaknesses that can be fixed before the next major earthquake hits — for example, Caltrans administrators realized they needed to install a backup generator at the Caldecott Tunnel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The shutoffs underscore another fact: PG&E’s grid technology is outdated and clunky. The utility proactively shut off power on Wednesday morning, only to have people wake up to no electricity, less-than-gusty wind conditions, and warnings that the lights could remain off for days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The disruption could serve as a focusing event for California to invest in local wind, solar, battery storage and other technologies that would turn neighborhoods into small power islands, called microgrids, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.navigantresearch.com/team/peter-asmus\">Peter\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.navigantresearch.com/team/peter-asmus\">Asmus\u003c/a>, a director at Navigant Research, a market research firm for the power sector.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Forecasts are often wrong,” he said. “In an ideal situation, you would have the flexibility to make real-time adjustments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Puerto Ricans lived without electricity for months after Hurricane Maria ravaged the island in 2017. Now its main utility \u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesellsmoor/2019/02/12/puerto-ricos-utility-prepa-plans-to-divide-island-into-renewable-energy-microgrids/#4c0e345755fc\">plans\u003c/a> to divide the entire island into a series of microgrids that could offer resiliency and flexibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E has not widely adopted that technology. But, Asmus suggested, “the shutoffs are going to drive California to be the leader in microgrids in the U.S.” — \u003cem>Kevin Stark\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Will These Power Shutoffs Work?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ll have to wait and see. There are many other ways fires can start: discarded cigarette butts, overheated cars idling over dry vegetation, chains dragging on the ground and sparking. — \u003cem>Danielle Venton\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "PG&E Wants to Make a Massive Investment in Weather Stations. Here’s Why",
"headTitle": "PG&E Wants to Make a Massive Investment in Weather Stations. Here’s Why | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The fire that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11654027/my-world-was-burning-the-north-bay-fires-and-what-went-wrong\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ripped across the North Bay hills in 2017\u003c/a> was propelled by hurricane-force winds in some places, even as weather stations in the flat lands of Santa Rosa and Napa registered little more than a breeze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same was true in the town of Paradise when it was consumed by the Camp Fire. The winds near Paradise were blowing hard and fast, propelling the fire forward, says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA. However just a few miles away in the Sacramento Valley, the winds were nearly calm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In many cases, there haven’t been weather stations in close enough proximity to these fires to get a really good handle of what the conditions are actually like on the ground — we are essentially poking around in the dark,” says Swain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following years of deadly wildfires sparked by faulty electrical equipment, the California Legislature \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11689873/california-legislature-passes-major-reforms-to-wildfire-law\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">passed a law\u003c/a> last August requiring power utilities to come up with detailed proposals to reduce the risk of blazes. On May 30, the California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously to approve PG&E’s proposal, which includes the construction of hundreds of new weather stations across its Northern California territory. The company’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11750455/what-you-need-to-know-about-pges-state-mandated-wildfire-mitigation-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wildfire plan\u003c/a> could cost billions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s rich landscape of rolling hills and steep canyons has potentially hundreds of thousands of microclimates, which makes fire prediction an incredible challenge. That’s why PG&E plans to build a dense network of weather stations, which they hope will illuminate the humidity, wind speed and temperature of Northern California’s varied landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Power Shutdown\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regulators also unanimously approved a related plan to shut off power to areas of the electrical grid when wildfire risk is extreme.\u003cb> \u003c/b>Turning off consumer’s electricity has provoked \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Supervisor-Warns-SDGE-Be-Careful-with-Power-Shut-Offs-462920363.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">outcry in the past\u003c/a>, but lawmakers and regulators agree that it is — for now — necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The risk associated with another fire like the North Bay fires or the Camp Fire makes power shut downs a viable alternative, sadly,” says State Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa. “We cannot have our utilities creating these massive wildfires and have the associated risk of ratepayers having to pay these costs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the proceedings, CPUC President Michael Picker said that because of the increasing threat of wildfire, utilities are expanding on their “current strategies for weather tracking, and more precise and local predictive modeling for wildfires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are seeing weather conditions in portions of the state that have never been observed before, are not in the meteorological record, and certainly aren’t as granular as we need to be able to provide very precise and local kinds of situational awareness, which then can help us focus and isolate areas of risk and only cut power in those very specific areas,” Picker said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Picker also announced that he will step down from his position as CPUC president later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E’s plan is, in part, inspired by changes that another utility, San Diego Gas & Electric, made after its power lines ignited wildfires in 2007 and the company\u003ca href=\"https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-fire-lawsuit-witch-creek-settled-electric-2014dec05-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> shelled out billions in damages\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2010, SDG&E installed a weather station in every circuit of its territory that had a high risk of fire, and in 2011, they added more. Meteorologists say that information derived from the stations dramatically improved their understanding of local weather patterns and has aided in their predictions of wildfire behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On May 23\u003cstrong>, \u003c/strong>wildfire legislation proposed by Sen. Dodd \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11750339/fire-weather-stations-could-get-expanded-under-state-bill\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cleared the state Senate\u003c/a>; the two bills compel the state to coordinate with PG&E and other utilities on where weather stations are deployed. They also create a state wildfire warning center and a fire threat potential index.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to be more proactive in the state of California and have a wildfire warning center where we’ve got data points all throughout the state of California,” Dodd says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Plan\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E’s proposal includes:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Installing an estimated 1,300 new weather stations by 2022, one for about every 20 circuit-miles in its highest fire risk areas. Currently, the utility has just over 350 weather stations across its territory, according to its meteorologists. PG&E will power down the grid based on information from predictive weather models, and overtime, the stations will improve the models. Additionally, weather data will be publicly available.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Fixing approximately 600 high-definition cameras across its territory. PG&E, Cal Fire, and other agencies will use them to confirm wildfires. You can think of a camera as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\">fire\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\">look\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">out\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\">tower\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\"> 2.0\u003c/a>. The cameras can pan, zoom, and stream images right to fire agencies, and they have near infrared capabilities — so they work at night, too. Thirty cameras are working now, and a live stream is available\u003ca href=\"http://www.alertwildfire.org/northbay/index.html\"> here\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Fire detection capabilities provided by NOAA’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1936435/new-satellite-can-provide-immediate-wildfire-warning-but-first-the-govt-shutdown-has-to-end\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GOES-R series\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1936435/new-satellite-can-provide-immediate-wildfire-warning-but-first-the-govt-shutdown-has-to-end\">satellites\u003c/a>, which rotate in sync with the Earth and scan California once a minute, and from three polar orbiting satellites — NASA’s Aqua, Terra, and VIIRS — that pass over the state each day. The utility’s meteorologists will use the satellites to identify when a wildfire breaks out in near real-time. This is helpful, but not groundbreaking, as the cameras and lookout towers can do the same. But, in filings with the CPUC, PG&E says it will pilot a system that disseminates alerts through a web application and emails to its team. For now, those alerts will stay in-house, but PG&E’s meteorologists hope in the future to notify fire agencies and the public.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Following San Diego \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before SDG&E installed additional weather stations, meteorologists generally understood that the hot, dry Santa Ana winds sped up as they whipped through passes and canyons. They assumed the acceleration stemmed from the Venturi effect — when air or water speeds up as it’s forced through a constricted area, like a thumb on the end of a garden hose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But using information from the weather stations — which now number 177 across San Diego County and parts of Orange County — meteorologists discovered that strong winds reached speeds upward of 100 mph on the hill and mountain slopes, too. That led the utility to replace some wood poles with steel poles and install stronger wires, in places, to better withstand the extreme winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brian D’Agostino, director of the fire science and climate adaptation program at SDG&E, says the utility learned a great deal about how the Santa Ana winds behave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We knew they were strong, but we didn’t realize we were having 100 miles-per-hour winds in our backcountry,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Northern California doesn’t have Santa Ana winds, but the region has strong gusts, sometimes called Diablo or Mono winds, according to Scott Strenfel, supervisor of meteorology operations and analytics for PG&E. He says there’s a lot the utility can learn about these winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re hoping that we’re going to start to tease out some similar learnings of where these events are the most impactful,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Power Downs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, the traditional mark of success in the utility business is keeping the lights on, not shutting them off, but the state’s deadly wildfires have reached a crisis point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom addressed the power shutdowns while introducing his latest \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1941438/millions-for-climate-environmental-priorities-in-newsoms-may-budget\">budget\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1941438/millions-for-climate-environmental-priorities-in-newsoms-may-budget\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proposal\u003c/a>, which includes $75 million to study the shutoffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m worried about it,” he says. “We are all worried about it for [the] elderly. People’s power could be shut off not for a day or two, but potentially a week.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State leaders say the policy is temporary, but it’s still unknown how long it will be used. Extreme fire conditions happen multiple times a year in California, which means every year communities could be without power for days or even a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UCLA’s Swain says officials will need to carefully decide when to power the grid down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s going to be a balancing act between deciding when it will cause more harm than good to shut off the power to thousands of people, or in which cases it will prevent a potential wildfire catastrophe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "California's rich landscape of rolling hills and steep canyons has potentially hundreds of thousands of microclimates, which makes fire prediction an incredible challenge. That’s why PG&E wants to build a dense network of weather stations, which they hope will illuminate where the winds blow the hardest in Northern California.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The fire that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11654027/my-world-was-burning-the-north-bay-fires-and-what-went-wrong\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ripped across the North Bay hills in 2017\u003c/a> was propelled by hurricane-force winds in some places, even as weather stations in the flat lands of Santa Rosa and Napa registered little more than a breeze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same was true in the town of Paradise when it was consumed by the Camp Fire. The winds near Paradise were blowing hard and fast, propelling the fire forward, says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA. However just a few miles away in the Sacramento Valley, the winds were nearly calm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In many cases, there haven’t been weather stations in close enough proximity to these fires to get a really good handle of what the conditions are actually like on the ground — we are essentially poking around in the dark,” says Swain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following years of deadly wildfires sparked by faulty electrical equipment, the California Legislature \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11689873/california-legislature-passes-major-reforms-to-wildfire-law\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">passed a law\u003c/a> last August requiring power utilities to come up with detailed proposals to reduce the risk of blazes. On May 30, the California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously to approve PG&E’s proposal, which includes the construction of hundreds of new weather stations across its Northern California territory. The company’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11750455/what-you-need-to-know-about-pges-state-mandated-wildfire-mitigation-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wildfire plan\u003c/a> could cost billions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s rich landscape of rolling hills and steep canyons has potentially hundreds of thousands of microclimates, which makes fire prediction an incredible challenge. That’s why PG&E plans to build a dense network of weather stations, which they hope will illuminate the humidity, wind speed and temperature of Northern California’s varied landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Power Shutdown\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regulators also unanimously approved a related plan to shut off power to areas of the electrical grid when wildfire risk is extreme.\u003cb> \u003c/b>Turning off consumer’s electricity has provoked \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Supervisor-Warns-SDGE-Be-Careful-with-Power-Shut-Offs-462920363.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">outcry in the past\u003c/a>, but lawmakers and regulators agree that it is — for now — necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The risk associated with another fire like the North Bay fires or the Camp Fire makes power shut downs a viable alternative, sadly,” says State Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa. “We cannot have our utilities creating these massive wildfires and have the associated risk of ratepayers having to pay these costs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the proceedings, CPUC President Michael Picker said that because of the increasing threat of wildfire, utilities are expanding on their “current strategies for weather tracking, and more precise and local predictive modeling for wildfires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are seeing weather conditions in portions of the state that have never been observed before, are not in the meteorological record, and certainly aren’t as granular as we need to be able to provide very precise and local kinds of situational awareness, which then can help us focus and isolate areas of risk and only cut power in those very specific areas,” Picker said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Picker also announced that he will step down from his position as CPUC president later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E’s plan is, in part, inspired by changes that another utility, San Diego Gas & Electric, made after its power lines ignited wildfires in 2007 and the company\u003ca href=\"https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-fire-lawsuit-witch-creek-settled-electric-2014dec05-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> shelled out billions in damages\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2010, SDG&E installed a weather station in every circuit of its territory that had a high risk of fire, and in 2011, they added more. Meteorologists say that information derived from the stations dramatically improved their understanding of local weather patterns and has aided in their predictions of wildfire behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On May 23\u003cstrong>, \u003c/strong>wildfire legislation proposed by Sen. Dodd \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11750339/fire-weather-stations-could-get-expanded-under-state-bill\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cleared the state Senate\u003c/a>; the two bills compel the state to coordinate with PG&E and other utilities on where weather stations are deployed. They also create a state wildfire warning center and a fire threat potential index.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to be more proactive in the state of California and have a wildfire warning center where we’ve got data points all throughout the state of California,” Dodd says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Plan\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E’s proposal includes:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Installing an estimated 1,300 new weather stations by 2022, one for about every 20 circuit-miles in its highest fire risk areas. Currently, the utility has just over 350 weather stations across its territory, according to its meteorologists. PG&E will power down the grid based on information from predictive weather models, and overtime, the stations will improve the models. Additionally, weather data will be publicly available.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Fixing approximately 600 high-definition cameras across its territory. PG&E, Cal Fire, and other agencies will use them to confirm wildfires. You can think of a camera as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\">fire\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\">look\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">out\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\">tower\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2018/10/26/rekindling-fire-lookout-towers/\"> 2.0\u003c/a>. The cameras can pan, zoom, and stream images right to fire agencies, and they have near infrared capabilities — so they work at night, too. Thirty cameras are working now, and a live stream is available\u003ca href=\"http://www.alertwildfire.org/northbay/index.html\"> here\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Fire detection capabilities provided by NOAA’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1936435/new-satellite-can-provide-immediate-wildfire-warning-but-first-the-govt-shutdown-has-to-end\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GOES-R series\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1936435/new-satellite-can-provide-immediate-wildfire-warning-but-first-the-govt-shutdown-has-to-end\">satellites\u003c/a>, which rotate in sync with the Earth and scan California once a minute, and from three polar orbiting satellites — NASA’s Aqua, Terra, and VIIRS — that pass over the state each day. The utility’s meteorologists will use the satellites to identify when a wildfire breaks out in near real-time. This is helpful, but not groundbreaking, as the cameras and lookout towers can do the same. But, in filings with the CPUC, PG&E says it will pilot a system that disseminates alerts through a web application and emails to its team. For now, those alerts will stay in-house, but PG&E’s meteorologists hope in the future to notify fire agencies and the public.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Following San Diego \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before SDG&E installed additional weather stations, meteorologists generally understood that the hot, dry Santa Ana winds sped up as they whipped through passes and canyons. They assumed the acceleration stemmed from the Venturi effect — when air or water speeds up as it’s forced through a constricted area, like a thumb on the end of a garden hose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But using information from the weather stations — which now number 177 across San Diego County and parts of Orange County — meteorologists discovered that strong winds reached speeds upward of 100 mph on the hill and mountain slopes, too. That led the utility to replace some wood poles with steel poles and install stronger wires, in places, to better withstand the extreme winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brian D’Agostino, director of the fire science and climate adaptation program at SDG&E, says the utility learned a great deal about how the Santa Ana winds behave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We knew they were strong, but we didn’t realize we were having 100 miles-per-hour winds in our backcountry,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Northern California doesn’t have Santa Ana winds, but the region has strong gusts, sometimes called Diablo or Mono winds, according to Scott Strenfel, supervisor of meteorology operations and analytics for PG&E. He says there’s a lot the utility can learn about these winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re hoping that we’re going to start to tease out some similar learnings of where these events are the most impactful,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Power Downs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, the traditional mark of success in the utility business is keeping the lights on, not shutting them off, but the state’s deadly wildfires have reached a crisis point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom addressed the power shutdowns while introducing his latest \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1941438/millions-for-climate-environmental-priorities-in-newsoms-may-budget\">budget\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1941438/millions-for-climate-environmental-priorities-in-newsoms-may-budget\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proposal\u003c/a>, which includes $75 million to study the shutoffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m worried about it,” he says. “We are all worried about it for [the] elderly. People’s power could be shut off not for a day or two, but potentially a week.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State leaders say the policy is temporary, but it’s still unknown how long it will be used. Extreme fire conditions happen multiple times a year in California, which means every year communities could be without power for days or even a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UCLA’s Swain says officials will need to carefully decide when to power the grid down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s going to be a balancing act between deciding when it will cause more harm than good to shut off the power to thousands of people, or in which cases it will prevent a potential wildfire catastrophe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "California’s Big Climate Plans Could Be in Hands of PG&E Bankruptcy Judge",
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"content": "\u003cp>Bankruptcy lawyers began hashing out the future of PG&E in court this week, but the battle over billions of dollars in renewable energy power is already well underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Solar and wind companies, concerned that PG&E will be paying them less or even nothing in the future, have launched a preemptive strike, asking federal regulators to step in to protect their deals with PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E is one of the largest buyers of renewable energy in the country, driven by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1930972/why-100-percent-clean-energy-in-california-is-gonna-be-tricky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the ambitious climate change goals\u003c/a> California has adopted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2002, the state passed a law requiring utilities to get 20 percent of their electricity from sources like solar and wind. Last year\u003cstrong>,\u003c/strong> the state put utilities on the hook for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1930972/why-100-percent-clean-energy-in-california-is-gonna-be-tricky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">100 percent clean energy\u003c/a> by 2045.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve made them our essential clean energy partners,” says Ralph Cavanagh, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “A federal bankruptcy judge has the ability to disrupt that in many ways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In bankruptcy proceedings, the judge takes stock of all the debts a company has and then determines how its limited funds are paid out. One possibility is either reducing or rejecting some of the almost 300 renewable energy contracts on PG&E’s books.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Suddenly those are at risk,” says Cavanagh. “That’s causing consternation across the renewable energy sector, understandably.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of PG&E’s solar contracts date back more than a decade, when the technology was relatively expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The contracts that PG&E signed were some of the richest and highest price contracts we’ve seen for clean energy to date in the U.S.,” says Ethan Zindler, an analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “The price of renewables has dropped really dramatically since when they signed these contracts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its bankruptcy filing, PG&E claims some of the credit for helping renewable energy come of age, saying its contracts “contributed to significant price reductions for renewable energy resources currently available in the market.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But PG&E is still paying out those contracts, which can last 15 to 20 years. The bankruptcy judge could potentially seek to change their terms or prices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It could undermine confidence in California as a clean energy market going forward,” says Zindler.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, several renewable energy projects have seen their credit ratings downgraded because of their contracts with PG&E, including NextEra Energy’s Genesis Solar Energy Project, located in the Mojave Desert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an earning’s call last week, NextEra sought to reassure investors its PG&E contracts wouldn’t impact its bottom line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even if all of that cash is trapped, we expect to be able to meet our financial expectations,” said NextEra CFO John Ketchum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the company went on the offense, too. It asked federal regulators at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to get involved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Obviously, we are not going to sit on our heels,” said Ketchum. “We’re going to pursue all avenues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FERC oversees power contracts across state lines, and on Friday it asserted it has a role to play, writing, “this Commission and the bankruptcy courts have concurrent jurisdiction to review and address the disposition of wholesale power contracts sought to be rejected through bankruptcy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E responded by asking the bankruptcy court to declare its exclusive jurisdiction, to prevent “irreparable harm” to PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s going to be the jurisdictional fight,” says Catharine Sandoval, law professor at Santa Clara University and a former state energy regulator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other utility cases, “this has been a tussle that’s been playing out in bankruptcy courts all over the nation,” she says. Some bankruptcy courts have decided to leave power contracts alone, while others have amended them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandoval expects to see California also enter the jurisdictional battle in order to protect its renewable energy goals. Achieving them would be unlikely without the full participation of the state’s biggest utility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They might argue: ‘Wait, judge, we have adopted in California a number of laws regarding environmental protection. And the bankruptcy law gives you no authority to displace that,’” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If PG&E’s last bankruptcy is any guide, a judge may decide to preserve the environmental programs. In 2001, PG&E’s energy efficiency spending was left untouched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s not automatic,” cautions Cavanagh. “With a limited amount of money available to pay claims, nothing is certain, and that’s one of the reasons you want to stay out of bankruptcy proceedings. Everyone loses.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Bankruptcy lawyers began hashing out the future of PG&E in court this week, but the battle over billions of dollars in renewable energy power is already well underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Solar and wind companies, concerned that PG&E will be paying them less or even nothing in the future, have launched a preemptive strike, asking federal regulators to step in to protect their deals with PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E is one of the largest buyers of renewable energy in the country, driven by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1930972/why-100-percent-clean-energy-in-california-is-gonna-be-tricky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the ambitious climate change goals\u003c/a> California has adopted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2002, the state passed a law requiring utilities to get 20 percent of their electricity from sources like solar and wind. Last year\u003cstrong>,\u003c/strong> the state put utilities on the hook for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1930972/why-100-percent-clean-energy-in-california-is-gonna-be-tricky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">100 percent clean energy\u003c/a> by 2045.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve made them our essential clean energy partners,” says Ralph Cavanagh, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “A federal bankruptcy judge has the ability to disrupt that in many ways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In bankruptcy proceedings, the judge takes stock of all the debts a company has and then determines how its limited funds are paid out. One possibility is either reducing or rejecting some of the almost 300 renewable energy contracts on PG&E’s books.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Suddenly those are at risk,” says Cavanagh. “That’s causing consternation across the renewable energy sector, understandably.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of PG&E’s solar contracts date back more than a decade, when the technology was relatively expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The contracts that PG&E signed were some of the richest and highest price contracts we’ve seen for clean energy to date in the U.S.,” says Ethan Zindler, an analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “The price of renewables has dropped really dramatically since when they signed these contracts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its bankruptcy filing, PG&E claims some of the credit for helping renewable energy come of age, saying its contracts “contributed to significant price reductions for renewable energy resources currently available in the market.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But PG&E is still paying out those contracts, which can last 15 to 20 years. The bankruptcy judge could potentially seek to change their terms or prices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It could undermine confidence in California as a clean energy market going forward,” says Zindler.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Already, several renewable energy projects have seen their credit ratings downgraded because of their contracts with PG&E, including NextEra Energy’s Genesis Solar Energy Project, located in the Mojave Desert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an earning’s call last week, NextEra sought to reassure investors its PG&E contracts wouldn’t impact its bottom line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even if all of that cash is trapped, we expect to be able to meet our financial expectations,” said NextEra CFO John Ketchum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the company went on the offense, too. It asked federal regulators at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to get involved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Obviously, we are not going to sit on our heels,” said Ketchum. “We’re going to pursue all avenues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FERC oversees power contracts across state lines, and on Friday it asserted it has a role to play, writing, “this Commission and the bankruptcy courts have concurrent jurisdiction to review and address the disposition of wholesale power contracts sought to be rejected through bankruptcy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E responded by asking the bankruptcy court to declare its exclusive jurisdiction, to prevent “irreparable harm” to PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s going to be the jurisdictional fight,” says Catharine Sandoval, law professor at Santa Clara University and a former state energy regulator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other utility cases, “this has been a tussle that’s been playing out in bankruptcy courts all over the nation,” she says. Some bankruptcy courts have decided to leave power contracts alone, while others have amended them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sandoval expects to see California also enter the jurisdictional battle in order to protect its renewable energy goals. Achieving them would be unlikely without the full participation of the state’s biggest utility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They might argue: ‘Wait, judge, we have adopted in California a number of laws regarding environmental protection. And the bankruptcy law gives you no authority to displace that,’” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If PG&E’s last bankruptcy is any guide, a judge may decide to preserve the environmental programs. In 2001, PG&E’s energy efficiency spending was left untouched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s not automatic,” cautions Cavanagh. “With a limited amount of money available to pay claims, nothing is certain, and that’s one of the reasons you want to stay out of bankruptcy proceedings. Everyone loses.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "PG&E Plan to Clear Hundreds of Trees for Pipeline Project Sparks Controversy",
"headTitle": "PG&E Plan to Clear Hundreds of Trees for Pipeline Project Sparks Controversy | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp class=\"p1\">A Sept. 10 special meeting organized by the Lafayette City council that would discuss a controversial plan by PG&E to uproot hundreds of trees, has drawn ire from residents who want the trees to remain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pending tree removal is part of the utility company’s Community Pipeline Safety Initiative, a statewide effort aimed at\u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en_US/safety/gas-safety/safety-initiatives/emergency-access.page\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> improving\u003c/a> public safety by clearing structures that could stand in the way of first responders attempting to access gas transmission lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tree roots also corrode the underground pipelines, which can lead to hazardous leaks, according to PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trees that are scheduled for removal include 207 on public property and 245 in Briones Regional Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics of the plan\u003cspan class=\"color_11\"> say that removing hundreds of trees threatens local wildlife and significantly impairs the character of the neighborhood. They say the city should have conducted an environmental assessment before authorizing the plan in 2017. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michael Dawson, co-founder of grassroots group Save Lafayette Trees, says concerned residents want an open dialogue. He describes the September 10 meeting as “unbalanced.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“PG&E is given an unrestricted time to present, and then residents are restricted to 3-minute comments before PG&E delivers its final rebuttal,” says Dawson. “We’re not sure what this will achieve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Specifically, the group wants PG&E to release the tree clearing agreement it drafted with the city in 2017. They also want the city to appoint a citizen advisory committee to address safety needs in Lafayette.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"wixGuard\">“We simply want to sit down with PG&E and talk about the safety needs in our community without the distraction of the tree cutting,” says Dawson.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E has already cleared trees in more than 26 communities throughout Contra Costa county. Lafayette is the last city in the county to carry out the tree removal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E spokesman Jeff Smith says the company continues to work with the city “to determine the timing for this important gas safety work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next week’s meeting will include representatives from PG&E, the California Public Utilities Commission, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.savelafayettetrees.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Save Lafayette Trees\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Red Herring’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the city authorized PG&E’s plan last year, 300 residents signed a petition opposing the tree removal, according to Dawson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The petition led to the formation of Save Lafayette Trees, which sued the city for approving the plan. The lawsuit, pending on appeal, accuses the city of not evaluating the environmental impacts of clearing hundreds of trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They didn’t do the required environmental analysis and they failed to give us notification before they approved the plan,” says Dawson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dawson accuses PG&E of engaging in divide and conquer tactics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They make individual agreements with local counties in a very non-transparent process,” he says. “We can’t even get them to give us a full number on how many trees they’ve cut so far. They also won’t provide us with a list of the trees they want to cut down in Briones Park.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But PG&E spokesperson Smith says since 2017, the company has conducted a variety of outreach efforts “to share information, answer questions and receive feedback from the community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This includes informational booths, door-to-door outreach, and an open house where residents engaged directly with PG&E experts, according to Smith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Through these efforts, we interacted with over 200 local residents and provided hundreds of written responses,” he says. “We want our customers to be fully informed about our safety work, and we appreciate the opportunity to address questions and concerns at the September 10 meeting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930671\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1930671\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-1020x765.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-520x390.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An exposed pipeline, which some residents say is a much bigger safety risk than the trees. According to Save Lafayette Trees co-founder Michael Dawson, PG&E still hasn’t covered up the exposed pipeline even though it was reported to the company 10 years ago. \u003ccite>(Save Lafayette Trees)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"font_9\">\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"color_11\">A Lack of Data\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Pipeline Safety Initiative was launched following the 2010 PG&E pipeline explosion in San Bruno, which killed eight people. PG&E was hit with $1.6 billion in fines and criminal charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after the incident, PG&E undertook a $3-billion statewide upgrade to its 6,750-mile gas pipeline system. Part of that money went toward gas transmission safety improvements, which led to the Pipeline Safety Initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program targets trees and structures that are located near PG&E’S pipeline system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a number of cities and counties \u003ca href=\"http://goodtimes.sc/santa-cruz-news/tree-removal-pge-ocean-street-extension/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">have mounted\u003c/a> serious challenges to the utility giant’s tree cutting plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"font_9\">\u003cspan class=\"color_11\">In Lafayette, Dawson’s group maintains that tree-clearing is not a top public safety concern.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"font_9\">\u003cspan class=\"color_11\">“The justifications offered by the company are demonstrably false,” says Dawson. \u003c/span>“I think they are quick to use the label of ‘public safety’ to quell any unhappiness by locals. But the plan is a waste of resources and it distracts from actual safety concerns with these pipelines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dawson says \u003cspan class=\"wixGuard\">no strong data exists to support the idea that cutting trees increases public safety. There has been no\u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"color_11\"> underground pipeline accident caused by trees anywhere in the U.S. \u003ca href=\"https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/de4240_3a2200235ff24b5f91384d1ecde9c412.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in the last 20 years\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also points to a 2014 study commissioned by PG&E that found no correlation \u003ca href=\"https://www.water.ca.gov/LegacyFiles/regulations/docs/082614/PGE_TreeRootStudyReport.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">between live tree growths and corrosion\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Further, an unnamed federal official that Dawson’s group reached out to debunked a claim made by PG&E president Nick Stravropoulos during the company’s annual \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFiIDWJVslI&t=9s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">shareholder’s meeting in May.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stravropoulos had said that the Department of Transportation had identified tree clearing as the “number one safety issue” for transmission pipelines surrounded by “incompatible vegetation and structures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a DOT official, whose name has been withheld by Dawson’s group, refuted this claim in an email shown to KQED: “I do not know of anyone in the DOT who agrees with Nick’s statement … This does not accurately describe the number one safety issue for U.S. gas transmission pipelines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The official went on to cite “equipment failure” as a top concern for the DOT’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dawson’s group says the company’s real motives for prioritizing tree clearing is to make it easier to survey their pipeline system via helicopter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"font_9\">\u003cspan class=\"color_11\">“It’s apparent that PG&E wants trees removed for the convenience of aerial surveying,” says the group’s website. “This is NOT sufficient rationale for why a large project with a devastating impact should be imposed upon a community without public input.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, PG&E\u003ca href=\"http://www.lovelafayette.org/home/showdocument?id=5475\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> issued a lengthy response to\u003c/a> questions that residents had submitted to the city. But Dawson says unanswered questions remain regarding PG&E’s safety priorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are huge gaps in safety that aren’t being addressed,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"color_11\">Those safety needs, according to Dawson, include pipeline inspections, additional shut-off valves, and replacing aging pipeline infrastructure.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need more valves installed and aging pipelines need to be pressure tested,” says Dawson. “Firefighters we’ve spoken to say they’re more concerned with entering an area with the gas shut off, which requires functioning valves, not tree clearing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Jeff Heyman, a spokesperson for the city of Lafayette, sees next week’s meeting differently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are a lot of safety issues on the table for this meeting,” says Heyman. “We’re facilitating this meeting to allow residents to ask questions and receive answers from PG&E.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He accuses Dawson’s group of being singularly focused on the tree clearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not true that the meeting will only consist of PG&E doing a presentation,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The September 10 meeting is scheduled for 4-7pm at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.lllcf.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lafayette Library and Learning Center\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Note: This story has been updated to include comments from PG&E. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Critics say that an upcoming meeting organized by the Lafayette City Council to discuss a controversial plan to uproot hundreds of trees is nothing more than a platform for PG&E to push forward its agenda.",
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"description": "Critics say that an upcoming meeting organized by the Lafayette City Council to discuss a controversial plan to uproot hundreds of trees is nothing more than a platform for PG&E to push forward its agenda.",
"title": "PG&E Plan to Clear Hundreds of Trees for Pipeline Project Sparks Controversy | KQED",
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"headline": "PG&E Plan to Clear Hundreds of Trees for Pipeline Project Sparks Controversy",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"p1\">A Sept. 10 special meeting organized by the Lafayette City council that would discuss a controversial plan by PG&E to uproot hundreds of trees, has drawn ire from residents who want the trees to remain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pending tree removal is part of the utility company’s Community Pipeline Safety Initiative, a statewide effort aimed at\u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en_US/safety/gas-safety/safety-initiatives/emergency-access.page\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> improving\u003c/a> public safety by clearing structures that could stand in the way of first responders attempting to access gas transmission lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tree roots also corrode the underground pipelines, which can lead to hazardous leaks, according to PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trees that are scheduled for removal include 207 on public property and 245 in Briones Regional Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics of the plan\u003cspan class=\"color_11\"> say that removing hundreds of trees threatens local wildlife and significantly impairs the character of the neighborhood. They say the city should have conducted an environmental assessment before authorizing the plan in 2017. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michael Dawson, co-founder of grassroots group Save Lafayette Trees, says concerned residents want an open dialogue. He describes the September 10 meeting as “unbalanced.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“PG&E is given an unrestricted time to present, and then residents are restricted to 3-minute comments before PG&E delivers its final rebuttal,” says Dawson. “We’re not sure what this will achieve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Specifically, the group wants PG&E to release the tree clearing agreement it drafted with the city in 2017. They also want the city to appoint a citizen advisory committee to address safety needs in Lafayette.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"wixGuard\">“We simply want to sit down with PG&E and talk about the safety needs in our community without the distraction of the tree cutting,” says Dawson.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E has already cleared trees in more than 26 communities throughout Contra Costa county. Lafayette is the last city in the county to carry out the tree removal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E spokesman Jeff Smith says the company continues to work with the city “to determine the timing for this important gas safety work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next week’s meeting will include representatives from PG&E, the California Public Utilities Commission, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.savelafayettetrees.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Save Lafayette Trees\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Red Herring’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the city authorized PG&E’s plan last year, 300 residents signed a petition opposing the tree removal, according to Dawson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The petition led to the formation of Save Lafayette Trees, which sued the city for approving the plan. The lawsuit, pending on appeal, accuses the city of not evaluating the environmental impacts of clearing hundreds of trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They didn’t do the required environmental analysis and they failed to give us notification before they approved the plan,” says Dawson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dawson accuses PG&E of engaging in divide and conquer tactics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They make individual agreements with local counties in a very non-transparent process,” he says. “We can’t even get them to give us a full number on how many trees they’ve cut so far. They also won’t provide us with a list of the trees they want to cut down in Briones Park.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But PG&E spokesperson Smith says since 2017, the company has conducted a variety of outreach efforts “to share information, answer questions and receive feedback from the community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This includes informational booths, door-to-door outreach, and an open house where residents engaged directly with PG&E experts, according to Smith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Through these efforts, we interacted with over 200 local residents and provided hundreds of written responses,” he says. “We want our customers to be fully informed about our safety work, and we appreciate the opportunity to address questions and concerns at the September 10 meeting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1930671\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1930671\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-1020x765.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218-520x390.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/09/IMG_7218.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An exposed pipeline, which some residents say is a much bigger safety risk than the trees. According to Save Lafayette Trees co-founder Michael Dawson, PG&E still hasn’t covered up the exposed pipeline even though it was reported to the company 10 years ago. \u003ccite>(Save Lafayette Trees)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"font_9\">\u003cstrong>\u003cspan class=\"color_11\">A Lack of Data\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Pipeline Safety Initiative was launched following the 2010 PG&E pipeline explosion in San Bruno, which killed eight people. PG&E was hit with $1.6 billion in fines and criminal charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after the incident, PG&E undertook a $3-billion statewide upgrade to its 6,750-mile gas pipeline system. Part of that money went toward gas transmission safety improvements, which led to the Pipeline Safety Initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program targets trees and structures that are located near PG&E’S pipeline system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a number of cities and counties \u003ca href=\"http://goodtimes.sc/santa-cruz-news/tree-removal-pge-ocean-street-extension/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">have mounted\u003c/a> serious challenges to the utility giant’s tree cutting plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"font_9\">\u003cspan class=\"color_11\">In Lafayette, Dawson’s group maintains that tree-clearing is not a top public safety concern.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"font_9\">\u003cspan class=\"color_11\">“The justifications offered by the company are demonstrably false,” says Dawson. \u003c/span>“I think they are quick to use the label of ‘public safety’ to quell any unhappiness by locals. But the plan is a waste of resources and it distracts from actual safety concerns with these pipelines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dawson says \u003cspan class=\"wixGuard\">no strong data exists to support the idea that cutting trees increases public safety. There has been no\u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"color_11\"> underground pipeline accident caused by trees anywhere in the U.S. \u003ca href=\"https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/de4240_3a2200235ff24b5f91384d1ecde9c412.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in the last 20 years\u003c/a>.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also points to a 2014 study commissioned by PG&E that found no correlation \u003ca href=\"https://www.water.ca.gov/LegacyFiles/regulations/docs/082614/PGE_TreeRootStudyReport.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">between live tree growths and corrosion\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Further, an unnamed federal official that Dawson’s group reached out to debunked a claim made by PG&E president Nick Stravropoulos during the company’s annual \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFiIDWJVslI&t=9s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">shareholder’s meeting in May.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stravropoulos had said that the Department of Transportation had identified tree clearing as the “number one safety issue” for transmission pipelines surrounded by “incompatible vegetation and structures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a DOT official, whose name has been withheld by Dawson’s group, refuted this claim in an email shown to KQED: “I do not know of anyone in the DOT who agrees with Nick’s statement … This does not accurately describe the number one safety issue for U.S. gas transmission pipelines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The official went on to cite “equipment failure” as a top concern for the DOT’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dawson’s group says the company’s real motives for prioritizing tree clearing is to make it easier to survey their pipeline system via helicopter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"font_9\">\u003cspan class=\"color_11\">“It’s apparent that PG&E wants trees removed for the convenience of aerial surveying,” says the group’s website. “This is NOT sufficient rationale for why a large project with a devastating impact should be imposed upon a community without public input.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, PG&E\u003ca href=\"http://www.lovelafayette.org/home/showdocument?id=5475\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> issued a lengthy response to\u003c/a> questions that residents had submitted to the city. But Dawson says unanswered questions remain regarding PG&E’s safety priorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are huge gaps in safety that aren’t being addressed,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"color_11\">Those safety needs, according to Dawson, include pipeline inspections, additional shut-off valves, and replacing aging pipeline infrastructure.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need more valves installed and aging pipelines need to be pressure tested,” says Dawson. “Firefighters we’ve spoken to say they’re more concerned with entering an area with the gas shut off, which requires functioning valves, not tree clearing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Jeff Heyman, a spokesperson for the city of Lafayette, sees next week’s meeting differently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are a lot of safety issues on the table for this meeting,” says Heyman. “We’re facilitating this meeting to allow residents to ask questions and receive answers from PG&E.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He accuses Dawson’s group of being singularly focused on the tree clearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not true that the meeting will only consist of PG&E doing a presentation,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The September 10 meeting is scheduled for 4-7pm at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.lllcf.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lafayette Library and Learning Center\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Note: This story has been updated to include comments from PG&E. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Power Play: How California Lawmakers Are Navigating a Changing Energy Landscape",
"headTitle": "Power Play: How California Lawmakers Are Navigating a Changing Energy Landscape | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>State lawmakers, faced with a transformed energy landscape and a glut of renewable power as California charges into a greener future, are considering a handful of measures to meet the state’s energy challenges.[contextly_sidebar id=”EJmArVVvxhckAoFcVPZYqb7X797Rvtwu”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The puzzle: how to align state policies with the quickly-evolving electricity world, one lawmakers are attempting to define and to decide how to regulate. Key questions include who should be allowed to distribute energy and whether to expand consumers’ choices in purchasing electricity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The debate is taking place as the summer heat has been unleashed, when demand for power rises in concert with temperatures. At issue are the reliability and resiliency of the power grid–its ability to supply electricity consistently and balance itself when unexpected demand or supply arises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the most sweeping and controversial ideas, presented as a way for California to produce and use electricity more efficiently, is chilling to some: the replacement of California’s own grid operator with a new regional authority to manage power for the entire West. The question is whether California would be giving up too much for too little.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB813\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The proposal,\u003c/a> from Assemblyman Chris Holden, a Pasadena Democrat, would open a market for California’s solar power but could also loosen the state’s grip on some distribution decisions. It has been percolating for several years in one form or another and has been, to say the least, hotly debated in Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, California’s Independent System Operator in its present form would disappear. But a multi-state power authority run by a board of representatives from each participating state would operate more efficiently, better harness renewable energy and expand the state’s climate policies to its neighbors, some supporters say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are already many masters in the existing energy distribution system to dispatch power west of the Rockies. On the top of that food chain is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees interstate power transmission.[contextly_sidebar id=”IdKYsh93WuwLpAlZBBqQL5cFav8M7sgv”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Holden’s legislation would still allow California to make its own decisions about buying energy, said Kellie Smith, chief consultant to the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Energy, which Holden chairs. The new unified commission would fill a much-needed role as transmission traffic cop, she said: “We are not ceding any more authority than is there today. It’s status quo.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But opponents say that California would be handing over critical decision-making power to states peddling fossil-fueled energy. They say Rocky Mountain coal states could send more dirty power to California, if they elected to participate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To begin with, let me guarantee you that Wyoming and Utah have no interest in joining anything that California is part of,” Smith said. “Secondly, we already have coal coming in every day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though California has policies requiring utilities to buy a certain amount of renewable power, it can be difficult to determine how each watt of power coming into the state was generated. A unified grid would provide needed transparency, supporters say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents counter that the proposal would saddle California consumers with unfair costs for new transmission lines and other infrastructure outside the state. That’s one reason some labor groups oppose the bill; they’ve estimated that tens of thousands of construction jobs will be lost to other states.[contextly_sidebar id=”cQ3cknIoWqQ8NBRccL892PDV2V4jMRDL”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matthew Freedman, an attorney with The Utility Reform Network, a watchdog group, applauds improvements to the transmission system. But, echoing critics who say more vetting is needed, he expressed concern that the Holden bill would be a precipitous step.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not a decision that you can undo,” Freedman said in an interview. “There are many things a state can do to try out a new policy. If it doesn’t work, we can flip it. But once you get rid of the (current system) …. You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal has long held the interest of Gov. Brown and carries his considerable political weight behind it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other proposals in the mix include allowing industrial and commercial energy customers to cut the cord that binds them to major utilities, as well as a bid to help California reach its climate goals by fashioning a fully “clean” power supply by 2045.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is at the forefront of the budding \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://cleanpowerexchange.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">consumer choice\u003c/a>\u003c/u> movement—ratepayers leaving behind fortress-like utilities and grouping together to buy power from alternate providers. It’s caught on in more than a dozen California cities and counties, where local governments now determine their own power mix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One bill the Legislature is considering would \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB237\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">allow commercial and industrial power\u003c/a>\u003c/u> customers to join the “community choice” movement, unplugging from utilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The freedom of choice would encourage competition among power providers and drive down prices, said the bill’s author, Sen. Robert Hertzberg, a Democrat from Van Nuys. The highly technical proposal has flown somewhat under the radar, and its prospects for passage are unclear.[contextly_sidebar id=”0zZ02hs5EewVYXJ5cjtt9fEJ5HduDX8q”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state Public Utilities Commission has already weighed in on the idea of community grids and other ad hoc arrangements. It warns in a \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"http://www.caiso.com/Documents/2018SummerLoadsandResourcesAssessment.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">draft report\u003c/a>\u003c/u> that they could leave consumers vulnerable to fly-by-night operators, stranded without power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview with CALmatters, commission President Michael Picker invoked the price spikes and blackouts that rolled across California during the energy crisis of 2000 after deregulation of the energy market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the last deregulation, we had a plan, however flawed,” Picker said. “Now, we are deregulating electric markets through dozens of different decisions and legislative actions, but we do not have a plan. If we are not careful, we can drift into another crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the other ideas that will be on lawmakers’ agenda when they return from recess next month is one that failed last year and has a second chance now: Sen. Kevin de León’s \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB100\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proposal\u003c/a>\u003c/u> that California use 100 percent clean power within the next 27 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Los Angeles Democrat maintains that the state is on track to meet this accelerated goal. But his legislation is opposed by such powerful interests as the California Chamber of Commerce and the state’s three largest utilities. Legislative politics, which stymied the bill’s passage in the last session, appear to be at work again, making its prospects somewhat murky.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "State lawmakers, faced with a transformed energy landscape and a glut of renewable power as California charges into a greener future, are considering a handful of measures to meet the state’s energy challenges. The puzzle: how to align state policies with the quickly-evolving electricity world, one lawmakers are attempting to define and to decide",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/author/julie-cart/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Julie Cart\u003c/a>,\u003c/br>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CALmatters\u003c/a>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>State lawmakers, faced with a transformed energy landscape and a glut of renewable power as California charges into a greener future, are considering a handful of measures to meet the state’s energy challenges.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The puzzle: how to align state policies with the quickly-evolving electricity world, one lawmakers are attempting to define and to decide how to regulate. Key questions include who should be allowed to distribute energy and whether to expand consumers’ choices in purchasing electricity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The debate is taking place as the summer heat has been unleashed, when demand for power rises in concert with temperatures. At issue are the reliability and resiliency of the power grid–its ability to supply electricity consistently and balance itself when unexpected demand or supply arises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the most sweeping and controversial ideas, presented as a way for California to produce and use electricity more efficiently, is chilling to some: the replacement of California’s own grid operator with a new regional authority to manage power for the entire West. The question is whether California would be giving up too much for too little.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB813\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The proposal,\u003c/a> from Assemblyman Chris Holden, a Pasadena Democrat, would open a market for California’s solar power but could also loosen the state’s grip on some distribution decisions. It has been percolating for several years in one form or another and has been, to say the least, hotly debated in Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, California’s Independent System Operator in its present form would disappear. But a multi-state power authority run by a board of representatives from each participating state would operate more efficiently, better harness renewable energy and expand the state’s climate policies to its neighbors, some supporters say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are already many masters in the existing energy distribution system to dispatch power west of the Rockies. On the top of that food chain is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees interstate power transmission.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Holden’s legislation would still allow California to make its own decisions about buying energy, said Kellie Smith, chief consultant to the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Energy, which Holden chairs. The new unified commission would fill a much-needed role as transmission traffic cop, she said: “We are not ceding any more authority than is there today. It’s status quo.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But opponents say that California would be handing over critical decision-making power to states peddling fossil-fueled energy. They say Rocky Mountain coal states could send more dirty power to California, if they elected to participate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To begin with, let me guarantee you that Wyoming and Utah have no interest in joining anything that California is part of,” Smith said. “Secondly, we already have coal coming in every day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though California has policies requiring utilities to buy a certain amount of renewable power, it can be difficult to determine how each watt of power coming into the state was generated. A unified grid would provide needed transparency, supporters say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents counter that the proposal would saddle California consumers with unfair costs for new transmission lines and other infrastructure outside the state. That’s one reason some labor groups oppose the bill; they’ve estimated that tens of thousands of construction jobs will be lost to other states.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matthew Freedman, an attorney with The Utility Reform Network, a watchdog group, applauds improvements to the transmission system. But, echoing critics who say more vetting is needed, he expressed concern that the Holden bill would be a precipitous step.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not a decision that you can undo,” Freedman said in an interview. “There are many things a state can do to try out a new policy. If it doesn’t work, we can flip it. But once you get rid of the (current system) …. You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal has long held the interest of Gov. Brown and carries his considerable political weight behind it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other proposals in the mix include allowing industrial and commercial energy customers to cut the cord that binds them to major utilities, as well as a bid to help California reach its climate goals by fashioning a fully “clean” power supply by 2045.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is at the forefront of the budding \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://cleanpowerexchange.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">consumer choice\u003c/a>\u003c/u> movement—ratepayers leaving behind fortress-like utilities and grouping together to buy power from alternate providers. It’s caught on in more than a dozen California cities and counties, where local governments now determine their own power mix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One bill the Legislature is considering would \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB237\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">allow commercial and industrial power\u003c/a>\u003c/u> customers to join the “community choice” movement, unplugging from utilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The freedom of choice would encourage competition among power providers and drive down prices, said the bill’s author, Sen. Robert Hertzberg, a Democrat from Van Nuys. The highly technical proposal has flown somewhat under the radar, and its prospects for passage are unclear.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state Public Utilities Commission has already weighed in on the idea of community grids and other ad hoc arrangements. It warns in a \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"http://www.caiso.com/Documents/2018SummerLoadsandResourcesAssessment.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">draft report\u003c/a>\u003c/u> that they could leave consumers vulnerable to fly-by-night operators, stranded without power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview with CALmatters, commission President Michael Picker invoked the price spikes and blackouts that rolled across California during the energy crisis of 2000 after deregulation of the energy market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the last deregulation, we had a plan, however flawed,” Picker said. “Now, we are deregulating electric markets through dozens of different decisions and legislative actions, but we do not have a plan. If we are not careful, we can drift into another crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the other ideas that will be on lawmakers’ agenda when they return from recess next month is one that failed last year and has a second chance now: Sen. Kevin de León’s \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB100\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proposal\u003c/a>\u003c/u> that California use 100 percent clean power within the next 27 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Los Angeles Democrat maintains that the state is on track to meet this accelerated goal. But his legislation is opposed by such powerful interests as the California Chamber of Commerce and the state’s three largest utilities. Legislative politics, which stymied the bill’s passage in the last session, appear to be at work again, making its prospects somewhat murky.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "PG&E Customers to Foot the Bill for Wine Country Fire Costs, Under Revised Bill",
"headTitle": "PG&E Customers to Foot the Bill for Wine Country Fire Costs, Under Revised Bill | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Pacific Gas & Electric wants its customers to pay for the costs of the October 2017 wildfires that tore through northern California, destroying more than 8,000 buildings and killing 44 people. Under legislation now at the state capitol, PG&E customers would be charged an involuntary fee to help the utility company pay off settlements stemming from pending wildfire lawsuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘Why is it fair for someone in Santa Cruz to pay for what happened in Santa Rosa?’\u003ccite>John Franzman, Fountaingrove\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The legislation comes just weeks after \u003ca href=\"http://calfire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/newsreleases/2018/2017_WildfireSiege_Cause.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cal Fire investigators\u003c/a> concluded that PG&E power lines and poles were responsible for 12 of the October wildfires, prompting hundreds of lawsuits against the utility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB33\">AB33 \u003c/a>would allow PG&E to use state-issued bonds to pay for property damage, personal injury and fire-fighting costs resulting from multiple blazes last October. PG&E customers would pay off the bonds in the form of a “non-bypassable” charge on their bills. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/PG-E-customers-would-pay-some-Wine-Country-fire-13058808.php?src=hp_totn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">From the Chronicle\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>‘That means even customers who generate most of their own electricity with a rooftop solar array or who buy their electricity from a community choice program such as CleanPowerSF would still pay the charge.’\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”gs5eWJ4qUrNUB2HZuWbRg5SpPM0S9DGk”]PG&E could be liable for billions of dollars in damages in wildfires that destroyed 8,880 buildings and killed 45 people. The company \u003ca href=\"http://abc7news.com/pg-e-expects-to-pay-%2425b-for-costs-related-to-north-bay-fires/3631775/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told shareholders in June\u003c/a> that it has set aside 2.5 billion dollars in expected liability. But that could be a fraction of the total cost. \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB33\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AB33\u003c/a> explains that the burden on PG&E would be too great:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>‘…the magnitude of potential damage claims undermines Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s ability to invest in the infrastructure necessary to meet the state’s aggressive wildfire mitigation and clean energy plans \u003ci>\u003c/i>and has the potential to create an unsustainable hardship for customers if passed on in the form of higher rates through the typical ratemaking processes.’\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>John Franzman, who lost his Fountaingrove home in the fires, blasted the proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“I read the legislation and scratched my head,” Franzman said. “Why is it fair for someone in Santa Cruz to pay for what happened in Santa Rosa? That means my 90-year-old father who lives 150 miles away is paying for this. I’m paying for my own recovery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”Hd72jPIEp7KnzF9jIST6NjlJZICSaOkQ”]\u003cbr>\nErin Brockovich, an environmental activist and attorney, is suing PG&E on behalf of Bay Area residents who lost their homes in the fires. She attacked the bill on Monday and accused PG&E of shielding itself from wildfire lawsuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“This company is a ginormous monopoly that has the privilege of working in this state,” she said Monday. “Yet you take no accountability and no responsibility for your actions that harm people and kill people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill, first introduced in 2016, was originally aimed at promoting electric cars. It was gutted and amended last week, however, to address PG&E’s liability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The potential liability from the 2017 northern California wildfires requires immediate legislative action,” the bill reads. “The number of persons affected by the wildfires, and the extent of their losses, highlight the need for timely and equitable resolution of their claims.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A PG&E spokesperson called the bill a “common sense” approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The measure does not absolve PG&E from responsibility,” said spokeswoman Lynsey Paulo. “Instead, it takes a balanced, common-sense approach that will protect electric customers, the communities PG&E serves and our state’s clean energy future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The October wildfires in Northern California wound up being the largest group of wildfires in recorded state history. The damage resulted in about $10 billion in insurance claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Associated Press contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Facing billions of dollars in potential liability, PG&E is asking lawmakers for a change in the law. Victims have slammed the current proposal as a “bailout.\"",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Pacific Gas & Electric wants its customers to pay for the costs of the October 2017 wildfires that tore through northern California, destroying more than 8,000 buildings and killing 44 people. Under legislation now at the state capitol, PG&E customers would be charged an involuntary fee to help the utility company pay off settlements stemming from pending wildfire lawsuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘Why is it fair for someone in Santa Cruz to pay for what happened in Santa Rosa?’\u003ccite>John Franzman, Fountaingrove\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The legislation comes just weeks after \u003ca href=\"http://calfire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/newsreleases/2018/2017_WildfireSiege_Cause.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cal Fire investigators\u003c/a> concluded that PG&E power lines and poles were responsible for 12 of the October wildfires, prompting hundreds of lawsuits against the utility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB33\">AB33 \u003c/a>would allow PG&E to use state-issued bonds to pay for property damage, personal injury and fire-fighting costs resulting from multiple blazes last October. PG&E customers would pay off the bonds in the form of a “non-bypassable” charge on their bills. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/PG-E-customers-would-pay-some-Wine-Country-fire-13058808.php?src=hp_totn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">From the Chronicle\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>‘That means even customers who generate most of their own electricity with a rooftop solar array or who buy their electricity from a community choice program such as CleanPowerSF would still pay the charge.’\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>PG&E could be liable for billions of dollars in damages in wildfires that destroyed 8,880 buildings and killed 45 people. The company \u003ca href=\"http://abc7news.com/pg-e-expects-to-pay-%2425b-for-costs-related-to-north-bay-fires/3631775/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told shareholders in June\u003c/a> that it has set aside 2.5 billion dollars in expected liability. But that could be a fraction of the total cost. \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB33\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AB33\u003c/a> explains that the burden on PG&E would be too great:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>‘…the magnitude of potential damage claims undermines Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s ability to invest in the infrastructure necessary to meet the state’s aggressive wildfire mitigation and clean energy plans \u003ci>\u003c/i>and has the potential to create an unsustainable hardship for customers if passed on in the form of higher rates through the typical ratemaking processes.’\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>John Franzman, who lost his Fountaingrove home in the fires, blasted the proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“I read the legislation and scratched my head,” Franzman said. “Why is it fair for someone in Santa Cruz to pay for what happened in Santa Rosa? That means my 90-year-old father who lives 150 miles away is paying for this. I’m paying for my own recovery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cbr>\nErin Brockovich, an environmental activist and attorney, is suing PG&E on behalf of Bay Area residents who lost their homes in the fires. She attacked the bill on Monday and accused PG&E of shielding itself from wildfire lawsuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“This company is a ginormous monopoly that has the privilege of working in this state,” she said Monday. “Yet you take no accountability and no responsibility for your actions that harm people and kill people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill, first introduced in 2016, was originally aimed at promoting electric cars. It was gutted and amended last week, however, to address PG&E’s liability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The potential liability from the 2017 northern California wildfires requires immediate legislative action,” the bill reads. “The number of persons affected by the wildfires, and the extent of their losses, highlight the need for timely and equitable resolution of their claims.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A PG&E spokesperson called the bill a “common sense” approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The measure does not absolve PG&E from responsibility,” said spokeswoman Lynsey Paulo. “Instead, it takes a balanced, common-sense approach that will protect electric customers, the communities PG&E serves and our state’s clean energy future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The October wildfires in Northern California wound up being the largest group of wildfires in recorded state history. The damage resulted in about $10 billion in insurance claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Associated Press contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In an attempt to reduce fire risks posed by power lines and equipment during extreme weather, PG&E has announced a new plan to cut off power in Northern California neighborhoods during times of extreme fire hazard. [contextly_sidebar id=”tEbNdC5Xer0aXcPjFFNTeynoiGJfj62S”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan has drawn criticism from officials and residents who worry the loss of power during dangerous weather could further threaten public safety. The power cuts would apply to regions the state has designated at high risk for wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some worry that a “pre-emptive blackout” could cause medical equipment to malfunction and cut off vital channels of communication in areas with spotty cellular service. \u003ca href=\"http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/article/NE/20180626/NEWS/180629766\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Santa Cruz Sentinel \u003c/a>reported concerns raised Tuesday after a PG&E presentation at a Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors meeting:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“It’s not just the power lines causing fires but a lot of other factors, and, in fact, cutting power lines exacerbates the danger,” County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty told two PG&E representatives Tuesday following a presentation on the utility’s wildfire safety plan at the board of supervisors meeting.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>PG&E says the plan will only apply in extreme circumstances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is really, truly, a last-resort effort, and you’re right, there are tradeoffs,” Gregg Lemler, vice president of electric transmission operations at PG&E, said at the meeting. [contextly_sidebar id=”9h4SOS00OBEvr4djsKyAQWmKb9dZ7PVS”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some PG&E customers are on board with the preemptive blackout plan\u003ca href=\"http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2018/06/12/pge-planned-power-outage-wildfires/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">, reports CBS Sacramento: \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“I think if they’re proactively looking for a solution and looking ahead of something that could be hazardous or something that’s not good for the community, I think that’s pretty good,” said one customer.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>PG&E’s new measure follows a \u003ca href=\"http://calfire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/newsreleases/2018/2017_WildfireSiege_Cause.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cal Fire report \u003c/a>linking 12 of last year’s destructive blazes to trees and branches that came into contact with PG&E power lines and equipment. The report also found potential violations of state law. Its findings have been forwarded to county district attorneys’ offices, according to\u003ca href=\"http://calfire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/newsreleases/2018/2017_WildfireSiege_Cause.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> a Cal Fire news release.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E told investors last week it expects to pay at least $2.5 billion in damages from those fires, according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/northbay/sonomacounty/8458200-181/pge-sonoma-napa-mendocino-lake-wildfire-liability\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the North Bay Business Journal.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The controversial plan to cut off power during extreme fire events comes on the heels of a Cal Fire report that blames the utility for at least 12 of last year's wildfires.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In an attempt to reduce fire risks posed by power lines and equipment during extreme weather, PG&E has announced a new plan to cut off power in Northern California neighborhoods during times of extreme fire hazard. \u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan has drawn criticism from officials and residents who worry the loss of power during dangerous weather could further threaten public safety. The power cuts would apply to regions the state has designated at high risk for wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some worry that a “pre-emptive blackout” could cause medical equipment to malfunction and cut off vital channels of communication in areas with spotty cellular service. \u003ca href=\"http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/article/NE/20180626/NEWS/180629766\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Santa Cruz Sentinel \u003c/a>reported concerns raised Tuesday after a PG&E presentation at a Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors meeting:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“It’s not just the power lines causing fires but a lot of other factors, and, in fact, cutting power lines exacerbates the danger,” County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty told two PG&E representatives Tuesday following a presentation on the utility’s wildfire safety plan at the board of supervisors meeting.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>PG&E says the plan will only apply in extreme circumstances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is really, truly, a last-resort effort, and you’re right, there are tradeoffs,” Gregg Lemler, vice president of electric transmission operations at PG&E, said at the meeting. \u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some PG&E customers are on board with the preemptive blackout plan\u003ca href=\"http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2018/06/12/pge-planned-power-outage-wildfires/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">, reports CBS Sacramento: \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“I think if they’re proactively looking for a solution and looking ahead of something that could be hazardous or something that’s not good for the community, I think that’s pretty good,” said one customer.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>PG&E’s new measure follows a \u003ca href=\"http://calfire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/newsreleases/2018/2017_WildfireSiege_Cause.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cal Fire report \u003c/a>linking 12 of last year’s destructive blazes to trees and branches that came into contact with PG&E power lines and equipment. The report also found potential violations of state law. Its findings have been forwarded to county district attorneys’ offices, according to\u003ca href=\"http://calfire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/newsreleases/2018/2017_WildfireSiege_Cause.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> a Cal Fire news release.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E told investors last week it expects to pay at least $2.5 billion in damages from those fires, according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/northbay/sonomacounty/8458200-181/pge-sonoma-napa-mendocino-lake-wildfire-liability\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the North Bay Business Journal.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Should PG&E Shut Off Power During Windstorms to Prevent Fires?",
"headTitle": "Should PG&E Shut Off Power During Windstorms to Prevent Fires? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Investigators are still sorting out what caused the North Bay fires, but \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/10/31/pge-reports-electric-safety-incidents-at-time-of-north-bay-fires/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">downed power lines\u003c/a> are certainly one of the possible culprits. That has some asking why Pacific Gas & Electric didn’t turn off the power grid ahead of time, as the extreme, warm winds started picking up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turns out, that’s something one California utility already routinely does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late October, a red flag warning was issued in San Diego, as the Santa Ana winds began descending. San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) tracked it closely with their network of 170 weather stations mounted on power poles.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s certainly possible [to shut down power] with adequate communications.”\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>Rob Manning, Electric Power Research Institute\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>You start seeing some of these gusts come through some of the backcountry areas that can threaten the integrity of our system,” says Allison Torres, spokesperson for SDG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>High winds have caused major fires in San Diego before. In 2007, the Witch, Guejito and Rice fires burned hundreds of homes. Investigators ruled that power lines were at fault and SDG&E hadn’t adequately maintained its facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So in October, SDG&E shut down the power grid preemptively in the Descanso area due to high winds, high temperatures and low humidity, affecting about 87 customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If something were to come in contact with the lines, there’s no energy flowing through them that might cause an ignition,” says Torres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SDG&E says the customers were alerted with automated calls warning them about the outrage. Households with medical devices received more direct outreach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We reach out personally to make sure we make contact and they’ve made arrangements or have a backup plan,” says Torres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Power outages are never popular, but Torres says the utility usually receives only a handful of complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917649\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1917649\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-800x578.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"578\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-800x578.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-160x116.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-768x555.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-1020x737.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-1180x853.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-960x694.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-240x173.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-375x271.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-520x376.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2.jpg 1273w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">PG&E works to restore power in Santa Rosa after the Tubbs Fire. \u003ccite>(Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Nobody wants to see a fire affecting their community,” she says, “so if this is going to give public safety a priority then people are pretty onboard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2013, the utility has preemptively turn off the power 16 times, affect 1,000 customers in all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E doesn’t have a policy to proactively turn off power lines during a warm windstorm, and says doing so could pose safety risks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These actions affect first responders and the operation of critical facilities such as hospitals, schools, water pumps and other essential services needed in response to any emergency, and especially in response to wildfires,” the company said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E says it’s in compliance with current fire regulations from the California Public Utilities Commission and will comply with any future changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proactively powering down is something that’s more common in hurricane-prone areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Relatively routinely, the barrier islands around the coastal areas will power down as a hurricane comes through,” says Rob Manning, Vice President of Transmission and Distribution at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.epri.com/#/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Electric Power Research Institute\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”eMRvsE8BxgkuoxrbPYVMeWDQcnGiYpWr”]Manning says it’s a complex decision that requires adequate pre-planning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been involved with a couple of these,” he says, “and when you have a really robust and effective communications process, people generally agree.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, SDG&E has not shut off power systems that include hospitals or schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s certainly possible with adequate communications,” he says, “particularly if sensitive areas have backup generation capabilities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Powering down can also help avoid damage during a storm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Damage that occurs from an energized system that is in contact with the ground is more severe than a de-energized system,” says Manning. “It does help when you recover a system not to have to deal with the effects of additional damage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire says during a fire, crews generally treat all power lines as if they are live and are continually in contact with utilities about areas that need powering down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Cal Fire spokesman wouldn’t comment on whether proactively powering down the grid would have helped during the north Bay Area fires, because of the ongoing investigation.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Investigators are still sorting out what caused the North Bay fires, but \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/10/31/pge-reports-electric-safety-incidents-at-time-of-north-bay-fires/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">downed power lines\u003c/a> are certainly one of the possible culprits. That has some asking why Pacific Gas & Electric didn’t turn off the power grid ahead of time, as the extreme, warm winds started picking up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turns out, that’s something one California utility already routinely does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late October, a red flag warning was issued in San Diego, as the Santa Ana winds began descending. San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) tracked it closely with their network of 170 weather stations mounted on power poles.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s certainly possible [to shut down power] with adequate communications.”\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>Rob Manning, Electric Power Research Institute\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>You start seeing some of these gusts come through some of the backcountry areas that can threaten the integrity of our system,” says Allison Torres, spokesperson for SDG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>High winds have caused major fires in San Diego before. In 2007, the Witch, Guejito and Rice fires burned hundreds of homes. Investigators ruled that power lines were at fault and SDG&E hadn’t adequately maintained its facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So in October, SDG&E shut down the power grid preemptively in the Descanso area due to high winds, high temperatures and low humidity, affecting about 87 customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If something were to come in contact with the lines, there’s no energy flowing through them that might cause an ignition,” says Torres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SDG&E says the customers were alerted with automated calls warning them about the outrage. Households with medical devices received more direct outreach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We reach out personally to make sure we make contact and they’ve made arrangements or have a backup plan,” says Torres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Power outages are never popular, but Torres says the utility usually receives only a handful of complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917649\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1917649\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-800x578.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"578\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-800x578.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-160x116.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-768x555.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-1020x737.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-1180x853.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-960x694.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-240x173.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-375x271.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-520x376.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2.jpg 1273w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">PG&E works to restore power in Santa Rosa after the Tubbs Fire. \u003ccite>(Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Nobody wants to see a fire affecting their community,” she says, “so if this is going to give public safety a priority then people are pretty onboard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2013, the utility has preemptively turn off the power 16 times, affect 1,000 customers in all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E doesn’t have a policy to proactively turn off power lines during a warm windstorm, and says doing so could pose safety risks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These actions affect first responders and the operation of critical facilities such as hospitals, schools, water pumps and other essential services needed in response to any emergency, and especially in response to wildfires,” the company said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E says it’s in compliance with current fire regulations from the California Public Utilities Commission and will comply with any future changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proactively powering down is something that’s more common in hurricane-prone areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Relatively routinely, the barrier islands around the coastal areas will power down as a hurricane comes through,” says Rob Manning, Vice President of Transmission and Distribution at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.epri.com/#/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Electric Power Research Institute\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>Manning says it’s a complex decision that requires adequate pre-planning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been involved with a couple of these,” he says, “and when you have a really robust and effective communications process, people generally agree.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, SDG&E has not shut off power systems that include hospitals or schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s certainly possible with adequate communications,” he says, “particularly if sensitive areas have backup generation capabilities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Powering down can also help avoid damage during a storm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Damage that occurs from an energized system that is in contact with the ground is more severe than a de-energized system,” says Manning. “It does help when you recover a system not to have to deal with the effects of additional damage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire says during a fire, crews generally treat all power lines as if they are live and are continually in contact with utilities about areas that need powering down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Cal Fire spokesman wouldn’t comment on whether proactively powering down the grid would have helped during the north Bay Area fires, because of the ongoing investigation.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Why Plans to Replace Diablo Canyon With 100 Percent Clean Energy Could Fall Short",
"headTitle": "Why Plans to Replace Diablo Canyon With 100 Percent Clean Energy Could Fall Short | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>When PG&E announced plans to close California’s last remaining nuclear plant last week, it also \u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page?title=20160621_in_step_with_californias_evolving_energy_policy_pge_labor_and_environmental_groups_announce_proposal_to_increase_energy_efficiency_renewables_and_storage_while_phasing_out_nuclear_power_over_the_next_decade\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced a historic plan\u003c/a> to replace it with clean energy, like solar or wind, and energy efficiency gains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That way, the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, which doesn’t put out carbon emissions, won’t be replaced with something that does, like natural gas, the utility said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a 100 percent clean energy transition is less certain than it sounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some say that natural gas power plants could also play a role in replacing Diablo Canyon, because of the challenges of adding large amounts of renewable energy to the grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s going to be up to everybody to hold them accountable.’\u003ccite>Laura Wisland, Union of Concerned Scientists\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Solar and wind power \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/04/04/what-will-california-do-with-too-much-solar/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fluctuate based on the weather conditions \u003c/a>and time of day. Natural gas plants are kept running to fill in the gaps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the short term, some say closing Diablo Canyon could actually boost greenhouse gas emissions, because there may not be enough renewable energy to cover the loss of the nuclear plant in the first few years after it retires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E says it’s committed to a greenhouse-gas free solution. Whether that happens will depend on how the utility and regulators at the California Public Utilities Commission put that plan in motion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Shrinking Gap?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Diablo Canyon produces about 20 percent of PG&E’s electricity. That’s a lot of megawatts to replace. PG&E says not all of them be replaced, though, thanks to California’s “changing energy landscape.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t need it,” said Geisha Williams, president of PG&E Electric. “There’s been so much energy efficiency. There’s been so much power that’s been generated by customers on their own private solar rooftop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California must double its energy efficiency by 2030 under a state law passed last year, SB 350, which means PG&E’s customers will need less electricity from their utility. \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/01/28/california-preserves-solar-incentives-in-defeat-for-utilities/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Home solar systems are booming\u003c/a>, which reduces the need for large power plants. Customers in Marin and Sonoma Counties, for example, have left PG&E and are forming their own local utilities, a process known as community choice aggregation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, PG&E is required to get more of its power from renewable sources, like solar and wind, in order to meet the state’s goal of 50 percent renewable power by 2030.\u003cbr>\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-wHtHc\" src=\"//datawrapper.dwcdn.net/wHtHc/5/\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"webkitallowfullscreen\" mozallowfullscreen=\"mozallowfullscreen\" oallowfullscreen=\"oallowfullscreen\" msallowfullscreen=\"msallowfullscreen\" width=\"100%\" height=\"330\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Add all that up and PG&E says it would only need to run Diablo Canyon at half-power in the future, which makes it financially infeasible to keep open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Diablo retires, PG&E will need to replace roughly 9,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity. (In California, it takes around 6,000 gigawatt-hours to power one million households for a year). Through improved energy efficiency, PG&E expects demand to fall by 2,000 gigawatt-hours by 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That leaves a gap of roughly 7,000 gigawatt-hours to make up for the year that Diablo’s reactors go offline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To bridge that gap, PG&E plans to significantly boost the renewable energy it uses by 2031. By six years after Diablo’s retirement, PG&E says it plans to be generating 55 percent renewable power, system-wide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even considering PG&E’s rapid renewable energy growth, some energy analysts say PG&E may need to turn to natural gas for the first few years after Diablo Canyon’s retirement, a move that could add to California’s greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Natural Gas as a ‘Bridge Fuel’\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They actually increase their dependence on gas-fired generation over a short time frame because that’s really the only option that’s available to them,” said Morris Greenberg, Managing Director of North American Power at \u003ca href=\"http://www.pira.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PIRA Energy Group\u003c/a>, an energy market research firm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PIRA ran an analysis of the Western electric grid and found that while the use of natural gas is currently declining in Northern California, it could rise around 34 percent from 2023 to 2026 because of Diablo’s closure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_610986\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-610986 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CAISO2.jpg\" alt=\"Grid operators balance California's transmission system on a minute-by-minute basis at the Independent System Operator.\" width=\"640\" height=\"448\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CAISO2.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CAISO2-400x280.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grid operators balance California’s transmission system on a minute-by-minute basis at the Independent System Operator. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Greenberg says the analysis takes into account PG&E renewable energy goals, but not the exact specifics of the plan announced last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E says there’s a reason it hasn’t spelled out exactly how it will replace Diablo’s power: it’s hard to predict how energy technology will change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I try to write down megawatt-hour by megawatt-hour what fills that gap in 2025 right now, that’s actually a losing strategy,” said Todd Strauss, PG&E’s senior director of energy policy planning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The proposal clearly recognizes there’s lots of other things that need to be done, but we shouldn’t specify it today,” he said. “We’re committed to having Diablo Canyon’s retirement not result in an increase in greenhouse gas emissions,” Strauss said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several of the environmental groups that signed on to PG&E’s closure plan say there is a risk of turning to natural gas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re determined to avoid that,” said Ralph Cavanagh of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He says there are alternatives like using energy efficiency programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re all going to work together to ensure that the fears of our adversaries are not realized: that anytime you lose a nuclear plant you automatically get an uptick in fossil fuels and pollution,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ups and Downs of Renewables\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The solar and wind power that will eventually replace Diablo Canyon is carbon-free, but they only work when the sun is out and the wind is blowing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”UDvFW0KjwXA2qzfZs2eJlC9ioUH62sa1″]As clouds cover the sun or the wind dies down, the power supply drops, creating fluctuations on the electric grid. To prevent widespread outages, the state’s grid operator, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.caiso.com/Pages/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Independent System Operator\u003c/a> (ISO), has to have another source of energy ready to fill in the gap immediately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Generally, it’s been natural gas power plants, which can be turned up and down as needed. That means gas plants have to be run at the same time as renewables, because once turned off, they can take hours to turn back on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as more renewable energy comes online, running renewables, natural gas and other power sources all together sometimes creates more power than the state needs. At those times, the California ISO has to \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/04/04/what-will-california-do-with-too-much-solar/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">switch off solar farms\u003c/a> to avoid overloading the grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Retiring Diablo Canyon could help with that problem. The nuclear plant is designed to run at a steady, constant level. Nuclear advocates have argued that the state needs this kind of “baseload” power. Others say shutting down Diablo could actually improve grid management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It will reduce the need to curtail our solar power plants,” said Cavanagh. “The nuclear plant can’t be ramped up and down, so it’s occupying space on the grid that solar farms could occupy at much lower cost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>TOO MUCH RENEWABLE POWER\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb> On a sunny day in March, some solar farms had to shut down because there was more power on the grid than Californians were using. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"sharedaddy show-for-medium-up\">\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_611449\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1730px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-611449\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Solar_-Grid_Desktop.png\" alt=\"SOURCE: California ISO. \" width=\"1730\" height=\"1000\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">SOURCE: California ISO. \u003ccite>(Teodros Hailye/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"show-for-small-only\">\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_611442\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-611442 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Solar_Grid_Mobile.png\" alt=\"SOURCE: California ISO\" width=\"750\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">SOURCE: California ISO\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Natural Gas At the Ready\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as California approaches the legislative mandate of getting half its electricity from renewable sources, the grid will need more backup power ready to fill in when solar and wind power fluctuate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We could be at risk of running the gas fleet higher than we would otherwise run it,” said Laura Wisland of the Union of Concerned Scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wisland says there are a number of strategies to avoid that. Spreading solar and wind farms across a wide geographic area would prevent localized weather conditions, like cloud cover or lack of wind, from creating such large fluctuations on the grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some solar farms and natural gas plants are also less flexible than they could be, because their contracts limit how often they can be turned down or turned off. Wisland says having fewer limits on that would make it easier for the grid operator to balance the ups and downs of renewable energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E says it plans to negotiate more flexible contracts with both new renewable projects and older ones whose contracts are expiring soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/04/11/too-much-solar-in-california-not-if-you-bottle-it/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Energy storage projects\u003c/a>, like large batteries, can also provide power to balance out solar and wind, so natural gas wouldn’t be needed as much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is also looking at \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/04/04/what-will-california-do-with-too-much-solar/\">joining its electric grid to other Western states\u003c/a>, so power can be shared more efficiently throughout the West. Instead of turning on more natural gas plants here, California could hypothetically look for clean power from other states instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E says it’s interested in those strategies, but state regulators must ultimately approve the decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There remains “a lot that is actually beyond PG&E, to be worked out at the California Public Utilities Commission, California ISO, and other California discussions,” says PG&E’s Strauss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If action occurs too late, then there may be some challenge to the reliability of the system,” he says. “But with a planned, deliberate approach with plenty of foresight, we’re going get reliability in the system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When they do sign up more renewables,” Wisland cautions, “they’re going to have to be much more aware of the integration challenges and be much more careful choosing renewables to minimize those challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E says it will bring its plan to retire Diablo Canyon and replace it with clean energy before regulators later this year. When that happens, Wisland says, “It’s going to be up to everybody to hold them accountable.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When PG&E announced plans to close California’s last remaining nuclear plant last week, it also \u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page?title=20160621_in_step_with_californias_evolving_energy_policy_pge_labor_and_environmental_groups_announce_proposal_to_increase_energy_efficiency_renewables_and_storage_while_phasing_out_nuclear_power_over_the_next_decade\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced a historic plan\u003c/a> to replace it with clean energy, like solar or wind, and energy efficiency gains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That way, the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, which doesn’t put out carbon emissions, won’t be replaced with something that does, like natural gas, the utility said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a 100 percent clean energy transition is less certain than it sounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some say that natural gas power plants could also play a role in replacing Diablo Canyon, because of the challenges of adding large amounts of renewable energy to the grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s going to be up to everybody to hold them accountable.’\u003ccite>Laura Wisland, Union of Concerned Scientists\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Solar and wind power \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/04/04/what-will-california-do-with-too-much-solar/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fluctuate based on the weather conditions \u003c/a>and time of day. Natural gas plants are kept running to fill in the gaps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the short term, some say closing Diablo Canyon could actually boost greenhouse gas emissions, because there may not be enough renewable energy to cover the loss of the nuclear plant in the first few years after it retires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E says it’s committed to a greenhouse-gas free solution. Whether that happens will depend on how the utility and regulators at the California Public Utilities Commission put that plan in motion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Shrinking Gap?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Diablo Canyon produces about 20 percent of PG&E’s electricity. That’s a lot of megawatts to replace. PG&E says not all of them be replaced, though, thanks to California’s “changing energy landscape.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You don’t need it,” said Geisha Williams, president of PG&E Electric. “There’s been so much energy efficiency. There’s been so much power that’s been generated by customers on their own private solar rooftop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California must double its energy efficiency by 2030 under a state law passed last year, SB 350, which means PG&E’s customers will need less electricity from their utility. \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/01/28/california-preserves-solar-incentives-in-defeat-for-utilities/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Home solar systems are booming\u003c/a>, which reduces the need for large power plants. Customers in Marin and Sonoma Counties, for example, have left PG&E and are forming their own local utilities, a process known as community choice aggregation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, PG&E is required to get more of its power from renewable sources, like solar and wind, in order to meet the state’s goal of 50 percent renewable power by 2030.\u003cbr>\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-wHtHc\" src=\"//datawrapper.dwcdn.net/wHtHc/5/\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"webkitallowfullscreen\" mozallowfullscreen=\"mozallowfullscreen\" oallowfullscreen=\"oallowfullscreen\" msallowfullscreen=\"msallowfullscreen\" width=\"100%\" height=\"330\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Add all that up and PG&E says it would only need to run Diablo Canyon at half-power in the future, which makes it financially infeasible to keep open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Diablo retires, PG&E will need to replace roughly 9,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity. (In California, it takes around 6,000 gigawatt-hours to power one million households for a year). Through improved energy efficiency, PG&E expects demand to fall by 2,000 gigawatt-hours by 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That leaves a gap of roughly 7,000 gigawatt-hours to make up for the year that Diablo’s reactors go offline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To bridge that gap, PG&E plans to significantly boost the renewable energy it uses by 2031. By six years after Diablo’s retirement, PG&E says it plans to be generating 55 percent renewable power, system-wide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even considering PG&E’s rapid renewable energy growth, some energy analysts say PG&E may need to turn to natural gas for the first few years after Diablo Canyon’s retirement, a move that could add to California’s greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Natural Gas as a ‘Bridge Fuel’\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They actually increase their dependence on gas-fired generation over a short time frame because that’s really the only option that’s available to them,” said Morris Greenberg, Managing Director of North American Power at \u003ca href=\"http://www.pira.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PIRA Energy Group\u003c/a>, an energy market research firm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PIRA ran an analysis of the Western electric grid and found that while the use of natural gas is currently declining in Northern California, it could rise around 34 percent from 2023 to 2026 because of Diablo’s closure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_610986\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-610986 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CAISO2.jpg\" alt=\"Grid operators balance California's transmission system on a minute-by-minute basis at the Independent System Operator.\" width=\"640\" height=\"448\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CAISO2.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/CAISO2-400x280.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grid operators balance California’s transmission system on a minute-by-minute basis at the Independent System Operator. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Greenberg says the analysis takes into account PG&E renewable energy goals, but not the exact specifics of the plan announced last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E says there’s a reason it hasn’t spelled out exactly how it will replace Diablo’s power: it’s hard to predict how energy technology will change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I try to write down megawatt-hour by megawatt-hour what fills that gap in 2025 right now, that’s actually a losing strategy,” said Todd Strauss, PG&E’s senior director of energy policy planning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The proposal clearly recognizes there’s lots of other things that need to be done, but we shouldn’t specify it today,” he said. “We’re committed to having Diablo Canyon’s retirement not result in an increase in greenhouse gas emissions,” Strauss said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several of the environmental groups that signed on to PG&E’s closure plan say there is a risk of turning to natural gas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re determined to avoid that,” said Ralph Cavanagh of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He says there are alternatives like using energy efficiency programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re all going to work together to ensure that the fears of our adversaries are not realized: that anytime you lose a nuclear plant you automatically get an uptick in fossil fuels and pollution,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ups and Downs of Renewables\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The solar and wind power that will eventually replace Diablo Canyon is carbon-free, but they only work when the sun is out and the wind is blowing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>As clouds cover the sun or the wind dies down, the power supply drops, creating fluctuations on the electric grid. To prevent widespread outages, the state’s grid operator, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.caiso.com/Pages/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Independent System Operator\u003c/a> (ISO), has to have another source of energy ready to fill in the gap immediately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Generally, it’s been natural gas power plants, which can be turned up and down as needed. That means gas plants have to be run at the same time as renewables, because once turned off, they can take hours to turn back on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as more renewable energy comes online, running renewables, natural gas and other power sources all together sometimes creates more power than the state needs. At those times, the California ISO has to \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/04/04/what-will-california-do-with-too-much-solar/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">switch off solar farms\u003c/a> to avoid overloading the grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Retiring Diablo Canyon could help with that problem. The nuclear plant is designed to run at a steady, constant level. Nuclear advocates have argued that the state needs this kind of “baseload” power. Others say shutting down Diablo could actually improve grid management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It will reduce the need to curtail our solar power plants,” said Cavanagh. “The nuclear plant can’t be ramped up and down, so it’s occupying space on the grid that solar farms could occupy at much lower cost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>TOO MUCH RENEWABLE POWER\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb> On a sunny day in March, some solar farms had to shut down because there was more power on the grid than Californians were using. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"sharedaddy show-for-medium-up\">\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_611449\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1730px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-611449\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Solar_-Grid_Desktop.png\" alt=\"SOURCE: California ISO. \" width=\"1730\" height=\"1000\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">SOURCE: California ISO. \u003ccite>(Teodros Hailye/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"show-for-small-only\">\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_611442\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-611442 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/04/Solar_Grid_Mobile.png\" alt=\"SOURCE: California ISO\" width=\"750\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">SOURCE: California ISO\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Natural Gas At the Ready\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as California approaches the legislative mandate of getting half its electricity from renewable sources, the grid will need more backup power ready to fill in when solar and wind power fluctuate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We could be at risk of running the gas fleet higher than we would otherwise run it,” said Laura Wisland of the Union of Concerned Scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wisland says there are a number of strategies to avoid that. Spreading solar and wind farms across a wide geographic area would prevent localized weather conditions, like cloud cover or lack of wind, from creating such large fluctuations on the grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some solar farms and natural gas plants are also less flexible than they could be, because their contracts limit how often they can be turned down or turned off. Wisland says having fewer limits on that would make it easier for the grid operator to balance the ups and downs of renewable energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E says it plans to negotiate more flexible contracts with both new renewable projects and older ones whose contracts are expiring soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/04/11/too-much-solar-in-california-not-if-you-bottle-it/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Energy storage projects\u003c/a>, like large batteries, can also provide power to balance out solar and wind, so natural gas wouldn’t be needed as much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is also looking at \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/04/04/what-will-california-do-with-too-much-solar/\">joining its electric grid to other Western states\u003c/a>, so power can be shared more efficiently throughout the West. Instead of turning on more natural gas plants here, California could hypothetically look for clean power from other states instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E says it’s interested in those strategies, but state regulators must ultimately approve the decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There remains “a lot that is actually beyond PG&E, to be worked out at the California Public Utilities Commission, California ISO, and other California discussions,” says PG&E’s Strauss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If action occurs too late, then there may be some challenge to the reliability of the system,” he says. “But with a planned, deliberate approach with plenty of foresight, we’re going get reliability in the system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When they do sign up more renewables,” Wisland cautions, “they’re going to have to be much more aware of the integration challenges and be much more careful choosing renewables to minimize those challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E says it will bring its plan to retire Diablo Canyon and replace it with clean energy before regulators later this year. When that happens, Wisland says, “It’s going to be up to everybody to hold them accountable.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"rightnowish": {
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