During an all-day hearing that included testimony from California’s investor-owned utilities, state officials and representatives of communities affected by outages, state senators vented their frustrations as they tried to identify legislative solutions to problems caused by this year’s wildfire-prevention blackouts. AdvertisementBut attitudes changed soon after widespread shutoffs began this fall — in some instances, without proper communication to government officials and customers that lost power. PG&E has invested more than $30 billion in its electrical transmission and distribution assets over the last decade, Johnson said. AdvertisementOfficials also criticized the California Public Utilities Commission, the entity charged with regulating the state’s three largest investor-owned utilities, for what they said was weak oversight in the past. But after Monday’s marathon hearing, at least one lawmaker struggled to find any immediate remedies to lessen the effects of the outages on his constituents.

Source: Los Angeles Times November 19, 2019 04:56 UTC