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With dangerously strong winds forecast across Southern California this week, utilities are considering shutoffs for safety. California’s three largest utility companies are all considering shutting off power in regions where dangerously strong winds are expected to heighten wildfire risk this week. More than 350,000 customers from Kern to San Diego counties could lose power amid the planned safety shutoffs. Southern …

California

Southern California

Where Southern California Edison has shut off power to its customers

An extreme wind event has prompted Southern California Edison to shut off power to thousands of customers across the region. Two fires ignited amid a Santa Ana wind event that was generating 70- to 80-mph wind gusts in Ventura and Los Angeles counties on Wednesday. Tens of thousands of utility customers across the region lost power as of Wednesday afternoon …

Dangerous winds pummel California. Could power shutoffs affect voting across the state?

Power shutoffs amid dangerous winds could affect almost 240,000 across California this week, but officials say there should be no voting disruptions, even if some polling locations lose electricity. On Monday, much of the Los Angeles and Ventura county mountains remained under a red flag warning — an alert for extreme fire weather — because of strong Santa Ana winds …

Extended California heat wave brings extreme health, fire risk; power shutoffs likely

California Supreme Court says PG&E can’t be sued over safety-related power shutoffs

PG&E crews clear a damaged power pole after the Camp fire, which state investigators blamed on the utility’s equipment. Such litigation would interfere with the California Public Utilities Commission’s “comprehensive regulatory and supervisory authority” over such safety shutoffs and is therefore barred under state law, Justice Goodwin Liu wrote in a unanimous decision for the state’s high court. It said …

As California prepares to enter the heart of wildfire season amid drought and historically dry conditions, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said Friday that it has expanded its instant power line shutoffs to cover more high-risk areas. Such faults linked to PG&E equipment have sparked a series of recent massive wildfires, including last year’s Dixie fire and the 2018 Camp …

Power shut-offs loom for tens of thousands of Californians amid gusty winds

Another summer of California power outages poses threat to Newsom as he faces recall

Gavin Newsom, center, looks over fire devastation in Brentwood with L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, right, and others in 2019. “People will ultimately hold him responsible for the state of California, and if they can’t turn their lights on right around the time they’re voting, they’re going to be thinking about that.” The state’s three largest investor-owned utilities expect to de-energize …

AP Explains: Power shutoffs to prevent California wildfires

LOS ANGELES — California’s largest utilities have staged power shutoffs this year to prevent their equipment from sparking wildfires during the worst fire season on record. A public safety power shutoff, or PSPS, involves a utility preemptively de-energizing power lines as a precaution against weather conditions that might damage equipment and spark a fire. Power lines have been blamed for …