As PG&E warns of new power outages in California, San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo joins FOX Business to discuss how the state is handling the situation.
PG&E may have to cut power to 189,000 homes and businesses on Wednesday afternoon.
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This “public safety” power shutoff to avert possible wildfires in northern California — which would likely last for approximately two days, according to the agency — would potentially impact parts of 17 counties in the state, mostly in the Sierra foothills and north of the San Francisco Bay Area.
And that’s not all. The beleaguered utility — which has been under fire from both residents and government officials for how it handled a previous “public safety” outage that occurred almost two weeks ago in northern and central California, where power was turned off to an estimated 2 million people to avoid causing potential wildfires — will decide on Wednesday whether to cut the power for a total of 500,000 people. The prior blackout was a serious disruption to people’s day-to-day life, as schools and colleges had to cancel classes and lots of businesses had to close.
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PG&E has been concerned that gusty winds could cause damage and down power lines, and mixed with hot dry weather, could ignite wildfires.
“The sole intent of a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) is to prevent a catastrophic wildfire sparked by electrical equipment during extreme weather events,” the company said in a press release.
Californians — having just dealt with a public safety outage less than two weeks ago — were frustrated and aggrieved to have to be dealing with another precautionary outage again so soon.
“I think it’s not panic per se, just ‘Eh, we gotta do this AGAIN?’” Kim Schefer, manager of Village True Value Hardware in Santa Rosa, said.
“We made it work, but it was a headache,” Dermot Coll, co-owner of Murphy’s Irish Pub in Sonoma said of the power outage a couple of weeks ago. “We kept saying, ‘Is this even worth it?’”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
