Watch CBS News
A day before a deadly blaze destroyed a California town, the giant utility Pacific Gas & Electric Co. got in touch with Betsy Ann Cowley, saying the company needed access to her property because its power lines were causing sparks.
PG&E officials on Friday said the utility experienced problem on transmission line minutes before the massive Camp Fire in Butte County erupted.
Pacific Gas & Electric Company said Thursday that it would not preemptively cut power to tens of thousands of customers in several Northern California counties over the potential risk for wildfires.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company is alerting some 70,000 customers in nine Northern California counties about possible early Thursday morning power outages on amid a red flag warning for the region.
PG&E notified customers that it may proactively shut off power again in portions of nine Northern California counties on Thursday due to extreme fire danger conditions.
PG&E crews have restored power to all San Francisco Bay Area customers as of Tuesday evening after a precautionary shutdown Sunday night, a PG&E spokeswoman said.
Officials said that as of early Tuesday morning that 20,278 across Northern California were still without power,
Thousands of residents in the North Bay and the Sierra foothills had their power back Monday night as PG&E continued to restore power to customers effected by the utility preemptively shutting off electricity over potential wildfire risk Sunday.
In the wake of high fire danger warnings, Pacific Gas and Electric has shut off power in Lake, Napa and Sonoma Counties on Sunday night, affecting nearly 17,500 customers.
The California Public Utilities Commission at a meeting in San Francisco Thursday approved a revised fee calculation that will result in higher charges to customers who choose to buy their electricity from local governments instead of investor-owned utilities.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed a measure Friday allowing utilities to bill their customers to pay for future legal settlements stemming from devastating 2017 wildfires, even if the blazes are blamed on the company's mismanagement.
The city of San Jose is now getting on board with the global push for sustainable energy.
A wildfire that has charred 152 acres in and near the Samuel P. Taylor State Park and triggered the evacuation of nearby residents was caused by downed PG&E power lines, officials announced Wednesday.
PG&E has agreed to identify storage yards with treated poles and implement technologies to reduce toxic dioxin runoff to levels that pose lower risk to human health and wildlife.
California lawmakers voted to give a reprieve to Pacific Gas & Electric Co. in the frenzied final hours of the two-year legislative session.
Californians will foot the bill for the recent wine country wildfires, according to a plan just approved by state lawmakers.
The Assembly and Senate adjourned for the year shortly before midnight Friday after passing one of the most contentious bills lawmakers confronted.
PG&E executives went to Sacramento Thursday to push for a new law that would let utilities off the financial hook for wildfires caused by their equipment, as long as that equipment met safety standards.
Wildfire victims from the Bay Area rallied at the California State Capitol Wednesday to push back against a plan to shield utility companies from financial liability in large fires.
Officials say a utility worker has been killed near the Carr Fire in Shasta County, the seventh fatality in that still-uncontained blaze.
The city of Santa Rosa has sued PG&E for damages resulting from the Tubbs and Nuns fires in October.
At one point, 17,670 PG&E customers were without power Sunday after an outage that began shortly before 11 a.m.
With a red flag warning in effect this weekend for the North Bay mountains and East Bay hills, PG&E is prepared to cut power if extreme fire-weather conditions develop.
San Francisco supervisors blasted PG&E Tuesday for stalling on many projects while making projects more complex and expensive.
