4 questions about weather-driven power outages, answered
Heat waves, droughts and deep freezes can all strain the electric grid, leading utilities to impose rolling blackouts. Climate change is likely to make these events more common.
How to help Texas during winter storm blackouts
An unprecedented winter storm and unprepared electrical grid has left millions of Texans without reliable power and water and has killed at least 20 people since Monday.
PG&E lacked basic training before California blackouts
When Pacific Gas & Electric cut power to large swaths of wildfire-prone Northern California last fall, few of the emergency personnel managing the blackouts for the nation’s largest utility had learned the fundamentals of managing an emergency in their home…
California power operators plead for conservation, Gov. Newsom declares emergency over wildfires
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared an emergency Tuesday over wildfires burning throughout California as the state's power grid operator pleaded for continued conservation to avoid rolling blackouts.
The governor warned that customers could again lose power Monday. Newsom also sent an letter to state energy overseers demanding to know why blackouts occurred with such little notice to the public.
During California’s recent wildfires, the intentional blackouts PG&E implemented to reduce danger frustrated residents. The utility’s poorly maintained infrastructure is blamed for at least five previous fires. Now, the mayors of over a dozen California cities are suggesting PG&E should…
Southern California was yet again assaulted by wind-driven wildfires Thursday. Some 500 homes and 1,300 people were evacuated when fast-moving flames burned through a San Bernardino neighborhood. In the northern part of the state, most evacuations have been lifted as…
A new fire is burning Wednesday in California’s Simi Valley. With winds gusting to 80 miles per hour, the National Weather Service issued a rarely used warning of extreme fire danger in the southern part of the state. In Northern…
Fires are burning across several parts of California, and power is out for hundreds of thousands of residents there. As firefighters try to contain the blazes, frustration is mounting toward utility company PG&E for the prolonged blackouts it says are…
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