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A vineyard sign marking Burgundy Way and Pinot Noir Way sits on the edge of a Sonoma County vineyard scorched by the October 2019 Kincade Fire. (Photo by Anne Belden / iStock / Getty Images Plus
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By Joe Dworetzky, Bay City News Foundation
BAY AREA, CA PG&E s latest round of legal troubles got underway Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco at a hearing convened to consider whether the utility company was in violation of the terms of probation imposed following its criminal conviction in 2016.
U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup, the judge overseeing the probation, convened the hearing after Sonoma County s district attorney filed criminal charges against PG&E on April 6 on account of PG&E s role in the 2019 Kincade Fire.
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A pair of California utility customers will urge a federal appeals court on Monday to reverse a lower court dismissal of their claims that a utility bill surcharge to pay for future electric utility-caused wildfire victims is unlawful.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in a challenge by California residents Alex Cannara and Gene Nelson who say that a San Francisco district judge mistakenly held that he lacks jurisdiction to review their claims that the state violated their constitutional rights by setting up a fund that requires ratepayers to underwrite a $10.5 billion liquidity fund. Utilities contributions and a state loan to start up the fund, meanwhile, total $9.8 billion.
The shutoffs result in consumers in the affected areas losing power for what might be days until the dangerous conditions pass and service is restored.
Because the shutoffs carry their own heavy societal costs, including potential danger to disabled and homebound individuals, determining when a PSPS should be imposed requires balancing the risk of wildfire against the burdens of the power outage.
PG&E employed what it called state of the art models to process numerous data sources wind, temperature, season, atmospheric conditions and historical weather information, among them to help make the decision.
In reviewing the circumstances of the Zogg Fire, Alsup realized that the power line near the looming gray pine tree had not been de-energized and asked PG&E to explain its decision-making process.
Bay City News Service
SAN FRANCISCO â A federal Judge used sharp language in addressing PG&E and its lawyers during a hearing on Wednesday to consider adding further conditions to the probation imposed after the utility s prior criminal convictions.
Decrying what he said was PG&E s history of employing slick legalese to elide taking stronger action to prevent its equipment from causing dangerous and sometimes lethal wildfires, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco called out PG&E for vaguing out when providing information in one of its filings.
At one point, the judge asked for specific information on the number of trees in two priority safety categories, but neither PG&E s internal or outside counsel could give a specific answer. The judge commented, you don t know and lives depend on you knowing. The company provided the information later in the hearing.