![\"\"](\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/GavinFire.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSacramento, CA…Governor Gavin Newsom issued the following statement on a major investigation by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) of utility-led Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS):\u201cI want to see the CPUC launch a total reform of power shutoff rules and regulations. Utilities must be held accountable and be aggressively penalized for their overreliance on PSPS, and the product of this investigation must be new rules and regulations to do that. I also want to see customers not charged for PSPS. It seems obvious, but under the current rules, utilities can do just that. It\u2019s unacceptable and must be remedied.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Governor Newsom last week launched the\u00a0$75 million Local Government PSPS Resiliency Program<\/a>\u00a0to support state and local government efforts to mitigate the impact of power shutoffs by supporting continuity of operations and efforts to protect public health, safety, and commerce in affected communities. The Governor also\u00a0announced new measures<\/a>\u00a0to help protect medically-vulnerable residents, including a PSPS Planning Team within the California Health and Human Services Agency, a partnership with Service Employees International Union and United Domestic Workers to ensure that In-Home Supportive Services providers are equipped with the information they need to care for some of the state\u2019s most vulnerable, and a new\u00a0resource guide<\/a>\u00a0outlining available resources for those in de-energization areas.\u200b<\/p>\n In addition, Governor Newsom last week\u00a0issued a letter<\/a>\u00a0to executives of the state\u2019s three Investor-Owned Utilities demanding they adhere to previously-agreed protocols for PSPS decisions, and to coordinate with state and local officials to protect public safety and limit the impact of these events. He also issued a\u00a0letter to PG&E<\/a>\u00a0CEO William Johnson demanding the utility do more to provide information for customers and take action to reduce the number of customers impacted. Earlier\u00a0this month<\/a>, Governor Newsom urged PG&E to provide affected customers an automatic credit or rebate of $100 per residential customer and $250 per small business as some compensation for their hardships.<\/p>\n Under Governor Newsom\u2019s leadership, California passed\u00a0AB 1054<\/a>, wildfire safety and utility\u00a0reform legislation\u00a0that expands the CPUC\u2019s ability to hold utilities accountable for their safety record \u2014 a central part of the\u00a0Governor\u2019s wildfire safety actions<\/a>.<\/p>\n The legislation created a new\u00a0wildfire safety division at the CPUC<\/a>\u00a0and a board of independent expert advisors to more effectively regulate the safety of publicly owned utilities. The law mandated that utilities\u00a0tie executive compensation to safety performance<\/a>,\u00a0invest $5 billion in safety improvements<\/a>\u00a0without profit, and go through a new yearly wildfire\u00a0safety review and certification<\/a>\u00a0process. It also requires new\u00a0inspections of utility electrical equipment<\/a>. Under the law, utilities must create a\u00a0wildfire safety committee<\/a>\u00a0in their corporate board, and provide direct board-level safety reporting to the CPUC.<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sacramento, CA…Governor Gavin Newsom issued the following statement on a major investigation by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) of utility-led Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS):\u201cI want to see the CPUC launch a total reform of power shutoff rules and regulations. Utilities must be held accountable and be aggressively penalized for their overreliance on PSPS, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","category-traffic-fire","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/GavinFire.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/89700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}