State regulators approve Edison's wildfire prevention plan despite concerns

The California Public Utilities Commission approved Southern California Edison’s wildfire mitigation program Thursday, rejecting calls to hold enactment until much is known astir what ignited the devastating Eaton fire.

Investigators are present looking into whether Edison’s instrumentality sparked the Eaton fire, which has killed astatine slightest 17 radical and destroyed thousands of homes and different structures. The company’s transmission instrumentality whitethorn person besides sparked the smaller Hurst fire, investigators say.

Michael Backstrom, Edison’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said Thursday that determination were nary conclusions yet astir the origin of either fire. He said the company’s preliminary investigation of the Eaton occurrence recovered nary anomalies that would suggest its instrumentality sparked the blaze.

At the meeting, William Abrams, a subsister of the North Bay wildfires of 2017, told the committee it would beryllium “imprudent” to o.k. the wildfire mitigation plans of the state’s 3 biggest for-profit utilities — Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric — without knowing what ignited the deadly fires past week.

The committee didn’t code Abrams’ concerns oregon those of different speakers who asked officials to bash much to support the utilities accountable for safely maintaining their electrical lines, approving the 3 companies’ wildfires plans connected a 5-0 ballot without comment.

“No 1 is adequately policing this,” Peggy Ludington, a Southern California resident, told the commissioners. She pointed to immoderate of the 11 areas of interest that information regulators had elaborate successful their October approval of the company’s wildfire prevention plan.

Ludington noted that information regulators had asked Edison past twelvemonth for accusation connected the problems they had recovered successful the splices utilized to repair transmission lines.

The inferior said successful a effect to regulators sent a week aboriginal that it would beryllium hard to stitchery that information.

The institution told regulators that “given the precocious find rate” of problems with the splices, it was considering “forgoing the inspection and moving consecutive to remediation.” To bash that, it said, it was considering a programme to regenerate the splices, opening successful 2026.

Edison said this week that it had been doing much enactment to forestall wildfires than the authorities has required.

“As we person been doing, SCE volition proceed to execute inspections successful its precocious occurrence hazard areas much often than is required,” the institution said successful a connection to The Times.

Backstrom said that delaying the support of the company’s wildfire prevention program until the causes of the occurrence are determined was not the close decision.

He said enactment that the institution has done each twelvemonth nether the guidance of its program has reduced the hazard that its instrumentality volition spark a wildfire by much than 85% than what it had been earlier 2018.

“It’s not close to frost practices close now,” helium said. “We request to execute.”

Alice Reynolds, president of the commission, spoke astir the wildfires astatine the meeting’s start.

“California has worked extensively to importantly trim utility-involved wildfires,” she said, calling the 3 utilities’ wildfire mitigation plans “the astir broad successful the country.”

“These measures travel astatine a outgo that is added to inferior bills,” she said. “We tin inquire whether they are capable and if the utilities tin bash much oregon bash better. This week we tin spot they are necessary.”