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A federal judge on Thursday “tentatively” blamed poor maintenance of power lines and not human-caused “climate change” on California’s recent deadly wildfires. U.S. District Judge William Alsup issued his ruling regarding the actions of the Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) utility company in a case related to PG&E’s response to the deadly 2010 San Bruno gas pipeline explosion that killed a number of people. But scores of liberals in California and beyond have blamed human-caused climate change for the wildfires.

PG&E Corp. stock cratered Monday after the company said it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid the financial anguish stemming from its part in helping spark a wave of historic wildfires in California. Shares of the company dropped nearly 50 percent in early trading Monday, one day after the company said Chief Executive Geisha Williams was stepping down. The company provided the official 15-day advance notice that it and its wholly owned subsidiary, Pacific Gas and Electric, intend to file petitions to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code on or about Jan. 29.

Regulators on Friday accused one of California’s largest utilities of falsifying safety documents for natural gas pipelines for years following its criminal conviction and multimillion-dollar fine for a pipeline explosion that killed eight people near San Francisco. The California Public Utilities Commission said an investigation by its safety and enforcement division found Pacific Gas & Electric Co. lacked enough employees to fulfill requests to find and mark natural gas pipelines. Because of the staff shortage, PG&E pressured supervisors and locators to complete the work, leading staff to falsify data from 2012 to 2017, regulators said. The company “had common knowledge...

PG&E asked California regulators for a $1.1 billion rate hike Thursday, saying more than half the money would be spent on improving wildfire safety. The embattled utility, under investigation for its possible role in the Camp Fire last month, told the Public Utilities Commission that the rate hike would increase household electric bills an average of $8.73 a month. Natural gas customers would pay an additional $1.84 a month if the PUC approves the increase. PG&E has already been sued multiple times over the Camp Fire, and the company’s losses could be in the billions — adding to the potential...

Capping a wild day on Wall Street in which Pacific Gas and Electric Co. stock crashed and soared as investors weighed the prospect of government aid, California’s top utility regulator said Thursday his agency can help the utility avoid financial catastrophe because of the state’s raging wildfires. Michael Picker, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, said his agency does not want PG&E and the state’s other investor-owned utilities to file for bankruptcy. In a move he conceded was unusual, he briefed investors and analysts on his views before issuing a public statement Thursday, a decision that may have contributed...

Shares of utility PG&E fell 21 percent on Wednesday after the company said its insurance wouldn't cover its cost if it's found responsible for the Camp Fire. "If the Utility's equipment is determined to be the cause, the Utility could be subject to significant liability in excess of insurance coverage," the company said. The utility company also discloses that it submitted an "electric incident report" to the California Public Utilities Commission on Nov. 8, just before the wildfire.Shares of utility PG&E fell 21 percent on Wednesday after the company said that if its equipment is responsible for the "Camp Fire"...

The power could be turned off as early as Sunday and into Monday morning. The move is an attempt to reduce wildfire danger and may impact several northern California cities. Kevin Dasso, vice president of electric asset management, said that safety was the agency’s top priority. “PG&E has a plan. We want our customers to have plans, too.”

As the first reports came in Sunday night of numerous fires that would grow into one of the most destructive wildfire disasters in California history, emergency dispatchers in Sonoma County received multiple calls of power lines falling down and electrical transformers exploding. SNIP over a 90-minute period starting at 9:22 pm to respond to 911 calls and other reports of sparking wires and problems with the county’s electrical system amid high winds. SNIP

Cronyism in Energy Production “Diablo Canyon produces twice as much power as all of California’s solar panels, 24 percent more than all of its wind, and 40 times more than its largest solar farm. Also, Diablo Canyon provides power to 3 million Californians on a patch of land the size of three football fields. Achieving the equivalent from a solar farm would require 145 times more land; from wind, 500 times more.”—Michael Shellenberger, Breakthrough Institute co-founder, and Peter Raven, former Missouri Botanical Gardens head The announcement last week from PG&E that it was closing Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, rudely...

Six years ago, the company that owns California's last operating nuclear power plant announced it would seek an extended lifespan for its aging reactors. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. envisioned Diablo Canyon as a linchpin in the state's green energy future, with its low-carbon electricity illuminating homes to nearly midcentury. Now, with a much changed nuclear power landscape, the company is evaluating whether to meet a tangle of potentially costly state environmental requirements needed to obtain renewed operating licenses. If it doesn't move forward, California's nuclear power age will end. That prospect is remarkable considering it was once predicted that...

California's aggressive push to increase renewable energy production comes with a catch for people with solar panels on the roof: You don't count. If a home or business has a rooftop solar system, most of the wattage isn't included in the ambitious requirement to generate half of the state's electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind by 2030, part of legislation signed in October by Gov. Jerry Brown. That means rooftop solar owners are missing out on a potentially lucrative subsidy that is paid to utilities and developers of big power projects. It also means that utility ratepayers...

When U.S. officials warn about "attacks" on electric power facilities these days, the first thing that comes to mind is probably a computer hacker trying to shut the lights off in a city with malware. But a more traditional attack on a power station in California has U.S. officials puzzled and worried about the physical security of the the electrical grid--from attackers who come in with guns blazing. Around 1:00 AM on April 16, at least one individual (possibly two) entered two different manholes at the PG&E Metcalf power substation, southeast of San Jose, and cut fiber cables in the...

Sanders blasts U.S Corporations for Dodging Taxes BURLINGTON, Vt., April 9 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the Senate Budget Committee ranking member, today issued the following statement on new data showing the extent to which some American companies are avoiding taxes: “I applaud Citizens for Tax Justice for releasing new data today revealing the unfairness of our tax system and the fact that a number of the biggest and most-well known corporations in America continue to pay little or nothing in taxes. At a time when we have massive wealth and income inequality, and when corporate profits are soaring, it...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — The California Public Utilities Commission Friday released roughly 65,000 email messages exchanged between PG&E Co. and agency officials between 2010 and 2014 as ordered because of a “judge shopping” scandal with PG&E, CPUC officials said.

The song "Stagolee" from the Death Proof soundtrack, by the late 60's funk-rock band PG&E.

Look for a Climate Credit from the State of California on Your April Utility Bill This month your electricity bill will include a credit identified as the "California Climate Credit." Twice a year, in April and October, your household and millions of others throughout the state will receive this credit on your electricity bills. The Climate Credit is a payment to Californians from a program designed to fight climate change by limiting the amount of greenhouse gas pollution that our largest industries put into the atmosphere. This program is one of many developed as a result of landmark legislation called...

Pacific Gas and Electric was charged on Tuesday with federal felony counts involving safety violations linked to a 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people in the San Francisco Bay Area. The indictment charges the utility with 12 felonies and accuses it of violating numerous federal pipeline safety laws. Federal prosecutors allege that PG&E knowingly relied on erroneous and incomplete information when assessing the safety of the pipeline that eventually ruptured, sparked a fireball and leveled 38 homes in San Bruno.

Sometime before April 16, 2013, one or more people scouted the Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s high-voltage Metcalf substation off Highway 101 near San Jose, California. They went around the unmanned power station at a range of 40-60 yards, marking places from which the transformers’ cooling fins were clearly visible through the chain-link fence with piles of stones. According to a Wall Street Journal report last week, at about 1 a.m. on that April 16, someone cut the telephone lines going to the substation’s location in a manner calculated to be hard to repair. Within about another thirty minutes, shooters...

Damage to South Bay substation triggers power alert About 10,000 gallons of oil began leaking Tuesday morning from a transformer at a San Jose PG&E substation, which authorities said was vandalized, possibly damaged by gunfire. The damage prompted the California Independent Service Operator to issue a "Flex Alert" Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. for Silicon Valley because of the heavy damage at the substation on Metcalf Road. The agency asked everyone in Northern California, but especially in Silicon Valley, to conserve energy as crews are working to fix the substation's damaged equipment. Power is being rerouted as the work is being...

SAN JOSE (CBS SF) — The former head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission believes the attack on a PG&E substation in South San Jose last spring was not an act of vandalism, but instead a terrorist attack. In April of last year, someone shot numerous rounds that damaged equipment at the Metcalf Road substation and also severed underground fiber optic cables nearby. In an interview Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal, former FERC chief Jon Wellinghoff called the attack ”the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred.” Wellinghoff told the newspaper he’s going...