In a news conference Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the activation of a new website — response.ca.gov — that will serve as an “aggregated site for information” related to wildfires, shelter/housing, transportation, health services, local and state resources, public safety power shutoffs, incident overviews and preparedness. Newsom has also posted a Web vertical recapping his actions to date relating to wildfire safety in general.
“I recognize this moment generates a tremendous amount of anxiety,” Newsom said Monday, adding that the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is “moving forward with a major investigation in the power shutoff protocols” used by PG&E, San Diego Gas & Electric and other investor-owned utilities.
Newsom also noted the creation earlier this year of a Wildfire Safety Division within the PUC and the hiring this month of a director for that division, Caroline Thomas Jacobs, a veteran of state emergency operations. Newsom said Jacobs has begun interviewing candidates for 35-40 positions within that division — “the best and brightest in data collection, weather analysis, technology and grid strategies.” It also created a California Wildfire Safety Advisory Board.
The governor also noted that PUC’s new president, former Government Operations Agency Secretary Marybel Batjer, is aggressively investigating utilities’ past practices and looking for ways to ensure their compliance with the state regulations, including AB 1054, which increases PUC’s ability to hold utilities accountable for their safety records. AB 1054 also requires publicly owned electric utilities and electrical cooperatives, by Jan. 1, 2020, and annually thereafter, to prepare wildfire mitigation plans and submit their plans to the Wildfire Safety Advisory Board for review. The bill also requires each utility to comprehensively revise its plan at least once every three years.
Earlier this month, Batjer pointedly noted that she was surprised by what she called PG&E officials’ lack of preparation in undertaking the PSPS and said the utility had failed the state’s residents in multiple ways.
“It’s a new day at the Public Utilities Commission,” Newsom said Monday. Referring to Batjer, he added, “I can assure you we have the right chair to advance our efforts.”
“I want to see the CPUC launch a total reform of power shutoff rules and regulations,” Newsom said Monday in a statement issued after the news conference. “Utilities must be held accountable and be aggressively penalized for their overreliance on PSPS (public safety power shutoffs), 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’s unacceptable and must be remedied.”
In creating the newest state website, response.ca.gov, the California Department of Technology had about a dozen staffers working over the weekend. The site was stood up at the request of the Governor's Office.
The state has also undertaken several other measures related to technology that are intended to address future risks and power shutoffs:
- Newsom created a Public Safety Power Shutoff Planning Team, consisting of representatives from the state Department of Public Health, Department of Health Care Services, Department of Social Services, Department of Managed Health Care, Department of Developmental Services, Department of Rehabilitation and the California Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA).
- The California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS) has also stood up an online dashboard “to allow local governments, state agencies and community partners to share information to better plan and respond to power shutoffs.”
- CHHS has also created an online tool for Californians to create a "personal emergency plan."
- The state has obtained permission from the U.S. secretary of defense to to fly Cal Guard’s infrared-equipped drones to support Cal Fire missions.
- The state has worked with the federal government to secure state access to satellite-based technology to detect wildfires.
- Partnered with XPRIZE to design an incentive prize for innovation to battle wildfires.
Technology also plays a role in several new state laws relating to emergencies and public safety, including:
— SB 209, by Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa), which will establish creation of a weather technology center modeled on the state's "intelligence fusion" centers.
— SB 670, by Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), which is intended to improve the coordination of emergency communications systems during outages of 911 networks.
— SB 70, by Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber), requiring investor-owned utilities' Wildfire Mitigation Plans to include information about the undergrounding of utility lines.
In the state budget that Newsom signed in June, he sets aside $60 million to upgrade the state's 911 system and $1 million for a first-responder broadband network. The budget also includes $130 million for better communications equipment for first responders; and $127 million for state-of-the-art air tanker planes and firefighting helicopters.
