Bloomberg News
@Bloomberg-News·2.8M subscribers·40.1K videos
California Wildfires: Record Number of Acres Have Burned With Worst Still to Come
Posted
September 9, 2020
Views
7,762
Likes
63
Comments
11
Engagement
September 9, 2020
7,762
63
11
0.95%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
You’re on September 9, 2020. Earlier episodes are to the left, later ones to the right — the row keeps loading as you go. Click any card to open it.
Sep 9, 20200:59Now PlayingPowerful, dry winds are sweeping across Northern California for a third day, driving up the risk of wildfires in a region that’s been battered by heat waves, freak lightning storms and dangerously poor air quality from blazes.
The gusts, expected to continue until about noon local time, have already prompted PG&E Corp. to cut power to more than 500,000 people to prevent live wires from falling and sparking fires in dry brush. Blazes already burning have shrouded much the state with smoke, casting an eerie-orange glow as the morning sun rose.
On Wednesday morning, PG&E crews will start inspecting 10,750 miles (17,300 kilometers) of transmission and distribution lines to determine if they can be switched back on, the company said in a statement. However, an elevated threat for fires will persist through Thursday in Northern California, as well as southern Washington and western Oregon, according to the U.S. Storm Prediction Center.
JPMorgan Makes Debut in Green Bond Market With $1 Billion Deal
The shutoffs that California’s largest utility began late Monday are the latest blow for the disaster-weary state, where climate change is making weather ever more extreme.
Temperatures have soared to records from Napa to Los Angeles. Wildfires have torched more than 2.2 million acres, the most in records stretching back three decades. Hundreds of thousands of people may be in the dark for days, and will be cloistered indoors to avoid exposure to wildfire smoke and Covid-19.
Officials are responding with equally extreme measures. In August, California carried out its first rotating blackouts since the 2001 energy crisis, drawing ire as extreme temperatures boosted demand for electricity. The Trump administration on Sept. 6 declared a power emergency, allowing generating plants to run at full bore, regardless of environmental limits.
The preventative shutoffs to prevent wildfires are a fairly new and controversial practice, and their use by PG&E last year triggered investigations, even as utilities defended them as necessary in the face of increasingly wild weather.
PG&E cut power to about 172,000 customers, or about 500,000 people based on the size of the average California household. The vast majority of them will have power restored by the end of the day Wednesday, PG&E said.
The state’s two other major utilities are also making plans to cut power if necessary. Southern California Edison Co. said it may shut off electricity to more than 57,000 customers, but just 252 were cut off as of 6:15 a.m. local time. San Diego Gas & Electric Co. is considering doing so for more than 16,000 customers, with 49 currently disconnected.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
QUICKTAKE ON SOCIAL:
Follow QuickTake on Twitter: twitter.com/quicktake
Like QuickTake on Facebook: facebook.com/quicktake
Follow QuickTake on Instagram: instagram.com/quicktake
Subscribe to our newsletter
Email us at quicktakenews@gmail.com
QuickTake by Bloomberg is a global news network delivering up-to-the-minute analysis on the biggest news, trends and ideas for a new generation of leaders.
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
