• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta June 29, 2022
London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty June 29, 2022
G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance June 29, 2022
Soaring Fertilizer Prices Could Deliver ‘Silver Lining’ For Emissions, But Farmers Struggle to Limit Use June 26, 2022
BREAKING: UN Nature Summit, the ‘Paris Conference for Biodiversity’, Moves to Montreal in December June 19, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Climate Impacts & Adaptation Drought, Famine & Wildfires

Utility Lines May Have Sparked Latest California Wildfires, as LA Fire Chief Points to Climate Conditions

November 14, 2018
Reading time: 3 minutes

Bureau of Land Management California/Flickr

Bureau of Land Management California/Flickr

7
SHARES
 

With the death toll well above 40, a couple of hundred people still missing, and responders still struggling to get a cluster of November wildfires under control, initial reports are suggesting that utility power lines may have helped spark the blazes, while a senior Los Angeles fire official blames climate change for the intensity of the fires.

Both Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison “are facing intense scrutiny” for their possible roles in the Camp Fire in Butte County and the Woolsey Fire in LA County, Greentech Media reports. “Firefighters have not yet determined the cause of either fire,” Greentech notes. “But in a state where utilities are facing massive public scrutiny and potential financial ruin for their roles in wildfires of recent years, they were enough to spook investors,” with shares of both companies falling sharply in Monday trading.

Last year, state investigations pointed to PG&E lines as the cause of several fires that killed at least 15 people and destroyed 5,000 homes. The company “could face bankruptcy if it is found liable for the estimated US$15 billion in damages caused by last year’s Tubbs Fire—the most destructive wildfire in California until the Camp Fire usurped that title this week,” Greentech notes.

“Southern California Edison hasn’t faced a financial burden as heavy as PG&E’s, but it has been found at fault for some major blazes.”

The state legislature responded to the companies’ predicament with a new law that allows utilities to increase customers’ power bills to cover the cost of wildfire damage.

On the front lines of the Woolsey Fire, meanwhile, Los Angeles fire chief Daryl Osby pointed to climate change as the reason this year’s blazes are more “devastating and destructive than in years past,” The Guardian reports. “The fact of the matter is if you look at the state of California, climate change is happening statewide,” Osby said, and “it is going to be here for the foreseeable future”.

This year’s fire season started early and is on track to break records for the second year in a row. “Crucially, this has put a crunch on resources,” The Guardian states, citing an interview with Osby. “For an immediate example, the Camp Fire in the north, which devastated Paradise, has diverted resources that drier areas of southern California could once rely on for backup.”

“It did have an effect on our strategy,” Osby said. “Typically, we would rely on our partners to the north to come. But they are fighting a major fire up there.”

Another problem, InsideClimate News reports, is that the depth of the wildfire crisis is already outpacing the projections in a state report issued just months ago, linking climate change to the increased frequency and severity of the blazes. “What we have been observing has consistently been outpacing what we’ve been predicting,” said wildfire modeler LeRoy Westerling, professor of management of complex systems at the University of California, Merced.

“The report estimated that the average area burned by wildfires would increase 77% by 2100, and the frequency of extreme wildfires would increase by nearly 50% if global greenhouse gas emissions continue at a high rate,” InsideClimate writes. But “Westerling said wildfires are likely to continue to outpace those recent projections because the underlying global climate models used underestimate precipitation changes in California, including periods of prolonged drought.”



in Drought, Famine & Wildfires, Health & Safety, Sub-National Governments, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Keith Hirsche
Jobs & Training

Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta

June 29, 2022
422
Number 10/flickr
International Agencies & Studies

G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance

June 29, 2022
152
AJEL / Pixabay
Food Security

Windfall Tax on Food, Fossil, Pharma Giants Would Raise $490B to Solve ‘Catastrophic’ Food Crisis: Oxfam

June 29, 2022
58

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

François GOGLINS/wikimedia commons

Corrosion Problem Shutters Half of France’s Nuclear Reactors

June 29, 2022
227
Keith Hirsche

Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta

June 29, 2022
422
Danielle Scott/flickr

Advocate Urges Ottawa to Intervene Before Ontario Builds Highway 413

June 29, 2022
130
David/flickr

U.S. Supreme Court Expected to Gut Emission Controls as Climate Scientists Petition for Plan B

June 26, 2022
1.2k
Number 10/flickr

G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance

June 29, 2022
152
London Eye UK England

London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 29, 2022
131

Recent Posts

AJEL / Pixabay

Windfall Tax on Food, Fossil, Pharma Giants Would Raise $490B to Solve ‘Catastrophic’ Food Crisis: Oxfam

June 29, 2022
58
futureatlas.com/flickr

Ottawa Demands Deeper Fuel Emissions Cuts, Offers Fossils a Double-Dip on Tax Breaks

June 29, 2022
78
Province of B.C./flickr

Comox Joins Municipalities Seeking Ban on New Gas Stations

June 29, 2022
78
/Piqsels

Refocus Agriculture Spending to Cut Emissions, Boost Productivity, OECD Urges Governments

June 29, 2022
29
Jimmy Emerson, DVM/flickr

Public Vigilance Key to Protecting Greenbelts for Climate Resilience, Report Finds

June 29, 2022
36
Miguel V/Wikimedia Commons

Forests Fall Short of Full Carbon Storage Potential, Study Finds

June 29, 2022
64
Next Post
Climeworks/Facebook

Renewables Plus Direct Air Capture Could Deliver Net-Neutral Grid for Europe

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}