October 11, 2019

California Governor Blames Greed, Not Climate Change, for Bay Area Blackouts

Gavin Newsom took Pacific Gas & Electric to task in a press conference.

Justin Sullivan/Getty

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom put California public utility Pacific Gas & Electric on blast Thursday while the company worked to slowly restore power to the more than one million people affected by its planned blackouts. Strong wind forecasts during hot, dry weather—ideal conditions for the wildfires that have plagued the state in recent years—prompted PG&E to preemptively cut electricity across Central and Northern California. Though climate change certainly at play in the uptick in powerful wildfires, Newsom primarily cast blame on the utility company for poor management that he says has left California with a “false choice…between public safety and hardship.” 

“This is not from my perspective a climate change story as much as it is a story about greed and mismanagement over the course of decades,” Newsom said. “[It is about] neglect, and a desire to protect not public safety but profits.”

Despite the tough talk, California lawmakers have protected PG&E to some extent. Last year, then-Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill many considered to be a “bailout” that could allow the utility to recover some of its liability costs from 2017 wildfires by ultimately charging customers on their monthly bills. 

In a press conference in Sacramento, Newsom said that PG&E neglected to improve and maintain the electric grid for decades, which led to the devastating Camp and Woolsey fires in Northern and Southern California in 2018 and ultimately bankrupted the company.

“What has occurred in the last 48 hours is unacceptable,” Newsom said. “Parents who can’t bathe their kids, folks that come home from work and can’t even find a way to get into their garage; you’ve got people who can’t even access water or medical supplies. We’re seeing a scale and scope of something that no state in the 21st century should experience.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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