Skip to content
Subscriber Only
Business

How California’s Utilities Plan to Stop Wildfires This Year

  • California regulators approved utility plans to prevent fires
  • The state will approve the costs of the plans at a later date
A neighborhood destroyed by the Camp Fire in Paradise, California on Nov. 15, 2018.

A neighborhood destroyed by the Camp Fire in Paradise, California on Nov. 15, 2018.

Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
By

California's major utilities were approved to take extensive measures that, if all goes according to plan, will keep their power lines from sparking catastrophic wildfires.

The efforts include a controversial plan to cut power to potentially millions of homes and businesses when winds are strong and may knock down power lines this summer. The move comes after PG&E Corp.'s equipment ignited the deadliest fire in California history, killing 85 people and destroying an entire town in November. The costs of that blaze and prior ones proved so large that the utility giant ended up filing for bankruptcy in January.