Thursday, February 14, 2019

"Judge critical of PG&E's wildfire role demands more answers" (PCG)

Following up on our profound and brilliantly argued conclusion* to Tuesday's "PG&E Could Shut Off Power For Millions To Prevent Wildfires" here's an old friend of the blog, U.S. federal district court judge, Northern District of California, William Alsup.

From U.S. News and World Report, Feb. 14:

A U.S. judge who has berated Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. for its role in wildfires in California is demanding more answers from the utility.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A U.S. judge who has berated Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. for its role in California wildfires demanded Thursday that the utility answer more questions about its efforts to clear trees and branches that can fall on its power lines and start fires.
Judge William Alsup asked the utility in a court filing if it was in compliance with a state law requiring it to clear vegetation within certain distances of electric lines.
The judge also questioned a part of the utility's recently submitted wildfire mitigation plan. Alsup said it appears under the plan that PG&E would take more than 10 years to clear potentially dangerous vegetation where the fire threat is high. He asked PG&E if that timeline was correct.
PG&E spokesman James Noonan did not immediately have comment.
Alsup is overseeing a criminal conviction against PG&E stemming from a deadly 2010 gas line explosion in the San Francisco Bay Area. As part of the utility's probation in that case, the judge has proposed requiring it to remove or trim all trees that could fall onto its power lines in high-wind conditions and ordering it to shut off power when fire is a risk regardless of the inconvenience to customers or loss of profit.
Alsup said his goal was to prevent PG&E equipment from causing any wildfires during the 2019 fire season....MORE
*"Wires in the wood, no good."

You may remember Judge Alsup from such cases as Oracle America, Inc. v. Google, Inc. where he taught himself how to code in order to better weigh the arguments. Or Waymo v. Uber where he asked the parties to teach him about LIDAR and in which he gave Uber's attorneys the warning:
Some of our links in the Waymo case can be found in "Alphabet's Waymo Will Let Uber Off the Hook For $2.6 Billion or Cash on Hand", if interested.
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