Across northern and central California, customers experience thousands of power outages a year due to new power line settings designed to prevent wildfires. With support from the Fund, Emma Foehringer Merchant and Maria Parazo Rose conducted a first-of-its-kind analysis of data on so-called “fast-trip” outages and found that they’ve increased over time and are often triggered by technical glitches. In an investigation for High Country News with Type Investigations, the pair found that outages particularly impact rural areas, where residents face higher wildfire risk and are more likely to live with a disability and without internet or phone service, and that the utility company, PG&E, has done little to alleviate the impact.
Grantee data analysis finds that unreliable power has become the norm in rural California
