California governor slams power company: ‘Greed’ led to widespread outages

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) chastised bankrupt power company Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) on Thursday, saying the company’s “greed” and “mismanagement” have led to the widespread power outages across the state this week, according to USA Today.

Two million residents across central and northern California were left without power after PG&E shut power off in anticipation of high dry winds that create perfect environments for wildfires.

The company is blamed for last year’s Camp Fire, the largest wildfire in the state’s history, that killed nearly 90 people. Because of this, the company is paying billions in liability and declared bankruptcy in January.

While power began to be restored yesterday, hundreds of thousands of Californians are reportedly still without power, a situation that Newsom called “unacceptable.”

“We are seeing the scale and scope of something that no state in the 21st century should experience,” the governor said in a press conference Thursday night.

Newsom said that while he doesn’t oppose turning off parts of the power grid — which is viewed as an industry best practice to prevent wildfires — he said PG&E had the chance to turn off power before Camp Fire happened and failed to do so.

Last week, Newsom passed a slew of new wildfire laws that will increase oversight to the “Public Safety Power Shutoffs,” in hopes that outages like this week’s don’t occur again.

“A lot of things are underway that give me confidence about the future, but we have got to get through this immediate moment,” Newsom said. “I am as frustrated as anybody.”