In a startling new legal problem for PG&E, a federal judge threatened Wednesday to impose broad new mandates on the utility to reduce wildfire risks in the wake of this yeara s Camp Fire and the 2017 wine country blazes.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup, citing PG&Ea s a history of falsification of inspection reports,a said he plans to order PG&E to a re-inspect all of its electrical grid and remove or trim all trees that could fall onto its power lines, poles or equipment in high-wind conditions.a He also said the utility might be required to a fix any other condition anywhere in its grid similar to any condition that contributed to any previous wildfires.a
The judge said the inspections and repairs, if ordered, would have to be undertaken by June 21 a the first day of summer and the unofficial start of the next fire season in California. An inspection of PG&Ea s entire grid would be an enormous undertaking; the utility maintains 106,000 miles of distribution lines in California; its territory runs from Eureka to Bakersfield.