On October 31, RCRC and CSAC jointly requested that PG&E immediately begin removing felled wood cut down during utility vegetation management operations.   

While PG&E commendably increased the pace and scale of its vegetation management operations to reduce the risk of utility-caused wildfire, it is regrettable that PG&E is largely refusing to remove trees cut down during those operations.  This refusal is: impairing public safety; increasing fuel loads; compromising property owners’ efforts to create and maintain defensible space; and imposing heavy financial burdens on property owners to abate these hazards created by PG&E.  More than a dozen counties have expressed concerns about this course change and the dangers and burdens it creates. 

On November 3, RCRC and CSAC provided comments to the CPUC on Resolution M-4864, which would allow PG&E to exit Step 1 of the CPUC’s Enhanced Oversight and Enforcement Process.  PG&E was placed on Step 1 of the Enforcement Process because it failed to sufficiently prioritize its vegetation management work on its highest risk power lines in 2020.  As PG&E has focused its work on high-risk lines, the CPUC is considering whether to let it out of the enforcement process.  RCRC and CSAC noted that PG&E’s work is far from done.  By failing to haul away the resulting wood debris, PG&E has failed to complete its vegetation management work on many of those line miles.  As a result, RCRC and CSAC urged the CPUC to either: 

•     Keep PG&E in Step 1 of the Enhanced Oversight and Enforcement Process until the felled wood issue is adequately resolved; or, 

•     Order PG&E to remove felled wood at the request of property owners as a condition of its emergence from Step 1 of the Enhanced Oversight and Enforcement Process. 

The CPUC will take public comment on Resolution M-4864 at its November 17th voting meeting, when this item is expected to be considered.  Members of the public will have 1-2 minutes to speak, and the call-in number will be: 

  • Phone: 1-800-857-1917, passcode: 9899501#
  • Spanish Phone: 1-800-857-1917, passcode: 3799627#  

For more information contact RCRC Policy Advocate, John Kennedy.