This week Congressman Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, spoke to the House Appropriations Committee on his added language to a new bill that could reportedly lead to reimbursing generator costs by victims of Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS).
A new bill that could end up supporting victims of power shut-offs was contributed to by Garcia, and this week the congressman spoke on his additions to the legislation.
“In California, the public utilities shut off our power any time the wind is above 25 miles per hour, or humidity falls below 20 percent,” Garcia said. “These conditions, in any case, last for several days and we’ve had constituents without power who are on well water, effectively without water, for up to four days at a time.”
See Related: SoCal Edison Discusses Public Safety Power Shutoffs, Changes To Wildfire Prevention
PSPS are intentional power shut-offs in places like Santa Clarita, initiated by Southern California Edison (SCE) to reduce the threat of wildfires in high-risk conditions, such as high winds and low humidity.
“It’s especially dangerous for those with medical needs where an interruption of power could be life-threatening, and these power shut-offs are, in most cases, actually representing a larger threat to my constituents than the fires themselves,” Garcia said. “And even though these power shut-offs aren’t the fault of any of the constituents, they have to pay for generators out of their own pocket, in order to have a backup source of power.”
The Santa Clarita Valley was struck by over two dozen PSPS outages last year, with mass outages encompassing most of the valley triggering a response from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), describing the actions of SCE as both “tactless” and “deficient in meeting the standard its customers deserve.”
The FY2022 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill features language added by the congressman that addresses the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) potentially helping to pay for generators during PSPS in places like Santa Clarita, according to officials with Garcia’s office.
“Utilities offer to pay only a small percentage of the generators for repairs, but not enough to make this an affordable option for anyone,” Garcia said. “While I continue to advance long term solutions to address this issue, like improving the power grid reliability and robustness and force management to prevent the wildfires, the language in the Homeland Security Appropriations Report encouraging FEMA to reimburse the cost of generators for individuals who are affected by PSPS is an absolutely critical step in providing badly needed short term relief for my constituents.”
While the bill does not guarantee FEMA will reimburse the cost of generators, it does take steps towards securing such a commitment from FEMA, according to officials in Garcia’s office.
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