Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is appealing a new set of wildfire mitigation requirements imposed by a federal judge, arguing that the conditions would cause the utility irreparable harm and “are more likely to undermine wildfire safety” than they are to promote it.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who is supervising PG&E’s five-year criminal probation, agreed to place a stay on the conditions that he had ordered PG&E to follow, which included hiring a cadre of in-house inspectors to make sure trees and vegetation that could cause fires are not growing too close to its power lines. Alsup has scheduled a telephonic hearing on PG&E’s motion for May 28, and asked the U.S. government to weigh in on the issue by May 21.