Your electricity rates could be going up to help Southern California Edison cover more than $1.6 billion in payments the utility has made to victims of the devastating 2017 Thomas Fire.

In the wake of a spate of fires at battery storage facilities across the state, the California Public Utilities Commission will soon vote on establishing new standards for maintaining and operating them. If passed, the proposal also increases oversight for emergency response at energy storage sites that use batteries.

The vote comes against a backdrop of lawsuits claiming the utility is responsible for the recent Eaton Fire in Los Angeles.

The California Public Utilities Commission approved Waymo's autonomous vehicle program in Los Angeles in March 2024. The service was expanded to the public in November. Aside from Los Angeles, the company also has driverless cars in San Francisco and Phoenix, with plans to expand to Austin, Atlanta and Miami.

Public utilities can bill directly for hundreds of millions of dollars in shareholder returns despite being in what critics call a lower-risk business.

Southern California Edison has reported a Jan. 7 fault on a power line that was connected miles away from the lines located near the origin of the deadly Eaton Fire that sparked that day.

The utility company maintained that the current increase remained within the design limits and did not trigger system protection on these lines.

Southern California Edison, a unit of utility Edison International , said on Monday preliminary analysis of data showed a "momentary and expected increase in current" on its energized lines in the Eaton Canyon corridor on Jan.

Officials say that the proposal will make other technical updates to the standards to improve safety, reliability, and effectiveness of operating and maintenance activities, such as establishing techn

As we enter 2025 amid the devastating Los Angeles fires and with a new presidential administration, we continue our series of yearly reviews of

The Alphabet-owned autonomous vehicle company Waymo announced on Tuesday that it will begin testing its fleet of driverless robotaxis on the Los Angel

Customers are picking up the $1.7. billion tab after utility's s equipment was linked to a Southern California wildfire and flooding seven years ago.