Rep. Whitesides Introduces Bill to Bring Transparency and Accountability to Public Safety Power Shutoffs After County-Wide Outage

The Public Safety Power Shutoff Data Transparency Act would create the first national reporting program for preventive power shutoffs, giving families, first responders, and hospitals the information they need to plan and stay safe

WASHINGTON D.C. - Today, Rep. George Whitesides (CA-27) announced his introduction of the Public Safety Power Shutoff Data Transparency Act directing the U.S. Department of Energy to establish a standardized federal reporting program for Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) events.

Nearly 70,000 households across Los Angeles and Ventura counties went without power two weeks ago under preventive shutoffs. There is currently no consistent, nationwide record of when these shutoffs happen, how long they last, who they affect, or how well communities were warned. Earlier, Southern California Edison warned that close to 260,000 customers across the region could lose power, many of them in the Santa Clarita Valley. Neighborhoods in Canyon Country, Bouquet Canyon, and Castaic Junction were among those cut off, and restoration often takes eight hours or more after winds subside while crews inspect lines. Hospitals and other emergency response facilities were unsure if they would also be impacted by the public safety power shutoffs.

"After thousands went without power weeks ago, and hospitals and first responders were left uncertain how the power shutoffs would affect their facilities, it's clear that we need to take concrete steps to address this issue," said Rep. George Whitesides. "Power shutoffs can be a critical tool during extreme fire weather, but if we don't track, report, and communicate these outages to the public, we have no way of making them less disruptive. My bill will bring transparency and accountability to the process, to make sure individuals and first responders understand when an outage is coming, how long it will last, and how many people will be affected."

The Public Safety Power Shutoff Data Transparency Act would:

• Require standardized federal reporting of every PSPS event so that utilities serving 25,000 or more customers - and smaller utilities operating in designated high-risk wildfire areas - must report to the Department of Energy within seven days of starting and ending a shutoff. Reports cover the geographic extent of the outage, its start and end times, the number of customers and critical services affected, the hazard conditions that prompted it, how the utility communicated with the public, and how it coordinated with state, local, Tribal, and emergency-response agencies.

• Direct the DOE to collect, publish, and analyze PSPS data to show the frequency, duration, and regional trends of shutoffs, including impacts on rural, low-income, and Tribal communities.

• Require utilities to report which critical services (including health centers and other emergency response facilities) will be affected by the shutoff. DOE would also be required to share PSPS information with the Department of Health and Human Services, hospitals, emergency medical services networks, FEMA, and state emergency management agencies, so those planning for patient care and emergency response have the data they need.

• Give local governments a voice by allowing them to submit verified feedback and supplemental data on how shutoffs affected their communities.

• Minimize red tape by allowing DOE to build the new reporting fields into existing outage-reporting forms, such as Form OE-417, to avoid duplicating work for utilities.

• Ensure hospitals and other critical health infrastructure are properly notified and considered when utilities plan PSPS events.

The bill also includes protections for sensitive and security-related information submitted by utilities, while keeping aggregated summaries available to the public.

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