State Regulators Confront Fallout From Xcel’s Wildfire Power Shutdowns
By Mark Jaffe | The Colorado Sun
State utilities regulators collected testimony from 4,000 businesses, households with lifesaving medical equipment and the merely annoyed as they form rules for public safety power shut-offs.
In December, Rainbow Schultz was preparing for Xcel Energy’s announced shutdown of power lines to cope with high winds since her restaurant — the Jamestown Mercantile — had lost $8,000 in the utility’s safety shut-off eight months earlier.
Schultz was already reducing her supplies when she was told by Xcel Energy her town of 230 in western Boulder County would not be in the shut-off area and so she stocked up as usual.
Still when the 112-mile-per-hour gust of wind came Dec. 18, Schultz found herself in the dark wi...










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