Los Angeles Times - 31.10.2019

BuSINESS

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019:: LATIMES.COM/BUSINESS

C

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The state’s electric grid was ex-
periencing rapid and unprecedent-
ed changes even before Pacific Gas
& Electric and Southern California
Edison began shutting off power to
millions of people in a desperate
scramble to prevent their transmis-
sion lines from sparking wildfires.
Solar and wind power were
booming. Gas-fired power plants
were shutting down. Investor-
owned utility companies such as
PG&E and Edison were being re-
placed by city-run alternatives. And
the falling cost of lithium-ion bat-
teries was making some households
less reliant on the grid than ever be-
fore.
The changes will only accelerate
in the coming years as California
ramps up efforts to fight climate
change by cleaning up its energy
supply.
But the state’s plans for slashing
climate emissions depend on a sta-
ble electric grid delivering clean

electricity to the cars, homes and

businesses of the world’s fifth-larg-

est economy. The jarring new reality

of preemptive blackouts could frus-

trate those plans by throwing the

grid’s reliability into doubt.

“The issue of reliability is really

put front and center by the anxiety

that people are starting to feel

about their electrical system, even if

they’re not subject to the black-

outs,” said Michael Wara, a Stan-

ford University professor who

serves on a state commission on

wildfire costs. That anxiety could

complicate efforts to “electrify

everything,” the mantra adopted by

a growing number of climate activ-

ists and state policymakers.

The basic idea is that as the elec-

tricity supply gets cleaner — more

than half of California’s power came

from climate-friendly sources last

year, and lawmakers have man-

dated 100% by 2045 — the state can

use clean electricity to replace oil

and gas in transportation and

buildings. Think electric vehicles in-

stead of

WILDFIREpower shut-offs, such as the one above, are seen as a wild card in a looming battle between natural gas and electricity.

K.C. AlfredSan Diego Union-Tribune

Blackouts could hamper state’s

shift to clean energy sources

Outages to prevent wildfires throw into doubt the reliability of the power grid

PG&Eand Southern California Edison will need to spend billions

of dollars to insulate wires, trim trees and take other steps to limit

wildfire ignition risk, and that will lead to rate increases.

Luis SincoLos Angeles Times

By Sammy Roth

[SeeOutages,C4]

Twitter Inc. founder and

Chief Executive Jack Dorsey

announced Wednesday his

social media company — in

pointed contrast to Face-

book Inc. — would stop run-

ning political advertising

worldwide.

In a long thread of Twit-

ter messages, he wrote that

online political ads pre-

sented “entirely new chal-

lenges to civic discourse,” in-

cluding “machine learning-

based optimization of mes-

saging and micro-targeting,

unchecked misleading infor-

mation, and deep fakes. All

at increasing velocity, so-

phistication, and over-

whelming scale.”

The announcement

comes as Facebook CEO

Mark Zuckerberg faces scru-

tiny over his company’s

stated position of allowing

political advertising on its

platform without any form

of fact-checking, as well as

allowing political candi-

dates impunity from the

normal mechanisms of con-

tent moderation on ads on

the social media platform.

Twitter, a favorite plat-

No more

political

ads on

Twitter

Policy contrasts with

Facebook’s emphasis

on free speech.

By Sam Dean

[SeeTwitter,C4]

WASHINGTON — The

Federal Reserve made an-

other interest rate cut on

Wednesday, but Fed Chair-

man Jerome H. Powell

poured cold water on the

idea that more rate cuts

were coming down the pike.

The Fed, as expected,

lowered its benchmark rate

by a quarter of a point for the

third straight time, to a

range of 1.5% to 1.75%.

Fed officials have de-

scribed the rate cut as essen-

tially an insurance against

the risks to the American

economy from the U.S.-

China trade war and weak-

ening global growth, which

are threatening to undercut

what since the summer has

been the longest economic

expansion in U.S. history.

Earlier Wednesday, the

Commerce Department

said U.S. economic growth

slowed further in the third

quarter, with business in-

vestments and net exports

contracting for the second

straight quarter, even as the

housing market gained mo-

mentum and consumer

spending grew at a slower

but still healthy pace.

Trade friction between

the globe’s two largest econ-

omies has disrupted busi-

ness operations and spend-

ing, as have other risks and

uncertainties such as Brit-

ain’s messy exit from the Eu-

ropean Union.

Powell made clear, how-

FED CUTS

ITS KEY

INTEREST

RATE, AS

EXPECTED

The central bank

indicates that more

cuts are unlikely this

year amid fresh signs

of a slowing economy.

By Don Lee

[SeeRate cut, C3]

The Trump administra-
tion wants to dictate how
and where global auto com-
panies make cars and parts
to secure duty-free treat-
ment under the new NAFTA
— its most direct interven-
tion yet to manage trade and
production — according to
people familiar with the ef-
fort.
The issue is being dis-
cussed among Trump ad-
ministration officials, con-
gressional staff, and domes-
tic and foreign automakers
in the context of the legisla-
tion that lawmakers will vote
on for the trade deal to take
effect. The White House
wants specific language that
would allow it to unilaterally
administer the production
rules for companies.
The U.S.-Mexico-Canada
Agreement, signed by Presi-

Trump wants to set car production rules

He seeks to dictate

how, where autos are

made to be duty-free

under new NAFTA.

By Jenny Leonard

PRESIDENTTrump with Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Nicholas KammAFP via Getty Images

[SeeAuto rules,C5]