Power company to pay US$82.5mil for California wildfire
LOS ANGELES : One of California's largest utilities is to pay the US forest service US$82.5 million for a wildfire that burned tens of thousands of acres of woodland, the government said today.
The 2020 Bobcat Fire destroyed dozens of buildings as it tore through the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles.
The US government said Southern California Edison had not properly controlled vegetation near its power lines and the blaze erupted when trees touched a live wire.
A 2023 lawsuit claimed damages from the company for the cost of fighting the fire on forest service land as well as for remediation of damage caused to campgrounds, trails and wildlife habitats.
'This record settlement against Southern California Edison provides meaningful compensation to taxpayers for the extensive costs of fighting the Bobcat Fire and for the widespread damage to public lands,' said US attorney Bill Essayli.
'My office will continue to aggressively pursue recovery for suppression costs and environmental damages from any entity that causes harm to the public's forests and other precious national resources.'
Southern California Edison is no stranger to paying out large sums of money for wildfires where its equipment was suspected to have been at fault.
The company handed over more than US$2.7 billion in settlements over the 2017 Thomas Fire that tore through Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, killing two people and destroying hundreds of buildings.
It paid US$2.2 billion for the 2018 Woolsey Fire that burned through Los Angeles and Ventura counties, killing three people and damaging more than 1,600 buildings.
Investigators probing the deadly Eaton Fire, one of two blazes that ripped through Los Angeles at the start of this year, are homing on in SCE transmission lines as a possible source of ignition.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
a day ago
- The Star
Intel to slash workforce by year-end as it forecasts steeper losses than expected
FILE PHOTO: A smartphone with a displayed Intel logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration created on March 6, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo (Reuters) -Intel said on Thursday it plans to slash its headcount to 75,000 by the end of this year, down from 99,500 at the end of 2024. The Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker disclosed the layoff goals as itforecast steeper third-quarter losses than Wall Street estimates on Thursday, despite anticipatinghigher sales than analysts expected while new CEO Lip-Bu Tan steers the company through a historic turnaround. The outlook comes as investors pushed Intel's shares up 14% this year, in the hopes of Tan undoing years of strategic mistakes that have exempted the company from the AI boom dominated by Nvidia. The company said it expects a third-quarter loss of 24cents per share, steeper than estimates of losses of 18 cents per share, according to data from LSEG. Intel expects revenue of $12.6 billion to $13.6 billion for the September quarter, with a midpoint of $13.1 billion that was higher than analysts' average estimate of $12.65 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Growth in the PC market is uncertain after customers pulled shipments forward to the first half of the year amid ongoing trade negotiations, analysts have said. Shipments of PCs rose 6.5% in the June quarter according to data from International Data Corporation. While semiconductors are currently exempt from U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping global tariffs, Intel and its fellow chipmakers are facing customers who are reluctant aboutspending commitments amid widespread macroeconomic uncertainty. Intel's second-quarter revenue for the period ended June 28 was flat at $12.9 billion,snapping a four-quarter streak of sales declines. The result beat estimates of $11.92 billion, according to LSEG data. CEO Tan has been focusing on a next-generation chipmaking process called 14A to win big external customers, shifting away from 18A, a technology that his predecessor Pat Gelsinger had spent billions of dollars to develop, Reuters has reported. Tan has also focused on streamlining the organization and reducing its workforce. In April, Intel agreed to sell a 51% stake in its Altera programmable chip business for $4.46 billion. Intel said job cuts contributed to restructuring costs of $1.9 billion in the second quarter. It recorded June quarter adjusted losses of 10 cents per share, compared with estimates of a profit of 1 cent per share. Its unadjusted loss was 67 cents per share in the second quarter, steeper than analyst estimates of a 26-cent-per-share loss. (Reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Max A. Cherney and Stephen Nellis in San FranciscoEditing by Sayantani Ghosh and Matthew Lewis)
The Star
a day ago
- The Star
Intel beats shareholder lawsuit over $32 billion stock plunge
(Reuters) -A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit accusing Intel of defrauding shareholders by concealing problems in a business where it manufactured chips for outside customers, leading to a $32 billion one-day plunge in its market value. While saying she "understands plaintiffs' frustrations," U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson in San Francisco ruled on Wednesday that Intel did not wait too long to reveal a $7 billion fiscal 2023 operating loss in its foundry business. Intel's stock price sank 26% last August 2, one day after the chipmaker announced more than 15,000 layoffs and suspended its dividend, hoping to save $10 billion in 2025. The Santa Clara, California-based company created the foundry business in 2021 to serve customers including and Qualcomm, while still making chips and wafers for internal use. In a 21-page decision, Thompson said Intel made clear that foundry results would be "obscured" until 2024, meaning its earlier financial reporting was not false and misleading. Thompson also cited an "overarching policy consideration" that because Intel's public statements suggested a "trial-and-error" approach to the foundry business, the company could have faced risks from reporting preliminary, unaudited data. The judge dismissed an earlier version of the lawsuit in March. Wednesday's dismissal was with prejudice, meaning the shareholders cannot sue again. A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit accusing Intel of defrauding shareholders by concealing problems in a business where it manufactured chips for outside customers, leading to a $32 billion one-day plunge in its market value. While saying she "understands plaintiffs' frustrations," U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson in San Francisco ruled on Wednesday that Intel did not wait too long to reveal a $7 billion fiscal 2023 operating loss in its foundry business. Intel's stock price sank 26% last August 2, one day after the chipmaker announced more than 15,000 layoffs and suspended its dividend, hoping to save $10 billion in 2025. The Santa Clara, California-based company created the foundry business in 2021 to serve customers including and Qualcomm, while still making chips and wafers for internal use. In a 21-page decision, Thompson said Intel made clear that foundry results would be "obscured" until 2024, meaning its earlier financial reporting was not false and misleading. Thompson also cited an "overarching policy consideration" that because Intel's public statements suggested a "trial-and-error" approach to the foundry business, the company could have faced risks from reporting preliminary, unaudited data. The judge dismissed an earlier version of the lawsuit in March. Wednesday's dismissal was with prejudice, meaning the shareholders cannot sue again. A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit accusing Intel of defrauding shareholders by concealing problems in a business where it manufactured chips for outside customers, leading to a $32 billion one-day plunge in its market value. While saying she "understands plaintiffs' frustrations," U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson in San Francisco ruled on Wednesday that Intel did not wait too long to reveal a $7 billion fiscal 2023 operating loss in its foundry business. Intel's stock price sank 26% last August 2, one day after the chipmaker announced more than 15,000 layoffs and suspended its dividend, hoping to save $10 billion in 2025. The Santa Clara, California-based company created the foundry business in 2021 to serve customers including and Qualcomm, while still making chips and wafers for internal use. In a 21-page decision, Thompson said Intel made clear that foundry results would be "obscured" until 2024, meaning its earlier financial reporting was not false and misleading. Thompson also cited an "overarching policy consideration" that because Intel's public statements suggested a "trial-and-error" approach to the foundry business, the company could have faced risks from reporting preliminary, unaudited data. The judge dismissed an earlier version of the lawsuit in March. Wednesday's dismissal was with prejudice, meaning the shareholders cannot sue again. Intel had been accused of inflating its stock price from January 25 to August 1, 2024. Lawyers for the shareholders did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday. Intel and its lawyers did not immediately respond to similar requests. Intel has struggled to compete with rival chipmakers such as Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, Samsung Electronics and Taiwan's TSMC. and benefit from growth in artificial intelligence. The company lost $18.8 billion in 2024, its first annual loss since 1986. The case is In re Intel Corp Securities Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 24-02683. Lawyers for the shareholders did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday. Intel and its lawyers did not immediately respond to similar requests. Intel has struggled to compete with rival chipmakers such as Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, Samsung Electronics and Taiwan's TSMC. and benefit from growth in artificial intelligence. The company lost $18.8 billion in 2024, its first annual loss since 1986. The case is In re Intel Corp Securities Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 24-02683. Lawyers for the shareholders did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday. Intel and its lawyers did not immediately respond to similar requests. Intel has struggled to compete with rival chipmakers such as Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, Samsung Electronics and Taiwan's TSMC, and benefit from growth in artificial intelligence. The company lost $18.8 billion in 2024, its first annual loss since 1986. The case is In re Intel Corp Securities Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 24-02683. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New YorkEditing by Nick Zieminski)
Free Malaysia Today
a day ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Tesla faces difficult road ahead as it hopes robotaxis will offset declining sales
The fall in Tesla's core auto sales has led to more investor scrutiny of Elon Musk's lofty robotaxi promises. (Reuters pic) LOS ANGELES : Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk are walking an increasingly difficult tightrope as the company navigates declining electric vehicle (EV) sales and an autonomous driving business that has yet to get off the ground. Yesterday's earnings call, Musk said Tesla is 'getting the regulatory permission to launch' robotaxis in several states, including California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida. He expects operations to reach 'half the population of the US by the end of the year' and to roll out at scale by the end of next year. So far, though, the company is operating only a small fleet in Austin, Texas, that is not available to the general public. Getting regulatory approvals, particularly in California, is likely to prove a bigger hurdle than Musk described on the call. 'Tesla cannot afford a misstep with the robotaxi service,' said Camelthorn Investments adviser Shawn Campbell, who owns Tesla shares. He added that 'the wheels are coming off' its automotive business, with sales declines across 'almost every market'. Sales fell 13% for the first half of this year, as its core EV business deteriorated due to an aging lineup and brand damage from Musk's political activism. With no affordable vehicles on the horizon until the last three months of the year and the upcoming elimination of a US$7,500 US tax break for EV buyers, Musk acknowledged that the company could have 'a few rough quarters'. 'The numbers kind of speak for themselves,' said Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management and a Tesla investor. 'They're bad for a growth company, which isn't growing,' Kawasaki said. Tesla shares are already down nearly 18% this year and robotaxis and autonomous driving are critical to maintaining the company's roughly US$1 trillion stock market valuation. Regulatory barriers The fall in core auto sales has led to more investor scrutiny of Musk's lofty robotaxi promises. Products such as the Cybertruck have come later than anticipated, and Musk has promised every year since 2016 that driverless Teslas would arrive no later than the following year. Many questions on yesterday's call focused on how quickly Tesla would be able to expand robotaxi services, and the regulatory hurdles that remain. Musk said he expected the robotaxi business would have a 'material impact' on Tesla's business by the end of next year. In April, he said it would become material 'around the middle of next year,' and predicted 'millions of Teslas operating autonomously' by the second half of 2026. The San Francisco Bay Area was first on Musk's list of expansion markets, but California regulators told Reuters yesterday that Tesla had not yet applied for permits needed to pick up and charge passengers for rides in fully autonomous vehicles. Companies need a series of permits from both the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in order to test and deploy autonomous vehicles in the state. To date, Tesla only has obtained the first in a series of permits needed to launch a service, and spokesmen for both agencies said the company has not applied for the additional permits needed to test and operate autonomous vehicles. Tesla did not respond immediately to a request for comment. California has no specific time period to grant such permits, but Alphabet's Waymo, which offers autonomous ride-hailing in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, logged more than 13 million testing miles and secured seven different regulatory approvals over nine years before receiving approval to charge passengers for rides in driverless robotaxis in 2023. Tesla has logged just 904km in California since 2016, and has not reported any autonomous-driving km to the state in six years, according to the most recent state records. Paul Miller, principal analyst at market research and consultancy firm Forrester, pointed to Musk's comment about addressing half of the US population 'subject to regulatory approvals'. 'That caveat is an important one, as regulatory approvals take time,' he said. Other markets Musk mentioned could move faster. In Arizona, a state department of transportation spokesman said Tesla contacted state officials last month and had applied for permits to test and operate autonomous vehicles with and without a safety driver. The agency said a decision is expected at the end of the month. 'Tesla also must seek permits to operate a ride-hailing service and submit plans to the state for how police agencies can deal with their autonomous vehicles,' the spokesman said. Nevada DMV officials said they discussed the state's process with Tesla last week, but no steps have been taken, while officials in Florida did not respond to a request for comment. Some investors are also seeking more specifics about the Austin launch. Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, a Tesla investor, said he was disappointed the EV maker gave no updates on its earnings call on when the Austin service would be available to the general public or how many vehicles would be on the road. 'It seemed like he wanted to kind of steer clear of really putting hard estimates out there for how things play out,' Munster said.
