With summer temperatures exceeding 100 degrees in many parts of California, homeowners and businesses inhibiting “red zones” – areas densely populated by trees and other shrubberies – are in danger of being impacted or potentially displaced by wildfires.

Reports show that more than a handful of California’s wildfires were started by faulty power poles containing dangerous and flammable electrical wiring in recent years. 

A raging fire erupted in Sacramento last month, destroying 1,200 structures, and burning more than 700,000 acres of land. It’s California’s largest recorded wildfire in history. 

On July 14, Pacific Gas and Electric released a report suggesting that its equipment may have sparked the fire. A federal judge has asked PG&E to explain the utility’s role.

As global warming intensifies, Californians should expect more wildfires to emerge. Complicating the matter is a trio of bills circulating through the state legislature with the potential to worsen the situation. 

Assembly Bill 537, Senate Bill 378, and Senate Bill 556 seek to bypass the health and safety protocols and allows California’s largest wireless company to install tens of thousands of antennas and other WIFI equipment atop streetlights and traffic signal poles. 

This legislation put strict timelines for cities and counties to review and respond to cell tower transmitter applications. In particular circumstances, local cities are given 45 – 60 days to review the application process. If they can’t comply, “the application will be deemed approved, the permit considered issued, and the wireless company could start constitution immediately.” 

What if a large scare cell tower requires additional permits and it is beyond the specified deadline? 

These types of actions circumvent the health and safety of our local communities and the workers who install the antennas. 

The legislation would also invalidate the agreements between local governments and wireless companies. There are many local governments – cities, towns, and counties that already have local zoning ordinances and codes related to this issue, yet the proposed legislation would 

all but eliminate community input.  

Even if large-scale cell towers require additional permits, under AB 537, if it is beyond the deadline, the permits are be deemed issued, possibly without an application process. This circumvents essential safety checks. 

Not all towns or cities are alike. How can this WIFI legislation not consider that some communities have more dense populations, others are more residential, and some local areas have multi-level rental property?

The legislation doesn’t allow for property safety checks, and local input is a recipe for disaster.  

This isn’t the first time that the wireless industry has tried to circumvent local control.  

In 2017, the California Legislature passed SB 649, which would have done the same thing. 

But Governor Jerry Brown stood up for local communities, vetoing the legislation saying in part, “I believe that the interests which localities have in managing rights require a more balanced solution than the one achieved in this bill.”

Three plus years later, after several devastating wildfires and billions of dollars in property loss, the wireless companies are again trying to sneak the same legislation through the California Legislature by spending millions and millions of dollars in special interest lobbying.

We have seen fires, big and small, caused by utility poles and faulty wiring, including the Silverado Fire in Orange County. 

According to Southern California Edison, the incident was caused by “a [malfunctioning] cable that may have come into contact with a separate 12,000-volt conductor line above it.”

SCE added: “The wire may have belonged to T-Mobile.”

In February, The California Public Utilities Commission recommended a $99 million fine for power poles that collapsed and sparked a wildfire in Malibu Canyon. 

“The poles were so top-heavy with electrical and telecommunications wires and equipment that they broke up in winds they should have been able to withstand, a PUC investigation concluded. Regulatory investigators say that added weight increases the risk that poles will topple amid the high seasonal winds that funnel through Southern California canyons.”

There are some things we can’t do to prevent fires. But this we can avoid. 

The legislation is now on the Governor’s desk. He will need to balance the importance of local governments and take stock of this legislation’s absence of safety, security, and health implications.