NEVADA CITY, Calif. — The California Organic Grocery Store in Nevada City has reported losing $60,000 in product and potential revenue during the recent power safety power shutoff.
Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) shut off power to nearly 1 million customers on Saturday, an unprecedented move to prevent catastrophic wildfires.
The store’s president Chris Kysar said the lights were off for five days. They were turned on late Wednesday afternoon. The store doesn’t have a generator. The company had to throw out thousands of dollars in meat and other food products because they were not refrigerated.
“The loss of product is $60,000 or so, right around that,” Kysar said. “You layer that on top of the $70,000 in revenue we’ve lost, it’s starting to add up to money that is important.”
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Kysar also worries about his employees who have lost as many days of pay. He’s hoping state leaders will step in and provide loans for those affected by the recent shutoffs.
And Kysar is not alone. Most of his neighbors' businesses closed last Saturday when the PSPS started. Now, state and local leaders are calling for changes to California policy that could make it harder for utility companies to institute wide-spread outages.
“We have rolling blackouts,” said Sen. Brian Dahle, R-Dist. 1. “We have businesses who have lost, what was he saying, I mean $60,000 and he’s gonna get reimbursed $250. In my mind, that’s a joke.”
Dahle visited the Nevada City Grocery Store on Wednesday. The shutoffs have the senator calling for out-of-the-ordinary measures. He wants lawmakers to get to work now.
Dahle is calling on Gov. Newsom to call a special session of the state legislature, so lawmakers can get back to work.
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