Rep. Ro Khanna called on the state of California to take public ownership of the increasingly troubled PG&E.

Amid several rounds of large and unprecedented power shut-offs in recent weeks intended to lower the potential of its transmission lines igniting wildfires in Northern California, Khanna told CNBC on Tuesday that PG&E’s response to the wildfires has highlighted other previous deficiencies in the stewardship of the utility.

“It’s time for the state to take ownership of PG&E, and make sure that they are doing what they need to do to keep the power on and keep people safe.”-Rep. Ro Khanna

“They have failed to make the investments in the infrastructure. The regulators are too loose,” Khanna said

“It’s time for the state to take ownership of PG&E, and make sure that they are doing what they need to do to keep the power on and keep people safe.”

On social media, Khanna, who represents Fremont and the Silicon Valley, has been critical of PG&E in recent days.

He added, PG&E’s solution to shut off power in order to avoid future wildfires should have never been contemplated. “In the 21st century, when you have a state that has Apple, Google and Tesla in it, there is no excuse that we can’t get power to our people on a regular basis,” Khanna said.

PG&E’s aging transmission lines have been blamed for starting several large-scale wildfires in the past. The most recent Kincade Fire, still raging near Geyserville, may have also been ignited by PG&E transmission lines, according to some reports.

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