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The power was deliberately cut through large swathes of Northern California to prevent wildfires,
北加州大面积被故意停电，以防止森林大火，
leaving 700,000 businesses and homes temporarily in the dark.
导致70万商家和住宅暂时处在黑暗当中。
24,000 customers also had their power cut in Southern California because of hot windy conditions.
南加州2.4万用户不得不断电，因为炎热，多风的气候。
A large part of the problem is climate change. Electricity lines have been starting fires for a century, but generally those fires were pretty small.
原因的大部分是气候变化，一个世纪以来，电线一直在引起火灾，但总的来说起火面积很小。
What's changed, and we saw in a dramatic and horrible way in Paradise, California last year
发生改变的是，我们看到去年在加州天堂镇看到的可怕，让人印象深刻的场景，
is that the same sort of electric line failure can now cause a massive conflagration, which is that case killed 85 people.
同样的电线故障却可以引发大的火灾，在那起案件中导致85人遇难。
Pacific Gas & Electric, the Northern California company whose equipment sparked that blaze
北加州公司太平洋煤气电力公司设备引发了火灾，
has again been criticized for its widespread precautionary power cuts.
他们再次因大面积的防御性断电而遭受指责。
An expanding system of cameras and weather sensors provides real-time data
摄像机和气候传感器系统正在扩大，它可以提供实时数据，
supplemented by images from space and human analysis but they don't catch all the problems.
还有来自太空和的图像和人类分析，但却没能意识到所有问题。
In the last five years, about 50 to 60% of the fires that have started involving our system have been due to things flying into our lines.
在过去五年，大约50-60%的大火都和我们的系统有关，原因是有东西飞入了电线。
So it's not necessarily a failure of our system. It could be palm fronds, it could be other vegetation, it could be a critter.
所以不一定是系统的失败，或许是棕榈叶，或许是其它植物，或许是生物。
Power providers work to reduce the risk trimming trees and using insulated cables. They're also rethinking procedures for precautionary power cuts.
电线提供者正在减少这个风险，通过修建树木，使用绝缘电缆，但他们还重新思考了防御性断电的流程。
The other which is being proposed is to have a committee rather than the utility make the shut-off decision.
另一个建议是设立委员会，而不是公共事业来决定是否关闭。
And the committee would include utility executives but it would also include public safety officials
委员会可以包含公共事业的执行者，但还要包括公共安全的官员，
and it would also include regulators and possibly politicians. He says power companies in California are now liable for damages
还要包括管理者，或者是政界人士，他称加州的电力公司对损坏负责，
even when they're not negligent and that should be changed.
即使他们没有玩忽职守，所以这个需要作出改变。
Experts say new technologies help lower the risk. Distributed power production could reduce the need for power lines in high risk areas.
专家称新的技术可以帮助减少风险，分散的电力生产可以降低高风险区域对电线的需求。
Together with local production of renewable electricity like for example distributed solar and battery energy storage,
还有当地生产可再生电力，比如分散的太阳能和电池储存，
those are also very important technologies for avoiding wildfires. And fuel cell technology, the kind used in some new cars
这些都是避免森林大火的重要技术，还有用于一些新轿车上的燃料电池技术
allows for even more local power generation. They say the fire risk won't go away but can be managed.
会允许更多当地电力生产，他们称大火风险不会消失，但可以改善。
Mike O'Sullivan VOA news Los Angeles
麦克·奥沙利文，VOA新闻洛杉矶报道
