Biden says intentional power outages to prevent more fires led to California water shortages

President Biden said Thursday intentional power outages in the Los Angeles area that were administered in order to prevent more fires from starting were partially to blame for water shortages as officials battle historic wildfires near the city's limits.

In a briefing with administration officials from the White House, Biden said generators were on the way and that he talked to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) about the water shortages. He explained that utilities were shut off out of concern about sparking more fires that are devastating neighborhoods in and around Southern California.

“What I know from talking to the governor, there are concerns out there that there’s also been a water shortage. The fact is the utilities, understandably, shut off power because they are worried the lines that carried energy were going to be blown down and spark additional fires,” he said. “When it did that, it cut off the ability to generate pumping the water, that’s what caused the lack of water in these hydrants.”

He added that Cal Fire, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, is bringing in generators to help with the shortage of water coming out of the hydrants.

President-elect Trump has criticized the water shortage in statements on Truth Social, saying earlier Thursday that Newsom “should immediately go to Northern California and open up the water main, and let the water flow into his dry, starving, burning State, instead of having it go out into the Pacific Ocean.”

Trump has also blamed Newsom for the fires, calling for him to resign late Wednesday. Newsom hit back, saying he was doing everything he could to protect people and make sure firefighters have what they need and that Trump wants to “politicize” the fires.

Trump also said the California governor should have signed a declaration to pump additional water through the Golden State to avert the situation. But it's unclear just what declaration Trump was referring to.

The quantity of water available to be pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta faces restrictions due to federal and state regulations to protect a fish called the smelt, in spite of Trump’s first administration stating in 2019 that pumping more water to supply farms won’t endanger the fish, according to reporting from Cal Matters at the time.

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