Largest gas leak in California's history may cause blackouts this summer

Energy officials say a natural gas well blowout last year that crippled a major energy supply for Southern California could lead to blackouts this summer. The chairman of the California Energy Commission said Tuesday that the partial shutdown of the Aliso Canyon storage field near Los Angeles could lead to short-term power outages for up to 14 days. The Southern California Gas Co. facility has not fully operated since a massive leak was discovered in October. The leak equalled about 4.5 million cars' worth of pollution every day, forcing around 6,000 residents to relocate and prompting California's governor to declare a state of emergency. More...