Climate Changed
California's Brown Brings PG&E Closer to Fire-Law Changes
- Governor calls on lawmakers to weigh ‘inverse condemnation’
- State law should consider whether utilities acted ‘reasonably’
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California utility giants PG&E Corp. and Edison International are one step closer to changing a state law that has exposed them to billions of dollars in wildfire liabilities.
Late Tuesday, California Governor Jerry Brown proposed a bill that would require a court to consider whether a utility acted “reasonably” when deciding whether it should end up on the hook for fire damages. Brown said the proposal wouldn’t affect the potential liabilities PG&E and Edison face for blazes that devastated the state in 2017. Still, it’s a win for PG&E, which has been lobbying hard to change a policy that holds utilities responsible for the costs of wildfires their equipment caused, even if they weren’t negligent.