EDITORIAL: Don’t let utilities off the hook for California wildfires

July 07--The summer has hardly begun, and months after a horrific fire season California is experiencing scalding temperatures and wildfire destruction at historic levels.

Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders were wise to form a conference committee last week to discuss fire prevention and financial responsibility for future fires -- as long as the main focus is on prevention.

The committee must not use the occasion to let utilities off the hook for future damages caused by their failure to adequately maintain power lines and utility poles. State Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, notes that the greatest danger is the political challenge for the Legislature to alter any of the committee's major proposals.

The utilities, including PG&E, don't want to acknowledge that the current liability laws are largely working. The real problem is that PG&E too often has failed to live up to its maintenance obligations. Nor did PG&E purchase enough insurance coverage to cover the utility's potential liability for the 2017 wildfires.

In a prepared statement last month, PG&E said, "Based on the information we have so far, we continue to believe our overall programs met our state's high standards."

We disagree.

In May, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said PG&E was responsible for three fires in October in Nevada and Butte counties.

Two weeks later, Cal Fire pinned the blame on PG&E for 12 of the destructive fires that raged in Northern California's wine country in October. Cal Fire said that the majority of the wildfires were caused by tree limbs making contact with power lines. Northern Californians are still waiting for Cal Fire to issue its report on the cause of the Tubbs Fire, which killed 24 people and destroyed 5,000 homes and caused an estimated $1.2 billion in damages. All told, 43 people died in the wine country fires.

The current California standard says that utilities must be reasonable and prudent in maintaining their equipment. If Californians want an idea of how the committee process could go awry, look into the proposed changes in Sen. Bill Dodd's SB 1088. The legislation would change the maintenance responsibility standard for utilities to "substantial compliance." Good luck determining what that means, because the bill doesn't include a definition. But it likely isn't good for California homeowners.

The utilities also want to alter the state's "inverse condemnation" policy, which holds them responsible for any wildfire damages caused by their equipment even if they were properly maintained. Any change in the law demands that California property owners be properly protected.

Cal Fire has already responded to nearly 2,900 fires this year, nearly 10 percent more than it did by this time a year ago. And that doesn't include the Klamathon fire that broke out Thursday along the Oregon-California border, killing one person and leading to the governor declaring a state of emergency.

The outbreak of wildfires so early this year makes it one of the state's most pressing issues. It's imperative that in taking prudent preventive measures the Legislature also takes care to ensure that those responsible for future wildfires continue to be held accountable.

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