Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

California lawmakers will abandon effort to loosen wildfire liability rules for utility companies

Los Angeles Times: California lawmakers have scuttled their effort to craft a new liability standard for electric utility companies in the aftermath of a wildfire, a leader of the negotiations said on Saturday.

“It clearly became a distraction,” said state Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa), the co-chairman of a joint legislative conference committee that was convened earlier this summer to address wildfire prevention and liability issues.

California’s large investor-owned utilities contend that the existing liability rules are too onerous and costly. Under what’s known as “inverse condemnation,” a utility company can be held liable for costs related to a wildfire involving its equipment, even when the company followed all existing safety regulations.

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