The head of California’s biggest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is blaming global warming for making large wildfires more frequent and intense as part of an ongoing public relations and lobbying campaign.
The goal of that campaign: get state lawmakers to change what utilities are liable for when their equipment cause fires.
“Climate change is no longer coming, it’s here,” PG&E CEO Geisha Williams said in an email to Bloomberg. “And we are living with it every day.”
PG&E is pioneering a campaign that could taken up by utilities across the country. Under current state law, utilities are liable for fire damages if their equipment can be tied to the blaze. Property owners can demand compensation even if the utility followed all safety regulations.
PG&E faces $17 billion in potential liabilities from devastating wildfires in northern California last year. The company’s stock plummeted in June when state officials referred 12 cases to prosecutors where power lines and equipment caused fires last year.
State officials found that “12 Northern California wildfires in the October 2017 Fire Siege were caused by electric power and distribution lines, conductors and the failure of power poles,” including the Atlas fire in Napa County that killed six people. – READ MORE
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