With fire season causing havoc in California, Edison is making a bid to limit its liability from the Woolsey fire that tore through Malibu last year.
The things that set California apart, for better or worse, were all there last Sunday afternoon: terrifying flames, wine country glamour and a rescue straight out of Hollywood.The same legal principle has driven the state’s biggest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., to file for bankruptcy protection after its equipment was linked to devastating wildfires in Northern California.
It’s not the first time Edison has tried to avoid liability for a fire. The utility failed to convince a judge a year ago to dismiss inverse-condemnation claims for the massive 2017 Thomas fire that scorched parts of Santa Barbara County and Ventura County. That fire was blamed for a subsequent mudslide that destroyed part of the affluent coastal enclave of Montecito. The first trials in both the Woolsey and Thomas fire litigation are scheduled for next year.
The strict liability the utilities face under California law for damage caused by their power lines has become an existential threat to them in recent years as widespread wildfires have become the new normal in the state. It’s become an even more pressing issue after the California Public Utilities Commission refused a request from Sempra Energy’s San Diego Gas & Electric to increase its rate to compensate for payouts over a 2007 wildfire.
Sempra’s years-long fight to overturn the state commission’s decision ended last month when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case.Inverse-condemnation liability is based on the idea that losses will be spread throughout society, Edison argued in the court filing. That’s something Edison can’t do on its own, the utility said.
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