Judge keeps California law on utilities paying fire damages.
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The century-old law helped drive the nation’s largest utility into bankruptcy protection 10 months ago as it faced at least $20 billion in losses stemming from a series of deadly and destructive wildfires in 2017 and 2018. But Montali pointed out that there is no evidence yet that PG&E would not be allowed to pass along its wildfire costs if it could show regulators that it had acted as a “prudent operator.” He said PG&E seemed to be “seeking a solution, fire cost reimbursement, in search of a problem.”
Although utilities never liked the concept of inverse condemnation, it wasn’t crippling until recently. That’s because California’s power regulators typically allowed profit-driven utilities to recoup their fire losses by raising their rates — effectively forcing their customers to bear the burden instead of their stockholders.
The shift in the regulatory landscape has been even more jarring because PG&E and other utilities put off maintenance on aging electrical systems. Those past decisions can now be interpreted as poor management or outright negligence after PG&E’s power grid was linked to several fires that destroyed thousands of homes and killed dozens of people.
PG&E also had tried to persuade the bankruptcy judge that the law was designed to serve as a “socialization of losses,” so it should always be allowed to recover its wildfire costs through higher rates.
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