Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...After months of negotiations and a last-minute compromise, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wildfire liability plan, was killed in the Assembly on Tuesday.
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas said in a statement that efforts to determine who pays for massive wildfires — initiated after the Eaton and Pacific Palisades fires — would be handled down the road, but that SB 492 was effectively dead.
“We will continue to tackle the difficult but critically important issue of wildfire reform. Sacramento shouldn’t settle when wildfire survivors lost everything,” Rivas announced on his website. “Over the past several weeks, we have spent hundreds of hours at the table with Californians from every side of this fight, and the verdict is clear: The proposal before us does not yet deliver the relief, accountability or meaningful reform that Californians deserve.”
See also:‘Compromise’ state wildfire bill pleases victims but falls short of full structural reform
A vote on the plan was required by the end of the legislative session on Tuesday and will now await a new session when Newsom is out of office.
The bill’s death came a day after California’s three investor-owned power companies wrote letters to legislative leaders decrying the measure, which they said would lead to higher energy rates. The companies had lost more than $20 billion in value since the end of trading Thursday and Monday morning, after the deal was announced over the weekend.
Edison International and Pacific Gas & Electric were specifically concerned that the compromise deal would still allow insurance companies to sue the utilities to recoup claims paid to fire survivors.
Also, a proposed fast-pay program for fire survivors would draw from the California Wildfire fund that was established in 2019 to keep the privately owned power companies from going bankrupt from fire damages.
Also see:With shares falling, Edison International, PG&E weigh in on wildfire liability bill, day before vote
The agreement was hailed as a “win” for future wildfire survivors, mostly for what was left out of the bill, such as limits on what survivors could collect.
On Tuesday, some survivors cast the agreement’s death as the inability of the utilities to follow the compromise.
“Wildfire survivors fought the utility bailout and won,” read a joint statement from the Every Fire Survivors Network and Consumer Watchdog. “Legislators heard us, stood up to enormous pressure from the Governor and the utilities, and rejected the biggest bailout protections they demanded.
“SB 492 was a negotiated leadership compromise. Now it is dead because the utilities wanted even more. They would rather kill the bill than accept a compromise that rejected the bailout they sought.”
Joy Chen, of Every Fire Survivors Network, said the Assembly shelving SB 492 sets the stage for the governor to call a special session to revive the utility bailout he wants.”
“EFSN will continue partnering with legislators to fend off any further utility bailouts and to protect survivors,” Chen added.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.