California’s Newsom Backs Down on Utility Wildfire Relief

California Governor Gavin Newsom sent a last-minute piece of legislation to the Legislature to basically let utilities off the hook for wildfires their faulty equipment causes. The governor wanted to put pressure on insurers to pay more of the damages and to cut profits from the super-sized law firms also benefitting from the fires.

As expected, the electrical utilities responsible for the fires, and the billions it costs them, supported Newsom’s push. Their lobbyists leaned on legislators to pas the governor’s plan through.

After hearing from wildfire victims, insurers, consumers and others, the Senate and Assembly leaders said no.

So on Saturday Newsom and the Legislature’s leadership came up with a compromise. An agreement was reached to stop private equity groups from investing in wildfire claims and will deny an electricity company CEO from getting their yearly bonus if their equipment causes a wildfire and fatalities.

To help the survivors of wildfires, the agreement puts a program in place to make sure payments for property loss, pain and suffering happens fast. In the past. some victims have seen long, long delays in getting compensation. The compromise sets up a 60 day deadline to determine what claims are valid. A settlement offer has to come 30 days after a claim is validated. Survivors are still allowed to go their own way and sue the utility on their own.

Wildfire mitigation efforts will be improved under the plan and more data on insurance coverage will be shared in areas with wildfire risk.

Senate Bill 492 will be voted on this week, and by the time you read this, it may have already be acted upon.

Source link: CalMatters — https://bit.ly/4xt0AK5