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State Sen. Ben Allen is rebuking Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric over shareholder-focused threats tied to wildfire liability legislation and weighing oversight hearings as lawmakers craft a new fire bill package. Existing laws already shield utilities from billions in wildfire damages, including Altadena’s deadly Eaton fire, as new proposals could further curb victim payouts and shift costs to homeowners’ insurance. PG&E and Edison executives are signaling stock buybacks and capital shifts if legislation falls short, despite investigations blaming their aging, idle lines for some of California’s most destructive recent wildfires.

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PG&E and SCE should have been taken over by the state of CA decades ago. They are manifestly incapable of safely and reliably accomplishing their core responsibilities without setting half the state on fire on a regular basis.

[-] Vandals_handle@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

Yes.

Don't forget San Onofre was shut down in 2012 after unapproved modifications to the cooling system were made during installation of new steam generators. IIRC there was a small amount of leakage that was contained within the facility. Both SCE and SDGE on that.

PGE execs and board should be spending life in prison for San Bruno.

[-] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago

SDG&E ain't great, but I'm unaware of them actually starting any wildfires. Just completely incapable of hardening the grid to withstand wildfires.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago

Remember when fire season was limited to smaller regions of the state and they burned every year because that's how wind works?

It's been a hot minute

[-] Vandals_handle@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

No I don't but I've only lived here 50+ years, when was that?

I'll give you was more limited to a season, not year round, but most of CA has a fire ecology and was regularly burned by indigenous peoples as a land stewardship practice.

Colonization stopped the cultural burns in an effort to subjugate indigenous peoples, this has led to excessive fuel loads causing more destructive fires. Also colonization introduced invasive plant species adding fuels that burn hotter and cause more destructive fires.

As Californias ecology evolved with fire, the counterintuitive solution to fire is more fire.

State takeover of utilities is also needed.

Edit for claity

this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2026
18 points (100.0% liked)

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