2 days before fires Jerry Brown signed an order saying PGE could charge customers for fire damages.
Jerry Brown is using PG&E to burn CA
“The bill requires independent evaluation of utility compliance with mitigation plans, and doubles the amount of fines that can be levied upon a utility for failure to comply,” Dodd said during legislative debate last month.
Second, utility regulators will be given new guidelines to help determine a company’s liability. For fires that begin in 2019 and beyond, utility companies will be able to shift some fire-related costs to consumers — but only to the extent that regulators determine the company wasn’t negligent.
For fires that burned in 2017 — a year in which state investigators have linked PG&E equipment to at least a dozen Northern California fires — the utility will be allowed to borrow billions of dollars using ratepayer fees to pay it back, even if it was found to have acted improperly. The amount charged to customers would be determined after an independent analysis of the company’s finances.
Utility officials have given a general rule of thumb: $1 billion in borrowing would result in a $5 annual surcharge for most customers, assessed every year until the loan is paid off. Some lawmakers insisted it will amount to an unfair “bailout” of companies such as PG&E.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-wildfire-prevention-law-signed-20180921-story.html