The Utilities’ Liability For California’s Wildfire Woes

When all the options are bad, choosing the least-bad option won’t make anybody happy. That’s what’s likely to happen with a stack of proposed legislation to deal with liability for the catastrophic wildfires that have scorched hundreds of thousands of acres across California. The state’s investor-owned utilities are lobbying for a change in the law that reduces their liability for fires caused by electrical equipment, like wires and transformers. Under a doctrine known as “inverse condemnation,” they’re liable for the damage from fires sparked by utility equipment — for example when tree branches make contact with wires during high winds — even if the utility wasn’t negligent.