When all the options are bad, choosing the least-bad option wont make anybody happy. Thats whats 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 states 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,” theyre 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 wasnt negligent.
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