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.
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
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
For you listening pleasure, Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women with California’s burning