PG&E penalized $45 million in Dixie fire settlement with CPUC

Pacific Fuel & Electrical Firm will probably be penalized $45 million for its involvement in one of many largest and most harmful wildfires in California historical past underneath a settlement reached just lately between the utility and state regulators.

The Dixie hearth, which burned practically 1 million acres and destroyed greater than 1,300 properties, ignited July 13, 2021, after a Douglas fir tree fell and struck energized conductors owned and operated by PG&E. The blaze turned the primary identified wildfire to burn from one aspect of the Sierra Nevada to the opposite.

The California Public Utilities Fee introduced the settlement Thursday and mentioned the penalty consists of $40 million in shareholder funding for an initiative to transition a few of the utility’s hard-copy data to digital data.

The initiative “will help public security by enabling extra correct recording of knowledge and fast consciousness of the situation of PG&E’s property, thereby bettering the timeliness of inspections and preventive upkeep, and aiding the CPUC in conducting future audits and investigations,” the regulatory company mentioned.

PG&E can even pay $2.5 million in fines to the California Common Fund and $2.5 million to tribes affected by the Dixie hearth. PG&E will distribute these funds to the Greenville Rancheria and Maidu Summit Consortium, a nonprofit representing quite a lot of Mountain Maidu tribes and organizations, the CPUC mentioned.

Flames from the Dixie hearth crest a forested hill

(Noah Berger / Related Press)

The settlement was reached underneath a comparatively new enforcement software generally known as an administrative consent order, which was established in 2020 to “higher serve Californians by streamlined enforcement actions” in lieu of a extra formal investigation, in response to the CPUC.

In its personal report submitted to the company quickly after the Dixie hearth began, PG&E mentioned a employee responded to an outage within the Feather River Canyon space of Plumas County round 7 a.m. that day, however that he was not in a position to attain the location till after 4:30 p.m. As soon as there, he discovered discovered two blown fuses and a tree leaning into an influence line conductor. A hearth was burning on the base of the tree, which quickly grew uncontrolled.

PG&E officers on Thursday mentioned the utility accepts {that a} tree falling onto their energy line triggered the fireplace, however it denies any fault or negligence.

“PG&E believes we acted as a prudent operator. There is no such thing as a proof that PG&E consciously and willfully disregarded a identified threat with regard to the ignition of the Dixie hearth. We adopted the California Public Utilities Fee (CPUC) necessities when inspecting, sustaining and working our system,” learn a press release from the company.

“We share our regulators’ dedication to enhance security,” the assertion mentioned.

The utility mentioned it is not going to request price restoration for the settlement bills — that means the prices is not going to have an effect on clients. Nonetheless, “the settlement doesn’t preclude PG&E from receiving price restoration for prices associated to the fireplace, together with from the state’s Wildfire Fund.”

On this lengthy publicity photograph, embers gentle up hillsides because the Dixie hearth burns close to Milford in Lassen County, Calif., on Aug. 17, 2021.

(Noah Berger / Related Press)

It’s not the primary time PG&E has been held accountable for its connection to a California wildfire. In recent times, the electrical firm reached a $150-million settlement with the CPUC for its function within the Zogg hearth, which killed 4 folks, and a $125-million settlement for its function within the 2019 Kincade hearth, amongst different agreements.

In 2019, PG&E filed for chapter safety to protect itself from tens of billions of {dollars} in potential liabilities as a result of its function in earlier state blazes. It emerged from chapter in 2020 with officers promising enhancements, together with plans to bury 10,000 miles of energy traces in high-risk areas the place sturdy winds, downed timber and different components can result in fires. Solely about 600 miles have been buried up to now, officers advised The Occasions in November.

Final yr, PG&E prevented prison prosecution for the Dixie hearth as a part of a separate settlement settlement with six Northern California counties through which it admitted no wrongdoing. The utility agreed to pay about $55 million over 5 years in civil penalties, amongst different phrases.

The CPUC’s five-member committee accepted the settlement settlement in a gathering Thursday. Fee President Alice Busching Reynolds famous that “it’s not the one motion taken by us or by different authorities businesses with respect to the fireplace. “

“When taken as a complete, and considered in gentle of the broader circumstances, I do help this negotiated settlement settlement and its associated decision,” she mentioned.

Busching Reynolds mentioned PG&E has since instituted an influence line security program to detect issues on distribution traces — akin to fallen timber — which then de-energizes the traces. Sadly, she mentioned, “this program was not in place to stop the Dixie hearth.”

The fireplace, which was contained on Oct. 21, 2021, price the state $637 million to suppress, CPUC officers mentioned. It was the second-largest wildfire on report within the state.