Utility giant PG&E agrees to $45 million settlement related to California’s second-largest wildfire

By Taylor Romine and Aya Elamroussi, CNN

(CNN) — Pacific Gas and Electric will pay $45 million in penalties for its role in the Dixie Fire – the second-largest wildfire in California’s history – that started after a tree fell and hit the company’s equipment in 2021, state regulators said Thursday.

The massive inferno ignited on July 13, 2021, when power lines owned by PG&E came in contact with a tree, according to Cal Fire. The wildfire burned for more than 100 days, charring 963,309 acres across five counties in Northern California before it was contained on October 25, 2021, according to Cal Fire.

The fire destroyed more than 1,300 structures, including much of the small community of Greenville, about 170 miles north of Sacramento.

The settlement with PG&E allocates $40 million in shareholder funding to make hard copy records into an electronic system, which will improve “the timeliness of inspections and preventive maintenance,” the California Public Utilities Commission said Thursday in a news release.

The company will also pay $2.5 million in fines to the California General Fund and $2.5 million to tribal communities impacted by the fires, the utilities commission added.

PG&E is “committed to making it right and making it safe for our customers and hometowns” and has resolved claims with the five impacted counties and “numerous individuals and families,” the company said in a statement to CNN.

PG&E accepted Cal Fire’s conclusion that a tree falling on its powerline caused the fire, but the company believes it “acted as a prudent operator,” the company said in a statement Thursday.

“There is no evidence that PG&E consciously and willfully disregarded a known risk with regard to the ignition of the Dixie Fire,” the statement said. “We followed the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) requirements when inspecting, maintain and operating our system.”

PG&E noted the settlement will not impact costs for customers as it is not requesting rate recovery, adding that the agreement doesn’t “preclude PG&E from receiving cost recovery for costs related to the fire, including from the state’s Wildfire Fund.”

The utility company has been involved in several multi-million dollar settlements related to destructive wildfires in recent years.

In 2021, PG&E was fined $125 million for its role in the 2019 Kincade Fire in Sonoma County as part of a settlement with the California Public Utilities Commission.

And in 2020, PG&E pleaded guilty to 85 counts, including involuntary manslaughter and unlawfully starting the 2018 Camp Fire. The blaze was California’s deadliest, killing 85 people and destroying thousands of structures.

Last year, the company agreed to pay $50 million in a settlement connected to the deadly 2020 Zogg Fire and had criminal charges dropped against it.

Other penalties have included $1 million over the 2019 Easy Fire and fines over inspection issues, according to the utilities commission.

PG&E said Thursday that it is focused on reducing wildfire risk and cited its preventive power shutoffs during high fire risk conditions and its program to bury 10,000 miles of its power lines to reduce the risk of starting more blazes.

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