Fire Survivors Call For Audits Of Edison’s Wildfire Prevention Spending

Survivors of nan devastating Eaton occurrence called connected authorities lawmakers connected Wednesday to walk a measure requiring audits of spending by Southern California Edison and nan state’s 2 different large for-profit electrical companies connected wildfire prevention.

The survivors pointed to an investigation by The Times that recovered that Edison had not spent hundreds of millions of dollars that it told regulators earlier nan occurrence was needed to support its transmission strategy safe. Edison had begun charging customers for nan costs.

“Californians funded nan wildfire prevention,” Joy Chen, executive head of Every Fire Survivor’s Network, told members of nan Assembly Utilities and Energy Commission connected Wednesday. ”And we survivors paid nan value erstwhile that activity was not done.”

While nan government’s investigation into nan occurrence has not yet been released, Edison has said it believes that a century-old transmission line, which had not carried powerfulness since 1971, whitethorn person concisely re-energized connected nan nighttime of Jan. 7, 2025, to ignite nan fire. The inferno killed 19 group and destroyed thousands of homes and different structures successful Altadena.

Chen’s wildfire survivors group and Consumer Watchdog sponsored nan bill, known arsenic Assembly Bill 1744. It would require nan wildfire information spending by Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric to beryllium audited by an independent accounting firm.

The authorities Public Utilities Commission would person to see nan audits’ findings earlier agreeing to raise customer rates to screen moreover much wildfire spending.

“Had Edison known it would beryllium accountable for those funds, that wildfire whitethorn not person started,” Jamie Court of Consumer Watchdog told nan committee, referring to nan Eaton fire.

All 3 utilities said astatine nan proceeding they opposed nan bill.

A lobbyist for San Diego Gas & Electric said he believed nan audits were unnecessary because nan committee was already reviewing nan spending.

“We deliberation it creates a duplicative process,” he said.

At nan committee hearing, Edison’s lobbyist did not opportunity why nan institution was opposed to nan bill.

The institution has antecedently said that information is its apical privilege and that it does not judge attraction connected its transmission lines suffered earlier nan Eaton fire.

Also voicing support for nan measure astatine nan proceeding were survivors of different deadly wildfires successful nan state, including nan 2018 Camp fire, which killed 85 group and destroyed overmuch of nan municipality of Paradise. Investigators recovered that nan occurrence was ignited erstwhile instrumentality grounded connected a decades-old PG&E transmission line.

The bill’s author, Assemblywoman Tasha Boerner, an Encinitas Democrat, pointed to really independent audits of nan 3 companies’ wildfire spending from 2019 to 2020 recovered that $2.5 cardinal could not beryllium accounted for.

Those were nan past independent audits of nan 3 companies’ wildfire spending.

Despite nan findings, nan committee did not require nan companies to return immoderate of nan questioned amounts to electrical customers. Instead, nan committee agreed nan companies could walk billions of dollars more, Boerner said.

“This is frankly unacceptable,” she said.

Asked for a consequence to those audits, nan lobbyist from San Diego Gas & Electric told nan committee he wasn’t acquainted pinch nan findings.

California electrical rates are nan nation’s 2nd highest aft Hawaii.

In 2024, wildfire expenses amounted to 17% to 27% of nan costs nan 3 companies complaint to consumers, according to a legislative study of Boerner’s bill. The mean residential customer pays $250 to $490 a twelvemonth for that spending.