“Inverse Condemnation”
is the reason California
blackouts will continue.
Intentional
electricity blackouts,
lasting days, have been
imposed on millions
of utility customers.
This will be the
“new normal”
for wildfire
prevention.
So far, only customers
of investor-owned utilities,
such as Pacific Gas & Electric
and Southern California Edison,
have been affected.
Customers of municipal utilities,
like LADWP, are not participating.
"Inverse condemnation"
means privately owned utilities
in California, that have been
given the right to run power lines
through private property,
are held to “strict liability”
for damage caused by
their equipment, even if
they are not negligent.
That means they are
responsible for the
full cost of
wildfire damage
caused by
their downed
power lines.
Until the fall of 2017,
the California Public
Utilities Commission
( CPUC )
used to allow private
utilities to recover
such costs by adding
small monthly charges
to customer bills
over a period of years.
In fall 2017, the CPUC
turned down a request
from San Diego Gas
& Electric (SDG&E)
to recover $379 million
in uninsured costs
for damages from
three wildfires.
The company had asked
for permission to charge
their customers
an average of $1.67
per month, for six years.
A few months
after the CPUC
ruled against SDG&E,
Pacific Gas & Electric
went into bankruptcy.
California's three large
investor-owned utilities
— PG&E, SDG&E and
Southern California
Edison — were all
potentially responsible
for unlimited wildfire
damages, if caused
by their equipment.
San Diego Gas & Electric
appealed the CPUC’s denial
of cost recovery, lost in
state court, and then appealed
to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court justices
recently decided not to hear
SDG&E’s appeal.
That's why the power cutoffs
will continue in California.
In 2000, the California
Air Resources Board
adopted “Smoke
Management”
regulations that
made it difficult
for private landowners
and public agencies
to conduct “prescribed
burns,” -- intentional fires
used to remove fuel
from the path of a
potential wildfire.
Electricity rates in California
are already more than 50%
higher than the national average.