Woolsey And 4 Other Fires Killed 31, Did $7.5 Billion In Damage, And the CPUC Just Fined Them 2.2% Of Their 2017-18 Profits
Written by 991KBU on December 17, 2021
Southern California Edison has been fined $550 million by state regulators for rule violations that led to the Woolsey Fire … as well as four other deadly blazes in the region. The money will come from shareholders and not ratepayers, the state says.
And the company has raised its estimate in the 2017-2018 Southern California fire damages, from $6.2 billion to $7.5 billion … according to Bloomberg News. In those two years … SCE made $25 billion in profits, meaning the $550 million fine amounts to 2.2 percent of the company’s profits.
The SCE fires killed three people in the Malibu mountains. In 2017, five people burned to death in Ventura County, and in the aftermath, another 23 people were killed when mudflows swept through the seaside city of Montecito. These mudflows were caused by an SCE-caused fire … that stripped the steep mountains near Santa Barbara of trees and brush.
The fines penalize SCE for its negligence in causing the Woolsey Fire, the 2018 monster that destroyed 467 houses on Malibu, plus another 1,200 or so houses north of Malibu, and killed three people.
Woolsey alone destroyed $1.6 billion worth of homes just inside the Malibu city limits.
In a vote Thursday, the CPUC penalized Edison in three different ways:
- SCE shareholders will pay a $110 million penalty to California’s General Fund,
- SCE shareholders will be disallowed from collecting $375 million for cost recovery, and
- SCE shareholders must contribute $65 million in shareholder funds to safety measures.
That’s a total haircut of $550 million.
In the two years that the fires destroyed large swaths of L-A … Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, SCE’s parent company made just under $25 billion in profits.
The fines against the shareholders represent about 1.1 percent of its annual profits from those two years.
State investigations into the five fires found multiple violations of General Order 95 … the set of state regulations for safety and strength requirements for poles and wires.
The CPUC says it assessed the fines through a streamlined enforcement action called Administrative Consent Order.
The regulators say this is more efficient and streamlined way to enforce its rules then its old procedures … which took years of hearings.
It also prevents citizens from intervening in the case … a process that in years past has resulted in what could be argued as heftier penalties for rules violations.
By all appearances … the CPUC let SCE off easy.
For a 2007 fire … Edison was fined 37 million dollars … for a fire that did not kill anyone and destroyed only 13 homes and a church …
This 550 million dollar fine … for five fires that were much more severe and deadly … resulted in a fine that could be fairly viewed as pretty light.
Pacific gas and electric … the northern California utility … was fined just under 2 billion for safety violations in 2017 and 2018.
85 people were killed in Paradise California the same day that Malibu burned.
The 550 million dollar fine against Edison was approved the same week that the same state agency found a potential double billing problem at the company.
Accountants hired by the CPUC say Edison wants to bill its ratepayers an extra 700 million dollars for fire protection work … when it has already collected that money in its general rates.
