LOS ANGELES (CN) — Southern California Edison reached a settlement agreement Thursday with the California Public Utilities Commission under which the utility will be on the hook for $550 million in penalties, disallowed cost recoveries and safety improvements for violations that contributed to devastating wildfires in Southern California in 2017 and 2018.
The CPUC said on Thursday that it had approved the settlement that was proposed last month by its safety enforcement staff. Under the agreement, Edison will pay a $110 million penalty, is prohibited from recovering $375 million in costs related to uninsured claims payments from its customers, and will contribute $65 million to safety measures.
Edison's equipment has been blamed in wildfires that swept through Southern California in 2017 and 2018, including the 2017 Thomas Fire that burned about 282,000 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, making it the biggest wildfire in modern California at the time. The fire's destruction of trees and shrubs on the mountain slopes was blamed for subsequent mudslides that causes massive damage in the wealthy coastal town of Montecito.
The settlement also covers the 2018 Woolsey Fire that destroyed hundreds of homes in Malibu.
"The company believes the agreement is fair and reasonable and puts one additional uncertainty behind us as the utility continues to implement its comprehensive wildfire risk mitigation measures," Diane Castro, a spokeswoman for Southern California Edison, said.
Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric, the utility that covers Northern California, have been facing countless lawsuits and investigations related to the increasingly big wildfires that have ignited in recent years. Climate change has been cited as a factor in the drought that has been plaguing the state and that has been the root cause of the catastrophic conflagrations.
PG&E agreed last month to a $125 million settlement with the CPUC for violations related to the 2019 Kincade Fire. Investigators with the California Public Utilities Commission’s safety and enforcement division found the fire was caused when a worn jumper cable, which was installed in 1973, failed and snapped off a transmission tower near Geyserville on Oct. 23, 2019.
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