The study comes at a critical time, viewed by some experts and officials as a crossroads for how California confronts the aftermath of increasingly costly and climate-driven disasters.
The Hennessey Fire traps fire crews in an open turnout along Knoxville Berryessa Road, August 19, 2020 as several fires merge together in the Lake Berryessa area of the LNU Lightning Complex. The flames are part of an area ignition, a spontaneous combustion of fuels in a superheated environment.
2020 The release of another new study on the impacts of natural disasters in California may not normally get more than a shrug of wider public attention. But a pending report out of the California Earthquake Authority looks to be more consequential than most as it seeks to answer the urgent, loaded question of how the state will address mounting and rippling costs of catastrophic events and who will pay. The study comes at a critical time, viewed by some experts and officials as a crossroads for how California confronts the aftermath of increasingly costly and climate-driven disasters that are likely to be more destructive in the future. After a decade of ever more devastating and deadly wildfires in the state, California suffered its costliest firestorm again last year in the January 2025 wildfires that destroyed more than 16,000 structures in Los Angeles County, killing 31 people. The state’s answer to such wildfires, thethe possibility of collapse in the face of record-setting damage, with estimated economic losses of $65 billion, including insured losses of $40 billion.to the 2019 bankruptcy of Pacific Gas & Electric as the utility giant confronted massive liabilities in the wake of a series of devastating Northern California blazes tied to its equipment that displaced tens of thousands residents from burned homes and left businesses with uncertain compensation. The original $21 billion pool, funded in equal parts by utility shareholders and ratepayers, sought to ensure smoother, guaranteed payouts for survivors while keeping utilities from going under when their equipment is found at fault as long as they hit set safety requirements and investments. As officials grappled with the fund’s precarity last summer, lawmakers included a major infusion as part of a sprawling energy affordability package, Senate Bill 254, passed through the legislature at thein September. The bill extended the California Wildfire Fund by 10 years with an $18 billion influx drawn again from ratepayers and utility shareholders. But, it also came with a mandate that the state produce a “” laying out new strategies to tackle California’s “emerging climate-fueled economic crisis,” spanning rising energy bills, wildfire prevention and infrastructure safety, a strained insurance market and disaster recovery. “I wouldn’t be surprised if what gets decided this year will impact a generation,” said Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, who was heavily involved in shaping SB 254.overseeing fire protection, emergency services, infrastructure safety, utilities and insurance on recommendations. The new report is expected out April 7.including insurers and utilities, climate and environmental justice groups, wildfire survivor coalitions, public agencies, research institutions and consumer advocates have provided input.A period of back-to-back devastating wildfires starting about a decade ago, especially in Northern California, introduced the specter of a more dangerous era of natural disasters — “a new normal” as some came to call it, ordescribed it in the aftermath of the 2017 Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa and the 2018 Camp Fire in Butte County.trans-Sierra Nevada inferno in the 2021 Dixie Fire. James Henry, left, Brandon Henry, middle, and James Stencil, attempt to hook up a tow line to pull their car from the mud on the lake bed of Lake Pillsbury, Thursday, June 24, 2021. The Upper Lake residents were taking a break from their duties of cutting hazard trees that were burned during the 2020 August Complex fires. 2021The August Complex, a series of lightning-sparked blazes that ignited in August 2020, burned 1,032,648 acres in Mendocino, Humboldt, Trinity, Tehama, Glenn, Lake and Colusa counties. It destroyed 935 structures and caused one death. In this photo, fire burns on Hull Mountain above Lake Pillsbury in Lake County on Sept. 21, 2020. A flag floats in afternoon breezes above Clear Lake in the Mendocino National Forest, Wednesday, May 7, 2025.The landscape was torched by the the August Complex. Burned by multiple large fires, the Fork in 1996 and both the Mendocino and August Complexes, fir trees battle the elements on Bartlett Springs Road near Pinnacle Rock in the Mendocino National Forest, Wednesday, May 7, 2025, above Lucerne. A home along Chiles Pope Valley Road continues to smolder after being destroyed in the Hennessey fire in Napa County on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020. Cleanup work continues at the Fountaingrove Inn and Journey’s End mobile home park, both mostly destroyed by the Tubbs fire, in Santa Rosa, on Wednesday, February 21, 2018. The Dixie Fire started in July 2021 and burned 963,309 acres in Butte, Plumas, Lassen and Tehama counties. It destroyed 1,311 structures and caused one death. In this photo, the Dixie Fire rips through the old Moonlight fire scar in Moonlight Valley, Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. The skeleton of a fire engine is the only identifiable remains of the Greenville Fire Department, Sunday, August 8, 2021. Most of the town in Plumas county, was obliterated by the Dixie fire. 2021 PG&E workers begin the tedious cleanup of their utility equipment burned by the Dixie fire in downtown Greenville, Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. 2021James Henry, left, Brandon Henry, middle, and James Stencil, attempt to hook up a tow line to pull their car from the mud on the lake bed of Lake Pillsbury, Thursday, June 24, 2021. The Upper Lake residents were taking a break from their duties of cutting hazard trees that were burned during the 2020 August Complex fires. 2021There has been some respite in the past several years. But, last year’s Southern California firestorm, and the troubled recovery so far — marked by litigation, battles over insurance and utility payouts and displacement concerns — further exposed fragilities in a state struggling under the weight of compounding climate, insurance and affordability crises. The forthcoming study could spur or shape a range of legislative proposals. Already, lawmakers have introduced a host of placeholder bills and other legislation targeting problem areas., aimed at cutting electricity rates by 30% and addressing compensation shortfalls for victims of utility-caused fires that predated the wildfire fund’s 2019 launch. Gallagher’s district includes Paradise, which was leveled by the Camp Fire. Last year, as lawmakers considered expanding the state’s wildfire fund, survivors from the group that inspired the fund’s creation — the roughly 70,000 victims of PG&E-sparked fires between 2015 and 2018, including the 2017 North Bay firestorm — Their compensation had come instead through a settlement out of PG&E’s bankruptcy. The half-cash, half-stock deal meant payouts arrived piecemeal over years in a process that is, ongoing pressure has yielded some results like Gallagher’s legislation. Other lawmakers from affected communities, including Assembly member Chris Rogers, D-Santa Rosa, and more recently state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, have signaled some support. “There are many challenging needs to address in this year’s state budget, but we are looking at every option to get additional settlement funds into the pockets of deserving survivors,” McGuire said in a statement.in a trio of elections this year to decide an open seat in Congress after Rep. Doug LaMalfa’s death in January and Democrats’ successful move to redraw districts through voter-approved Proposition 50. The June primary for the redrawn 1st District, also including, is set to play out across a fire-ravaged swath of California — stretching from Santa Rosa, up through Mendocino and Lake counties, across Glenn and Tehama counties in the Sacramento Valley and over the mountains in Butte, Plumas and Lassen counties to the Nevada border. Will Abrams, a Tubbs Fire victim and leading advocate for wildfire survivor compensation and utility reform, said he sat for a two-hour interview with the SB 254 study team. The fight over wildfire recovery ties into much larger issues of realigning incentives over wildfire safety, utility profit and consumer protection, he said. Looking ahead to what comes next, “there are going to be a lot of competing bills and interests at play, and it will be really important to focus on that competition.” There will be more time than in past years to consider and weigh in on those options, said Toney of The Utility Reform Network, hearkening back to the rushed backroom process around the California Wildfire Fund’s creation in 2019 and last year’s passage of SB 254. “I don’t know where we’re going to end up, but I believe it’s going to be a better place than when it was behind closed doors,” Toney said. “It provides for much more openness and much more opportunity.”Newsom issues 'final warning' to cities over housing law violations — only one is in the Bay AreaAsking Eric: Since I found the pictures of my wife, a new worry is gnawing at meDear Abby: The bride admitted to me that the wedding was a shamDA clears relative who killed rapper Lil Toro in Concord confrontation
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Tech company climate goals under pressure due to AI energy demandTech companies set ambitious climate goals at the start of the decade, promising to slash emissoins that contribute to global warming. Instead, companies' greenhouse gas emissions are spiking as they race to deploy artificial intelligence, building sprawling data centers that use more power than entire cities.
Read more »
California to pay $1.9 million to female inmates who say guards unleashed 'war zone' level violenceCalifornia reached a $1.9 million settlement agreement with 13 female inmates who claim they were subjected to 'war zone' level violence during a use of force incident in 2024.
Read more »
California governor’s race: See the candidates’ incomes and tax paymentsFrom billionaire investments to congressional salaries, here's how much the candidates earned, according to their tax returns.
Read more »
Find a senior center near you in CaliforniaUse our map to find senior centers and community spaces for older adults.
Read more »
Teaching LGBTQ History is Required in California but Many Teachers Still HesitateFearless Independent Journalism
Read more »
‘No Kings’ turnout in Southern California will help smash records around the nation today, organizers sayThe coalition predicts the turnout for the protests will be historic, including an estimated 12 million demonstators – 5 million more than the most recent No Kings day in October 2025.
Read more »