Wildfire utility proposal sparks friction in Legislature

Did someone forward you this email? Sign up here.

Hello and welcome back to Capitol Confidential!

Today marks go-time. 

Between now and next Monday, lawmakers will be working around the clock to pass hundreds of bills before the Aug. 31 deadline. Though things could change, we expect there to be floor sessions every single day, including over the weekend.  

While there’s a dizzying amount of bills to get through, all eyes are on a legislative package that’s not yet in print. More on that below:

Wildfire utility proposal sparks friction

As the legislative session is approaching its end, Gov. Gavin Newsom is wading back into the same thorny political thicket he found himself in when he was first elected: wildfire liability. 

In any instance, it’s an incredibly complex issue, centering on a fundamental question that has cast a long shadow on the governor’s two terms: Who pays for the damage of wildfires? In cases where utility companies are found to be liable, as in the state’s deadliest wildfire, the Camp Fire, they are on the hook for billions. But the electrical companies have been unable to keep up with the astronomical claim costs. In 2019, Pacific Gas & Electric filed for bankruptcy, and Newsom created a state Wildfire Fund to help utility companies pay for damages.

Now, Newsom says that the fund is dwindling, and the state’s insurance crisis has left many homeowners in wildfire-prone areas uninsured or underinsured, meaning the financial toll of another massive fire could be catastrophic.

Newsom’s answer is an eleventh-hour legislative package that would, among other provisions, limit how much those utility companies, including Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison, would have to pay in future wildfire disasters.

Legislators have been working behind the scenes in Senate and Assembly working groups to try to reach a consensus on the laundry list of wildfire proposals from the governor, and present counterproposals. And the last-minute nature of the dealmaking has angered some lawmakers.

Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena, said Newsom’s proposal provides little time to present it to her constituents. 

“The last-minute nature of this is causing huge friction – and that's not just for me – that's among many members of the Legislature,” Perez told the Chronicle. “These are massive, massive policy proposals.” 

Pérez, whose district was ravaged by the deadly Eaton Fire less than six weeks after she was sworn in to the Senate, said the timing of a proposal that could dramatically limit utility company liability is especially painful for her and her community. Earlier this month, a long-awaited report from the Los Angeles County Fire Department concluded a decommissioned Southern California Edison powerline sparked the fire, which killed 19 people and destroyed or damaged over 9,000 structures.

In outlines of Newsom’s proposal sent to lawmakers, there are few specifics about how utilities might receive more financial relief. It instead focused on the importance of wildfire victims being paid quickly, though it did not detail how the state would guarantee that. It also proposes limiting non-economic damages for people forced to evacuate during a fire – something Pérez, who is in a working group on the issue, said she cannot imagine supporting. 

Assembly Member Chris Rogers, D-Healdsburg, expressed similar discomfort. 

Rogers was mayor of Santa Rosa during the deadly 2017 Tubbs Fire, which resulted in a bankruptcy settlement from PG&E, though the utility was not found to have caused the fire. Two years later, while serving as the city’s vice mayor, the massive Kincade Fire ripped through Sonoma County, sparked by PG&E equipment.

“I think every town hall I've done over the last couple of months has included a question that touches on this,” Rogers said. 

“There's a public perception, not saying if it's right or wrong, that for a long time PG&E cut corners, the executives got bonuses and were paid out,” Rogers added. “The idea that we now would shift liability off of PG&E and onto the people who already don't have the infrastructure that they need to be successful? It’s a really tough sell.”

Will a California Forever deal land before lawmakers this week?

Newsom’s wildfire utility proposal is not the only eleventh-hour legislative deal that’s been in the works behind closed doors. 

As the Chronicle’s Laura Waxmann reported, weeks of frantic last-minute lobbying in Sacramento is expected to produce legislation to fast-track thousands of jobs tied to the billionaire-backed real estate development project in Solano County, California Forever.

But that deal won’t do the same for the project’s proposed housing, making the legislation far narrower than California Forever, the company behind a sweeping vision to build a new city on largely undeveloped farmland in the county’s eastern reaches, wanted.

The legislation is expected to be introduced in the coming days and involve two lawmakers who represent Solano County, Assembly Member Lori Wilson, D-Suisun City, and Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, D-West Sacramento, according to a source who was briefed on the negotiations Thursday. 

Exact details of the bill are not yet known, Waxmann reported, but an outline of the deal in a Solano County Board of Supervisors agenda does offer clues. It references the project’s planned shipyard and manufacturing developments, which the project touts as future job creators. 

It leaves the housing component that is central to California Forever’s ambitious vision, as well as a proposed 2,100-acre advanced manufacturing hub dubbed the Solano Foundry, for another day. A source familiar with the negotiations told Waxmann the legislation is an “incremental win.”

She beat big money and upset some fellow Dems. Now Aisha Wahab heads to D.C.

State Sen. Aisha Wahab, D-Hayward, is on her way to D.C., after winning last week’s special election to replace Rep. Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April.

But the senator is leaving behind a noteworthy legislative record – and a reputation as a no-nonsense lawmaker.

As the Chronicle’s Raheem Hosseini reported, people who have worked (and sometimes butted heads) with Wahab say that her singular upbringing has made her an authentic, sometimes blunt-force advocate for constituencies without power and influence.

“She doesn’t take no for an answer,” state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Geyserville, who is also running for Congress, said of Wahab in a Senate floor tribute to outgoing members Tuesday. “All she wants to do in this place is to do good for working people. Her dedicated passion, her relentless focus, her tireless work ethic and, yes, her unique ability to piss off every senator in bipartisan fashion … makes us all want to give her a big hug and candidly to join your fight.”

As Hosseini writes, Wahab, who was orphaned at a young age, credits her adoptive father for instilling a passion for public service, and her childhood with showing her how many trapdoors lie in wait for the socioeconomically disadvantaged.

In her tribute, Senate President Pro Tem Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, cast Wahab as a dedicated lawmaker who isn’t interested in “lollygagging.” 

“She has never been one who fears trying,” Limón said from the Senate floor. “And she doesn't back down from things because they are hard. She leans in and well, she also paces this floor many times per hour, talking to members and making her case for the issues that she cares about.”

Wahab began her legislative career in the upper chamber with an ambitious legislative to-do list. She endured death threats and a failed recall attempt after she introduced a 2023 bill, SB403, to outlaw caste-based discrimination. Though it passed the Legislature with bipartisan support, Newsom vetoed it. It remains one of her most-discussed bills. 

Wahab told the Chronicle it’s unclear when her last day at the Legislature will be, though the end of session is roughly a week away. 

Questions? Thoughts? Interesting tidbits to share? Reach out at [email protected], and follow me on X, @KathrynPlmr.