Ratepayers should not have to pay for utilities’ negligence sparking wildfires If California utilities had a stronger sense of public responsibility, state lawmakers wouldn’t need to write legislation prohibiting them from passing fines, penalties and oth

Last week in San Diego, the California Public Utilities Commission denied a request from San Diego Gas and Electric to charge ratepayers $379 million for damage caused in 2007 by three major wildfires in the San Diego area. The decision was encouraging, but the Legislature can’t count on it carrying the day. San Diego Gas and Electric has said it will vigorously pursue “all available avenues” to reverse the ruling.

Those fires killed two people and burned more than 1,000 homes. Investigators determined that the San Diego utility had not maintained its system in a “reasonable and prudent” manner when the fires began.

PG&E has already said it wants to charge ratepayers, not shareholders, if its equipment is found to have caused the Wine Country fires that killed 42 people, destroyed 8,700 homes and buildings, and burned 245,000 acres. The cause of those fires has yet to be determined.

PG&E has said it only has $800 million in liability insurance available to cover costs that have been estimated as high as $3 billion.

Four California lawmakers plan to introduce a bill in January to ensure that utilities cannot push the burden of their negligence onto customers. Sen. Jerry Hill, who chairs the Senate subcommittee on Gas, Electricity and Transportation Safety, is adamant that PG&E shareholders should absorb the costs if the utility is found to have acted in an irresponsible manner.

“If PG&E won’t accept responsibility for its actions, then the Legislature must step in,” Hill said on Monday.

The San Mateo Democrat will join Sens. Mike McGuire of Healdsburg and Scott Wiener of San Francisco and Assemblyman Marc Levine of San Rafael in sponsoring the bill.

It’s entirely possible that something other than downed power lines started the Wine Country fires in October. Even if downed lines were the cause, it’s possible that PG&E had met all of the state standards for maintaining its lines. Unusually high winds may have been to blame. Ratepayers should share the responsibility under those circumstances.

Californians should never accept the burden of paying for a utility’s negligence, however. It’s shameful that the companies try to shift that burden when their own failings contribute to a disaster. In the case of PG&E, it’s staking out its claim even before a cause or causes of the fire are established.

Keep that in mind next time the utility runs one of its big public-relations campaigns to try to restore customers’ trust.