CSAC Leads Statewide Fight Against Private Utility Bailout

CSAC is leading an aggressive statewide effort to stop a proposal to shift billions of dollars in wildfire costs away from California’s investor-owned utilities onto local governments, wildfire survivors and taxpayers. 

“Why should anyone else have to pay to rebuild a community when an investor-owned utility causes a wildfire?” said CSAC CEO Graham Knaus. “This proposal throws accountability out the window and pads corporate profits.” 

Over the past several weeks, CSAC has mobilized counties throughout the state, launched a public advocacy effort, released detailed policy and fiscal analyses, joined a broad coalition opposing the proposal, met with state leaders, and taken the fight directly to the Capitol press corps. 

CSAC’s newly released fact sheet exposes the enormous costs this proposal would shift to local communities under the proposal to cap utilities’ liability at the depreciated value of local infrastructure. Our analysis examined six public facilities destroyed in recent California wildfires—including county bridges, probation camps and the Devil’s Punchbowl Nature Center.  

These facilities cost $38.6 million to rebuild. Under the utilities’ proposed depreciated-value standard, public agencies would recover just $11.8 million, leaving taxpayers with a $26.8 million funding gap. Four of the six facilities would be valued at absolutely nothing, despite being in active public service when they burned. As the fact sheet bluntly states: “A bridge worth $0 on an accounting schedule does not cost $0 to rebuild.” 

The proposal would also force counties to pay millions in emergency response costs before recovery even begins. According to CSAC’s analysis, eight public agencies spent nearly $49.5 million responding to just three utility-caused wildfires, while local governments continue waiting years for some federal reimbursements. 

Meanwhile, PG&E’s profits exploded by an astounding 1,684% between 2021-2022, Southern California Edison paid $2.36 billion in shareholder dividends in 2025, and PG&E and SCE spent $7.3 million lobbying state leaders in 2025 alone. Clearly, these IOUs can afford to take responsibility for their negligence. 

The debate intensified this week after Politico reported that Paradise Vice Mayor Steve “Woody” Culleton — a Camp Fire survivor featured in a utility-funded television advertisement — said he was “duped” into supporting the campaign because he was never told the proposal would limit investor-owned utilities’ liability. 

In response, the CSAC Board of Directors, representing all 58 counties, voted unanimously to “express deep disapproval of PG&E’s manipulation of wildfire survivors and local elected officials for political and financial gain.” The Board called on the IOUs to immediately end the advertising campaign and dissolve the so-called “Wildfire Victims First Coalition.” 

CSAC will continue urging lawmakers to reject any proposal that bails out private utilities at the expense of wildfire survivors, local taxpayers and the communities working to rebuild. 

As counties have made clear: Communities burned. They shouldn’t get burned twice.