Higher fire risk also raises risk of lawsuits against electric utilities, which seem to be more aggressively cutting trees

UPDATE: "Pacific Gas & Electric Co. will avoid criminal charges for two wildfires started by its equipment under settlements announced Monday by district attorneys in six Northern California counties," reports Alex Wigglesworth of the Los Angeles Times. "Prosecutors said the agreements were a better outcome for fire victims and communities, because limitations in criminal law make it difficult to hold corporations accountable. . . . PG&E has also agreed to hire 160 to 200 employees in the six counties to bolster safety work, and enter into a five-year monitorship of its system inspection and vegetation management work in those counties." The settlements involved the Dixie and Kincade fires. "The utility still faces charges in the 2020 Zogg fire, which killed four people and destroyed more than 200 buildings," the Times reports.

Tim Goforth, left, and Kathy Kreiter lost their Oregon home
to a wildfire in 2020, and he lost vision in one eye. They are
among plaintiffs in a lawsuit. (WSJ photo by Mason Trinca)

The increasing risk of wildfire in the West has put electric utilities at more risk of lawsuits and settlements to avoid criminal prosecution, as malfunctions of utility equipment have caused some of the most devastating blazes, The Wall Street Journal reports.

"Pacific Power, an Oregon utility . . . faces more than $1 billion in potential liability costs from lawsuits related to a spate of fires that swept the state in 2020," Katherine Blunt writes. "Those incidents killed at least nine people, destroyed thousands of homes and burned more than a million acres of land and timber."

In Washington state, where state law doesn't make utilities do much to prevent wildfires, one utility was targeted Friday by a lawsuit "alleging inverse condemnation . . . in connection with a 2020 blaze," Blunt reports. "Attorneys say those cases could lead to similar claims against other utilities throughout the West, where wildfire risk has grown substantially within the past decade."

It's possible that the increased risk in the West is making electric utilities in other regions. Pittsburgh Power & Light and its Kentucky Utilities subsidiary have been taken to task for more aggressive cutting of trees under power lines in the last two years, report the Lexington Herald-Leader and a letter writer to The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa.