Consumer Watchdog & Wildfire Survivors Call on Lawmakers to Reject Gov's 11th-Hour Legislative Utility Bail Out for Fires They Cause; Urge "No Lines Between Survivors"

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Over fifty wildfire survivors from across California gathered outside the Capitol building today to call on California lawmakers to stand with survivors and reject a plan by the governor in the final days of the legislative session to bail out utilities for fires they cause. 

Last night they met lawmakers entering an end of session party at the Governor's Mansion with chants of: "Who should pay? Shareholders should pay!"

The governor's proposal would reduce compensation for victims of utility-caused fires, local governments and insurance companies to give that money to utility shareholders. Survivors and supporters said lawmakers should refuse to vote on legislation that is still not in print and bring the issue back in January. 

"The emperor has no clothes here," said Joy Chen, executive director of Every Fire Survivor's Network (EFSN). "There is no financial emergency. They refuse to show any numbers, any backup, any financial analysis proving the emergency they cite. This is a subversion of democracy. When the governor, in the final days of an eight month legislative session, demands that legislators approve a deal that he refuses to share the text of, a deal that the modeling shows is unwarranted. He refuses to show his math. He refuses to show his assumptions. Yet he demands that legislators approve this in secret. This is not how a healthy democracy should function."

Chen pointed to modeling that shows the Wildfire Fund has $38 billion in payment capacity and estimated claims of $10 billion to $15 billion. The Newsom Administration has not produced any modeling or information to refute the modeling cited by EFSN.

"Altadena is showing up in Sacramento to refocus the conversation on fire survivors," said Senator Sasha Renee Perez. "It has been so frustrating and disappointing for the community that has been fighting for its needs, fighting for its rights, to watch the conversation in Sacramento be shifted to focusing instead on the fire liability for Wall Street corporations. We need to recenter the conversation on what fire survivors actually need and what they have been demanding.  We have heard clearly that they want to see these utilities companies held accountable for the damage they have caused the community… So when I hear conversations about bailouts for utility companies that have destroyed entire communities, when I hear that it is an emergency that we need to provide assistance to investor owned utilities, I question what the real emergency is."

The wildfire survivors' groups said that while plans from the Assembly push back on the governor they retain a provision that would devastate survivors -- drawing bright lines around a fire zone beyond which survivors would not be eligible for compensation for their suffering.  The line could preclude people with smoke damage in their homes from receiving adequate compensation. 

"There is no rational basis for using a government-drawn fire perimeter to decide which survivors can seek compensation," said Chen. "A fire perimeter maps a fire. It does not measure actual harm.

"My own property shows how arbitrary this is. My house sits on the south side of our property and our chicken coop sits at the north end. That night, the winds blew from north to south. Fire burned through the backyards of the row of homes immediately north of our chicken coop. The CAL FIRE 'fire perimeter line' cuts directly through our property: our chicken coop is inside the line, while our house is outside it.

"Yet our harm was very real. Our insurance company paid more than $200,000 for remediation and housing while our home was unsafe and we were displaced. Just 400 feet north of my house, someone died from the fire that night. The fire was moving at roughly 200 feet per minute. We were incredibly lucky we did not get injured or killed and our house did not burn.

"However, as we evacuated, we had no idea whether we would have a home to return to. My children and I experienced the same terrifying evacuation as families inside the perimeter, and we will carry that trauma for the rest of our lives."

"We lived in Altadena for more than 30 years. Everything we owned was gone," said Gayle Nicholls-Ali, who said her greater concern was for her son."His home was the only one that survived. But the nightmare he is going through to get back home is horrific. And anyone with a standing home knows this. Legislators do the right thing. Think about where you would be if your home burned down."

"There are survivors who didn't lose their home and are sometimes in a worse position returning to their homes than those who lost their homes entirely," said Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog. "Some of their pain and suffering and emotional devastation will be compensated and some won't. Not because their pain was any less but because they fall on one side of a bright line. The governor's plan is to say some fire survivors are compensated and some aren't. Setting a bright line between survivors who can be compensated and those who can't is still in all their plans. That's why some of the survivors here today have signs saying no lines separate fire survivors."

"I am outraged," said Consumer Watchdog board member and survivor Ellen Snortland. "My husband and I are total loss survivors of the Los Angeles fire. It's daunting to start our lives over at this stage of our lives." 

"We cannot forget about Altadena," said Assemblymember Isaac Bryan. "We cannot forget about the people who lost their lives. We cannot forget about the black homeownership that was lost and must be regained. And we have to remember who caused that fire. It was arson, but a different type of arson. Utility arson. So Cal Edison had been found liable for it….Any conversation about wildfire liability should center on accountability for those who have found liable."

The survivors pointed to the profitability of the three for-profit utilities as further reason to delay action this year. After the Eaton fire, Edison profits tripled. In 2025 alone PG&E, Edison and Sempra paid their CEOs nearly $60 million, issued more than $3 billion in shareholder dividends and took in more than $10 billion in profits.

California's electric monopolies caused 3 of the 5 costliest wildfires ever recorded worldwide. The groups said that if a utility causes a fire, it should stop dividends, stock buybacks, executive bonuses, and reduce its profits until survivors and affected communities are fully compensated.

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog