Consumer Watchdog Investigation Maps For-Profit Utilities' $366 Million Disinformation Echo Chamber as Newsom Pushes Wildfire Bailout

Report documents years of lobbying, campaign contributions, charitable giving and political relationships that culminated in utility bailout plan

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As Governor Gavin Newsom develops an end-of-session wildfire utility bailout behind closed doors, Consumer Watchdog today released a new investigative report documenting how California's three largest for-profit utilities spent more than $366 million building a political influence machine since Newsom became governor to inspire the bailout. 

The report finds the utilities invested $238.9 million in charitable giving and $127.6 million influencing state government — including $66.8 million in campaign contributions and political committees and $60.8 million lobbying. Of the campaign spending, approximately $962,500 supported Governor Newsom and his campaign initiatives, while $1,989,511 was directed to legislative leadership.

Read the report here and the interactive influence map here. 

The report, The Disinformation Echo Chamber: How California's For-Profit Utilities Built Political Support for a Wildfire Utility Bailout, concludes that Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison and Sempra Energy systematically constructed a disinformation echo chamber through lobbying, campaign contributions, charitable giving, nonprofit funding and political relationships. Utilities have tried to manufacture the appearance of support for shifting billions of dollars in wildfire liability away from utility shareholders and onto wildfire survivors, homeowners, insurance policyholders, taxpayers and local governments. Their proposal would limit wildfire survivor rights to hold the utilities legally accountable.

"The utility bailout idea didn't happen overnight," said Alex Nagy, author of the report and Organizing Director with Consumer Watchdog. "For years, utilities have invested hundreds of millions of dollars building a political echo chamber designed to win bailout protections from Governor Newsom and lawmakers that make very profitable utilities no longer accountable for the devastating wildfires they cause."

The report shows how the utilities' disinformation echo chamber was built strategically — investing in the Governor's political causes, legislative leadership, caucus organizations, lobbying, charitable giving and third-party organizations that reinforce utility narratives in Sacramento. 

Among its findings:

• Governor Newsom: $962,500
  • Since taking office, utilities contributed approximately $639,500 to Governor Newsom's campaign committees, committees opposing the 2021 recall election and Proposition 1, his signature statewide ballot initiative. 
  • Utilities also contributed $293,000 to the Governor's Cup Foundation, which hosts the Governor's annual policy and fundraising event at Pebble Beach, while Governor Newsom requested $30,000 in utility-funded behested payments. 
  • Bonus: The report further notes approximately $290,000 in PG&E contributions to First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom's nonprofit, The Representation Project, between 2016 and 2018, along with additional institutional relationships documented through investigative reporting.
• Legislative Leadership: $1,989,511
  • The report also concludes utilities strategically concentrated campaign contributions among the lawmakers responsible for shaping California's utility, wildfire and insurance policy, either through direct campaign contributions ($1,764,861) or contributions through candidate-controlled ballot committees ($224,650).
  • Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas received $148,700 in combined utility contributions through his campaign and lawmaker-controlled ballot committee — more than three times the $48,200 received by Senate President Pro Tempore Monique Limón. 
  • Assembly Utilities & Energy Committee Chair Cottie Petrie-Norris ($145,400), Assembly Insurance Committee Chair Lisa Calderon ($97,000), Senator Josh Becker ($66,750), Senator Henry Stern ($24,500) and other legislative leaders are central to the current bailout negotiations. 
• Leadership Caucus PACs and Foundations: $5 million 
  • Beyond individual lawmakers, utilities invested in legislative leadership or caucus committees ($3.6 million) and caucus foundations ($1.4 million), strengthening the political infrastructure surrounding California's legislative leadership.
• Lobbying: $60.8 million
  • Since Governor Newsom took office, utility lobbying in Sacramento has reached an all-time high. From 2019 to the second quarter of 2026, utilities spent $60.8 million lobbying the Legislature, the Governor's Office and the California Public Utilities Commission. 
  • Lobbying spending totals by PG&E, Edison and Sempra broke all-time records in the latest 2025-2026 session at $16.7 million with two reporting quarters remaining. 
  • PG&E leads in lobbying spending across both timeframes: 2019-2026 with over $27.7 million and 2025-2026 with over $10 million.
• Charitable giving: $238.9 million
  • PG&E, Southern California Edison, SDG&E, and SoCalGas are required to file annual 77-M reports disclosing their charitable contributions. A review of those filings found that the four utilities reported $238.9 million in charitable donations between 2023 and 2025, including:
    • $119.3 million from Southern California Edison
    • $93.1 million from PG&E 
    • $14.7 million from SoCalGas
    • $11.9 million from SDG&E
  • These charitable investments helped build long-standing relationships with nonprofit organizations and community groups across California, laying the groundwork for the utility-backed Wildfire Victims First coalition that emerged in 2026.
• Strategic giving to Wildfire Victims First coalition members: $7.3 million
  • While the Wildfire Victims first coalition entity is funded 100% by utility shareholders or utility-connected PACs, 142 of its 214 nongovernmental member organizations (66%) received a combined $7.3 million in direct utility funding from 2023-2025.
  • The report further documents 88 coalition members with 155 governance, institutional and financial relationships linking coalition members to California's investor-owned utilities.
  • The coalition's spokesman is former Newsom Communications Director Nathan Click, while its television advertising is placed by Polaris Campaign Media, the affiliated media-buying firm of Bearstar Strategies, Governor Newsom's longtime political consulting firm.
• Conflicted experts:
  • The report also examines the foundation of the current utility bailout proposal. It finds that the legislation relies heavily on the SB 254 Study, commissioned by the California Earthquake Authority to guide California's next generation of wildfire policy. 
  • The Authority selected RAND and Aon to prepare the study even though both firms had previously performed work for Southern California Edison arising from the Eaton Fire, including calculating compensation for wildfire victims. The report concludes these prior relationships raise serious questions about the independence of recommendations now being relied upon to justify further limits on utility liability.

The report concludes that today's utility bailout proposal is not an isolated legislative effort. It is the result of years of coordinated political spending designed to create the appearance of support for weakening utility accountability.

"It's outrageous that the three for profit utilities spent more than a third of a billion dollars, including nearly $1 million to Governor Newsom, to buy a bailout of their obligations to wildfire survivors whose homes they burned down," said Jamie Court, President of Consumer Watchdog. "This bailout is all politics, no policy. Utilities are reporting billions in profits, winning repeated rate increases, paying billions to shareholders and rewarding executives with compensation packages worth tens of millions of dollars. They're not in financial trouble. They're spending hundreds of millions of dollars convincing politicians they are. California should protect wildfire survivors — not the companies responsible for the disasters that displaced them."

The full report is available here.

For more information about the No Utility Bailout campaign, visit DearNewsom.org.

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog