By Andrew Oxford and Michelle Ma | Bloomberg<\/p>\n
California Governor Gavin Newsom\u2019s push to shield publicly traded utilities from some wildfire liabilities has been blocked by state lawmakers, according to people familiar with the negotiations.<\/p>\n
Newsom and legislators who are part of the state\u2019s wildfire-liability working group are trying to finalize a broader overhaul of California\u2019s wildfire response before a Friday legislative deadline. KCRA 3, Sacramento\u2019s NBC affiliate, reported that the talks for a wider deal had broken down late Thursday, citing four unidentified people familiar with the talks.<\/p>\n
The governor\u2019s office said Friday afternoon that negotiations were ongoing and it sent an offer back to the legislature.<\/p>\n
Shares of PG&E Corp. fell as much as 11.75% Friday afternoon \u2014 the sharpest drop since March 2020 for the state\u2019s largest utility \u2014 before closing at 7.5% down for the day. Edison International sagged by as much as 6.4% in its biggest decline since July 31, easing to 4.8% as the market closed.<\/p>\n
Newsom\u2019s administration had sought to bar insurers from suing utilities to recover payouts to policyholders after a fire, known as subrogation. The measure would have helped protect PG&E, Edison and Sempra from potentially massive liabilities if downed power lines or other equipment causes fires.<\/p>\n
Top legislators have concerns that such a move would have led insurers to further raise premiums across a state where homeowners are already stinging from recent rate increases.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers would have to finalize the details of any policy changes on Friday before a vote on Monday, when the legislature adjourns for the year.<\/p>\n
Newsom\u2019s office acknowledged there was no legislative path for broader changes aimed at containing utility costs, according to a memo obtained by KCRA 3.<\/p>\n
The governor will still support accelerating victim payments, bar bonuses for utility executives whose companies start wildfires and outlaw speculative investing in wildfire claims by hedge funds and private equity. All other issues were dropped, the memo said.<\/p>\n
With assistance from Lauren Rosenthal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Andrew Oxford and Michelle Ma | Bloomberg California Governor Gavin Newsom\u2019s push to shield publicly traded utilities…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[387,7,9502,9,8,400,457,3002,181,100,3604,13,10994],"class_list":["post-447511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-business","tag-california","tag-california-fires","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-politics","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-insurance","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-pge","tag-politics","tag-weekend-wire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}