PLUMAS COUNTY, Calif. — Pacific Gas & Electric is being fined $45 million in connection with the 2021 Dixie Fire.
The fire spread across five counties: Butte, Plumas, Shasta, Lassen and Tehama. Over the course of three months, it became the largest single wildfire in California's history.
It sparked after a Douglas Fir tree fell and hit energized conductors owned by PG&E on July 13. More than 1,000 homes, businesses and other buildings were destroyed in the blaze.
The fine comes from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in a settlement agreement with PG&E.
"This enforcement tool is one of many included in the CPUC’s Enforcement Policy, established in 2020 to better serve Californians through streamlined enforcement actions in lieu of issuing Citations or seeking a formal Order Instituting Investigation. The addition of these tools to the CPUC’s enforcement options moved the CPUC’s practices more in-line with the enforcement practices of many other state and local enforcement agencies," the CPUC said in a news release.
According to officials, the penalty breaks down into three parts. It includes $40 million in shareholder funding for capital expenditures to move from hard copy records to electronic records for distribution patrols and inspections, $2.5 million in fines to the California General Fund and $2.5 million in payments to tribes impacted by the fire.
Under the agreement, PG&E will submit an implementation plan that will detail the new record-keeping initiative. PG&E will send annual reports to the CPUC's Safety and Enforcement Division for ongoing oversight regarding progress.
ABC10 reached out to PG&E for comment. They sent the following statement:
"PG&E is committed to making it right and making it safe for our customers and hometowns. We resolved civil claims with Butte, Lassen, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama Counties regarding the 2021 Dixie Fire and entered into long-term agreements with the counties to strengthen wildfire safety and response programs, and to work with local organizations affected by the fire to help rebuild their communities. We have reached settlements with numerous individuals and families. In addition, we are working hard to make our system safer every day.
As we have stated previously, we accept CAL FIRE’s finding that a tree falling into our powerline caused the fire. However, PG&E believes we acted as a prudent operator. There is no evidence that PG&E consciously and willfully disregarded a known risk with regard to the ignition of the Dixie Fire. We followed the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) requirements when inspecting, maintain and operating our system.
- CAL FIRE’s retained arborist stated in his report that the tree had a green canopy and was alive, vital, and growing vertically at the time of failure.
- The Bucks Creek 1101 Circuit was subject to multiple, redundant inspections at least eight times in the five years preceding the Dixie Fire by trained Vegetation Management contractors. There are no indications that the tree was ever identified as a potential hazard. The Bucks Creek 1101 Circuit operated as designed, and no other PG&E equipment was involved in the ignition.
- Our operator and troubleman response to the power outage on the Bucks Creek 1101 Circuit was reasonable and appropriate. Consistent with our policies and standards, the troubleman used binoculars to try to identify the cause of the power outage and did not see a tree on the line. He worked diligently for hours to get to the site, including after being turned away by a county road crew, and once he arrived fought the fire heroically by himself before CAL FIRE arrived.
- We were working under an approved safety certificate and Wildfire Mitigation Plan at the time of the fire. Trained professionals followed our management processes and procedures on inspections and vegetation management set out in our approved Wildfire Mitigation Plan.
Regarding the settlement agreement with the CPUC’s Safety and Enforcement Division (SED), we share our regulators’ commitment to improve safety. We do not contest three of SED’s allegations involving recordkeeping or process violations which are unrelated to the cause of the fire, and as part of the agreement, we will fund an initiative to transition to electronic records for our electric distribution patrols and inspections. However, we dispute SED’s alleged violations based on findings and conclusions in CAL FIRE’s Dixie Fire report (see above).
PG&E will not request rate recovery for these expenses, so these costs will not impact customers. The agreement does not preclude PG&E from receiving cost recovery for costs related to the fire, including from the state’s Wildfire Fund.
PG&E is focused on reducing wildfire risk to protect our customers and communities. Our wildfire prevention work relies on proven layers of protection that have reduced wildfire risk from the company’s equipment by approximately 94%, and the deployment of a multi-faceted, risk-informed strategy aimed at continuing to close the gap on the remaining 6% of wildfire risk.
These measures include system hardening with stronger poles and covered powerlines; the company’s 10,000-mile undergrounding program; tree trimming and removal; asset inspections and repairs; and improved situational awareness. When wildfire risk is elevated, these efforts are bolstered with operational mitigations that include Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings (EPSS), and Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) under extreme conditions. Using these tools, PG&E achieved a 99% decrease in total acres burned in High Fire-Threat Districts in 2022, compared to the 2018-2020 average (as measured by fire size from electric distribution equipment). We are also introducing new technology solutions such as partial voltage detection and downed conductor technology that build upon EPSS and PSPS. These new technologies detect potential threats to the electric grid and rapidly reduce or shut off power to help prevent wildfire ignitions."
