Gavin Newsom Picks the West’s Most Complicated Fight

With just months left in office, Gavin Newsom is reopening one of California’s most bitter political fights.

At the center of it is a question the state has struggled with for years: When a power company sparks a catastrophic wildfire, who ultimately shoulders the cost?

Newsom took office in the aftermath of the deadly 2018 Camp Fire, which sent Pacific Gas and Electric into bankruptcy and threatened to destabilize the state’s electricity system. Now, as he prepares to leave office and embark on a likely presidential run, he is pushing eleventh-hour legislation that would sharply limit how much utilities can be forced to pay when their equipment sparks a wildfire, in an effort to avoid another financial collapse.

It is an extraordinarily complex — and risky — undertaking, and almost everyone with a stake in California’s wildfire fights has something to lose.

If Newsom gets his way, he’ll anger insurance firms, which argue his proposed changes would upend their marketplace. Local officials worry they won’t be able to secure enough money to rebuild after future fires. And wildfire victims, fearing that future survivors could be shortchanged, staged a recent protest on the steps of the governor’s mansion.