The utility bailout is dead, and the people of California won

The Eaton Fire burned down some of our homes and poisoned others. So when we learned Gov. Gavin Newsom was negotiating an 11th-hour bailout that would shield California’s three for-profit utility monopolies from billions in wildfire liability while taking compensation from survivors, we knew what we were up against.

Money. Power. Access. And secrecy.

A month before the eight-month legislative session ended, there was still no bill text and no public hearing. Survivors could not even read what was being negotiated about us.

We’d seen this before: We’d seen it when the state of California was slow to demand accountability from State Farm — the insurance giant that Los Angeles County is now suing over allegations that it mishandled fire claims.

In 2025, in the final two days of session, Newsom replaced a consumer protection bill with 231 pages of new language benefiting California’s utility monopolies.

This time, ordinary Californians said no.

On one side were three of Sacramento’s most powerful corporate interests: They employ hundreds of lobbyists; they even funded a campaign called Wildfire Victims First to push their agenda, although no wildfire survivor groups were among its supporters.

The companies that burned down our homes were pretending to be us; we were the real wildfire survivors. It was David versus Goliath. And most improbably, the people won.

Survivors traveled to Sacramento, where we rallied, protested outside the governor’s mansion and delivered hand-painted cards to every legislative office. But we did more than say no to a bailout. We pointed out that Sacramento was solving the wrong problem.

The debate was about how to reduce the financial consequences for these corporations and their shareholders when their equipment causes catastrophic wildfires.

But we asked a more fundamental question: Why do California’s three for-profit utility monopolies keep burning down California communities, and what will make them stop?

According to Aon’s worldwide rankings by inflation-adjusted insured losses, California’s electric monopolies caused three of the five costliest wildfires ever recorded worldwide. Yet in 2025, their holding companies reported more than $10 billion in profits or adjusted earnings, paid more than $3 billion in shareholder dividends and paid their three CEOs nearly $60 million.

Shareholders get to enjoy the upside because they take the risks of owning these companies, including what happens when the companies they own cause catastrophic fires. Shareholders get the upside; shareholders should also bear the downside.

It is not the California government’s job to prop up their share prices. But it is its job to serve the people.

So survivors built a Survivor-First Proposal around the most basic rule of responsibility: You break it, you fix it. Protect survivors. Hold corporations accountable. Make utilities do the safety work Californians already paid for. Prevent the next catastrophic fire.

More than 4,700 individuals and organizations representing 3.5 million Americans joined us through Dear Newsom.

And then our state legislators listened.

State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D) said, “The fire survivors have shaped this entire conversation” and that survivors “made a tremendous impact.” Fellow state Sen. Ben Allen (D) said, “We certainly stood with fire survivors.” While Senate President pro Tempore Monique Limón said the agreement “supports survivors in their recovery.”

We are deeply grateful to the Senate and Assembly members who listened, especially Limón and the legislators who stood with the real fire survivors.

The corporations had the money. The lobbyists had the access. The governor had the power. All survivors had were our voices, our ideas and each other.

And that was enough.

The final SB 492 rejected the bailout provisions we fought — and protected survivors. That is democracy.

Come January, survivors are ready to support our Legislature in shaping what Californians really need: safe, reliable and affordable electricity.

If the system we have cannot deliver that without catastrophic wildfires and shifting the losses onto California families, preserving it should not be our goal.

Maybe this is our moment to build something better.

Joy Chen is executive director of the Every Fire Survivor’s Network and a former deputy mayor of Los Angeles.

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