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 world...