Add The California Post on Google Gavin Newsom is secretly pursuing an 11th-hour push to shield California’s three for-profit utility monopolies from the financial consequences of the wildfires they cause, shifting those costs onto consumers instead.
If he succeeds, it won’t just be another utility bailout. It will be another end-run around the democratic process.
Last September, with just two days left in the legislative session, Gov. Newsom replaced a consumer protection bill with a 231-page bailout for California’s three for-profit utility monopolies. Lawmakers later admitted they didn’t have enough time to understand what they were voting on.
Newsom’s administration warned that if the bill didn’t pass, Edison, the company behind the Eaton Fire, might go bankrupt.
The next month, Newsom’s five appointees on the California Public Utilities Commission approved a massive Edison rate increase worth more than $1 billion a year, plus nearly $1 billion in retroactive back pay.
Two months later, far from bankrupt, Edison increased shareholder dividends, paying out $1.3 billion in 2025 alone. Its three largest shareholders are Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street.
Instead of protecting Californians from bankruptcy, these decisions transferred billions from hardworking families to Wall Street shareholders, money that should have remained available to compensate wildfire survivors.
In 2025, the year the Eaton Fire killed at least 19 of my neighbors and destroyed the lives of tens of thousands more, the company’s profits more than tripled, from $1.3 billion to $4.5 billion.
CEO Pedro Pizarro told investors those stellar financial results came from state regulatory decisions.
From those very decisions, Gov. Newsom’s administration handed Edison a blank check.
Pizarro’s own pay soared 20%, to $16.5 million.
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Meanwhile, Californians now pay the second-highest electric rates in the nation, more than 50% higher than customers served by California’s publicly owned utilities.
Now Newsom is at it again, reportedly working in near-total secrecy on yet another utility bailout in the final days of the legislative session.
America deserves to know who’s asking for it.
California’s three for-profit utility monopolies created a group called Wildfire Victims First. They’re spending millions on television ads, mailers, Facebook ads, lobbyists and political campaigns to convince Californians that wildfire survivors support another bailout.
Meanwhile, a Consumer Watchdog analysis found that two-thirds of the coalition’s member organizations had received more than $7.3 million in utility funding.
The companies that caused catastrophic wildfires are pretending to be the victims of their own fires.
Instead of paying what they owe us, they’re spending millions pretending to be us.
Not one dollar of that campaign helps the wildfire survivors they claim to represent.
Eighteen months after the Eaton Fire, two out of three of us are still displaced.
Parents who spent our whole lives working to build a future for our kids are now watching that future slip away. Retirement savings are gone. Credit cards are maxed.
Our community is experiencing rising suicidal ideation as families struggle under relentless housing and financial insecurity.
Meanwhile, the company that destroyed our lives is celebrating record profits, record shareholder dividends, and record executive pay.
Every parent teaches their child one simple rule: You break it, you fix it.
It’s the foundation of our nation’s civil justice system.
When someone causes harm, that person is responsible for repairing it.
When corporations cause harm, they are responsible for repairing it.
Why should California’s three for-profit utility monopolies be exempt?
If Gov. Newsom pushes through this latest utility bailout, he won’t just change the future for Eaton Fire survivors.
He’ll change the rules for every wildfire survivor who comes after us.
Families whose lives have been shattered may never receive the compensation they need to rebuild their homes and lives.
Communities devastated by catastrophic fires will remain shattered for years because the companies responsible won’t be held accountable.
And when catastrophic failure is rewarded with billions in new riches for shareholders and executives, we create exactly the wrong incentives for the future.
If Newsom believes another utility bailout is good for California, he should make that case publicly through the normal legislative process, not behind closed doors.
The utility monopolies have hundreds of lobbyists pushing their interests.
Survivors have only our voices and our allies. That’s why we launched DearNewsom.org.
Already, thousands of Americans and organizations representing millions more have joined us in saying: No more utility bailouts. Get families home.
There’s still time to shape Newsom’s decision. It could come as early as this week.
Joy Chen is an Eaton Fire survivor and executive director of the Every Fire Survivor’s Network.
