California’s diastrous wildfires drive up the price of power bills by an average of $41 for customers of the state’s largest utility company — adding insult to injury as the destructive infernos continue to have devastating impact.
A new report found that Pacific Gas & Electric customers are forced to shoulder 19% more in added costs, while customers of Southern California Edison and and San Diego Gas & Electric pay and additional 17% and 14%, respectively, for their bills.
“Wildfire risk is not just an occasional catastrophe, but a recurring cost embedded in the state’s economy,” read the report from the California Earthquake Authority says.
A new report found that Pacific Gas & Electric customers are forced to shoulder 19% more in added costs ZUMAPRESS.com Wildfires add to the already-sky-high prices Californians pay for everyday living.
Gas is the most expensive in the nation, while utilities are among the highest in the US. Electricity costs increased by 37% between 2020 and 2025, according to the report, which predicted electricity and insurance prices to rise further.
The report’s solutions aim to stabilize the insurance market and lower costs by establishing a state-sponsored wildfire home insurer to relieve private insurance companies of liability for catastrophes.
It also calls for ending liability for accidentally starting fires and creating new programs to help homeowners rebuild and protect their homes.
Customers of Southern California Edison and and San Diego Gas & Electric pay and additional 17% and 14%, respectively, for their bills. AP Earthquake authority spokesperson Ben Deci told Bloomberg that the recommendations were meant to be “an unflinching look at the landscape of policy options available to California — each with real trade-offs that deserve honest debate.”
Nancy Watkins, a principal and actuary with consulting firm Milliman in San Francisco, told Bloomberg that the most critical recommendation from the report is the state telling residents to protect their homes further through home hardening, a series of construction techniques to make their homes more-wildfire resistant.
“We have communities that are unacceptably vulnerable to fire, and we haven’t done enough to change that,” she said.
The 2025 Los Angeles wildfires cost the area between $250 and $275 billion, according to independent estimates. The fires also caused 31 deaths and potentially long-lasting health effects for those in the area.
The fires were so severe that insurance only paid out a fraction of the total cost, around $22.4 billion.
Many residents have still not returned to their homes, and communities in Malibu and the Pacific Palisades remain ravaged and fire-scarred.
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