West Coast utility settles US claims over wildfires for $575 million

(CN) — PacifiCorp, the owner of electric utility Pacific Power, has agreed to pay $575 million to settle claims by the U.S. Justice Department that its equipment caused six wildfires in Northern California and Oregon.

The settlement will help repay the federal government for the substantial costs it incurred fighting the fires, the Justice Department said in a statement Friday. The funds are critical because the U.S. Forest Service now spends more than half of its budget on wildfire suppression annually, the department said. 

“This agreement strikes a balance by addressing the government’s significant fire-suppression costs and loss of natural resources without preventing PacifiCorp from offering electricity at fair prices,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson said in the statement.

Five of the six wildfires the government says were caused by Pacific Power's electrical lines occurred in 2020, the year when both California and Oregon endured the most destructive wildfire seasons in their histories.

The largest fire attributed to Pacific Power's equipment was the Slater Fire, which ignited on Sept. 8, 2020, on Slater Butte National Forest lands within the Klamath National Forest. The blaze blackened 157,229 acres of federal land within the Klamath, Six River, and Rogue River Siskiyou national forests.

The other 2020 fires that the government blamed on Pacific Power's negligently maintained lines were the 242 Fire, the Archie Creek Fire, the Echo Mountain Complex Fire and the South Obenchain Fire in Oregon. All of these fires erupted around Sept. 7 and 8, with strong winds and drought conditions causing the flames to spread rapidly through forest lands.

About 20 large wildfires tore through Oregon that year and burned more than a million acres of land. Some of the largest fires were caused by lightning.

PacifiCorp's also settled the government's claim that its equipment caused the 2022 the McKinney Fire in Northern California — on land next to the Klamath National Forest — that burned 39,000 acres of federal land.

“This settlement is another significant milestone demonstrating our ongoing commitment to resolve all reasonable claims related to the devastating fires that affected Oregon and California,” Ryan Flynn, president of Pacific Power, said in a statement.

Setting aside claims from 2020 the Beachie Creek/Santiam Canyon fire in Oregon, the utility has settled nearly 90% of known claims for a total of more than $2.2 billion, according to the statement.

PacifiCorp said last year that due to the "compelling" findings in the Oregon Department of Forestry report that concluded its assets did not initiate or contribute to the Beachie Creek/Santiam Canyon fire, it will continue to actively defend against those claims.​

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