California's current approach to wildfires is 'unsustainable'

摘要

California's utilities and ratepayers cannot sustain legal damages fromfuture wildfires of the magnitude of the 2017 and 2018 blazes, aUniversity of California, Berkeley, energy policy expert stated in amemo to California Governor Gavin Newsom's administration.Steven Weissman, associate director for UC Berkeley's Center forLaw, Energy, and the Environment, wrote the memo just before therelease of Newsom's wildfire strike force report on April 12. "It's simplemath — in the last two years, California fires caused more than $36billion in damages," Weissman wrote Cabinet Secretary AnaMatosantos. "Those kinds of wildfire losses are unsustainable for utilitycustomers."