PacifiCorp settles wildfire claims for over half a billion dollars

PacifiCorp has agreed to pay $575 million to resolve the federal government’s claims for damages stemming from six wildfires in Oregon and California in 2020 and 2022, federal officials announced Friday, in the utility’s latest multimillion-dollar payout related to the deadly blazes.

The settlement resolves the federal government’s claims that PacifiCorp’s electrical lines negligently started four fires in Oregon in 2020 and two fires in California in 2020 and 2022, the Justice Department said. The money will help restore some of the 290,000 acres (117,359 hectares) of public land that burned. It will also help repay the government for the cost of fighting the fires, which the department said was “critical because the U.S. Forest Service now spends more than half of its budget on wildfire suppression annually.”

“This settlement served the Department’s longstanding policy of holding individuals and corporations responsible for damages caused by wildfires. Every fire impacting federal lands, no matter the size, is a priority,” U.S. Attorney Eric Grant of the Eastern District of California said in a statement.

PacifiCorp said the settlement demonstrates its ongoing commitment to resolve claims related to the fires. It has so far settled claims totaling over $2 billion, according to its statement.

The utility has faced a  Read Entire Article