PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon Public Utility Commission regulators have rejected a proposal from Pacific Power to limit its liability for future wildfires.
PacifiCorp, parent company of Pacific Power, made the request in November, months after a jury found the company liable for some of the Labor Day wildfires that ravaged parts of Oregon in 2020.
The jury's ruling opened up the company to potentially pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
PacifiCorp's proposal would have limited its wildfire liability to its customers to just economic damages.
PUC regulators shut down that request Thursday, writing that the request was too broad and likely against the law.
The decision means customers would still be able to sue PacifiCorp for punitive, emotional or other types of damages if the company is once again found to reckless or negligent in the spread of wildfires in the future.
Damon Motz-Storey, director of the Oregon Sierra Club, praised the decision and said regulators ruled in favor of 'fairness.'
"This is really a win for Oregon ratepayers and every Oregonian who is impacted by the threat of wildfire," Motz-Storey said. "There is a wildfire liability issue, we don't dispute that, but we believe utilities need to be held accountable for their actions and they should be investing in and acting on wildfire mitigation."
PacifiCorp in a statement to KGW, said the company appreciates OPUC recognizing the urgent need for public policy and regulatory solutions on wildfire mitigation.
The company pointed to its increased financial risk in light of climate change and the recent court ruling.
"For utilities, there is an ominous risk in making future investments in regions where they become the de facto insurers of last resort in a more frequent extreme weather environment."
PacifiCorp said it's looking for a balance between safety and affordability and will 'consider the commission's feedback to continue to look for approaches to address this risk.'
Advocacy group Oregon Consumer Justice, which had challenged PacifiCorp's proposal in this case, called the ruling a 'significant victory' for Oregon ratepayers by supporting their rights to seek full compensation for any future wildfire damages.
"We applaud PUC for putting people first and rejecting a proposal that sought to unfairly limit the rights of Oregonians," said Jagjit Nagra, OCJ's Executive Director.
PUC's decision also avoids a potentially-awkward dual precedent where Pacific Power customers could have been prevented from seeking additional damages from the utility company, but non-customers would have had access to greater compensation options in the event of negligence or recklessness.
In the ruling, regulators said PacifiCorp is admittedly in a tough spot — at great risk for sparking wildfires and open to many types of lawsuits.
However, they said the company's current proposal is not the right first step to address those concerns.
Motz-Storey and other advocates say the company should expand its wildfire mitigation practices as the best way to avoid potentially more expensive litigation and, of course, reduce the number of wildfires connected to charged power lines.
PacifiCorp says action from the Oregon state legislature is the best route forward to 'ensure viability' of utility companies and 'safe and reliable electricity service' for the state.