Gavin Newsom picks the West’s most complicated fight

Meanwhile, the controversy points to the difficulty of retaining California's status as a pioneer in renewable energy and climate policy while additionally shoring up a power system increasingly strained by wildfire costs.

Key points

• Newsom was elected governor just two days before Pacific Gas & Electric equipment sparked the Camp Fire.
• California Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, a Democrat who chairs the energy committee, has cautioned that tinkering with wildfire costs does little to solve the larger crisis.
• "But having a second utility bankruptcy while Governor Newsom is running for president would not be easy politics either." One last attempt at a fix.
• "There is literally nothing about this situation that does not include tradeoffs, " remarked Kate Gordon.
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"There is literally nothing about this situation that does not include tradeoffs, " remarked Kate Gordon. This person headed the state's catastrophic wildfire commission when she led the Governor's Office of Planning and Research under Newsom. "There is not a political win-win-win where everyone walks away with what they want."

Newsom was elected governor just two days before Pacific Gas & Electric equipment sparked the Camp Fire. It burned the town of Paradise, then the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history. Weeks after he took office, PG&E filed for bankruptcy, setting off a scramble among the scores of individuals and entities the distressed business owed funds. Insurance firms, financial firms, local governments and wildfire survivors all had to duke it out in court.

In the end, the heavyweight institutions secured multibillion-dollar settlements, but survivors weren't compensated enough to cover the full cost of rebuilding, according to Newsom 's office. That fact, they say, is animating the governor now.

Back in 2019, Newsom ultimately oversaw the creation of a ratepayer- and shareholder-funded wildfire fund, a behemoth back-up pot of funds that power businesses can tap to cover claims from fires they spark.

Newsom acknowledged to reporters this month that critics called that first effort a "bailout, " too. When he successfully pushed state lawmakers to reup the fund to create sure it had enough capital to cover the tens of billions of dollars in claims against Southern California Edison for starting the Eaton Fire in Pasadena in January 2025, he faced similar criticism last year.

Michael Wara, a Stanford scholar who served as a consultant to the state Senate during the PG&E bankruptcy, called the episode eight years ago a "baptism by fire" for Newsom and his closest energy aides. It left such a lasting impact, he remarked, that it continues to shadow them as they look to the next sizeable chapter.

"This is not easy politics, " Wara remarked. "But having a second utility bankruptcy while Governor Newsom is running for president would not be easy politics either." One last attempt at a fix.

As climate change's impacts intensify and mounting costs growth the strain on utilities, homeowners, and insurers, thorny questions of who pays for what have only grown more challenging over Newsom 's tenure.

While insurance firms are hiking their premiums or pulling out of fire-prone regions altogether, power firms throughout the fire-prone West are increasingly shaping legislation aimed at lowering their costs and remaining solvent. California Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, a Democrat who chairs the energy committee, has cautioned that tinkering with wildfire costs does little to solve the larger crisis.

Taken together, the developments around gavin Newsom picks the West's most complicated fight point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.