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The California Assembly has declined to vote on a bill that would have expedited compensation for wildfire victims.
“We need comprehensive structural reform to protect the state from catastrophic fires, prioritize wildfire survivors, hold utility executives accountable, and provide reliable, affordable power to all Californians,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said in a statement to HuffPost Tuesday, adding that the state can’t “settle for half measures.”
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“The reforms in this bill, while important, did not address the underlying structural problems driving this crisis, as the initial market reaction this week demonstrates,” he said. “Simply put, this measure did not meet the gravity of this moment. The only solution is to return to fix the entire problem, not part of it.”
The bill came more than a year after the deadly Los Angeles County fires in January 2025. According to fire officials, Southern California Edison equipment caused the Eaton Fire in Altadena, while arson is believed to have caused the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades.
Utility companies Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison stock plunged in recent days. State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D) seemed to imply that the stock market drop had something to do with the bill not being voted on.
“We as a legislature do not write legislation in response to how the stock market is performing,” Pérez said, per CalMatters. “Our focus and our priority needs to be on the safety of Californians, on protecting fire survivors when they’re impacted by these devastating events.”
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