California utility company Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has pled guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for starting the 2018 wildfire that burned 153,336 acres of forest.
PG&E neglected power line that sparked the Camp Fire in Paradise, California ended up destroying more than 13,900 homes and killed 85 people. It was concluded by both the California Public Utilities Commission and the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection that poorly maintained PG&E equipment started the fire.
PG&E acknowledged failing to properly maintain the equipment and admitted to not climbing the tower for inspections since 2001. Investigators identified a small metal hook that holds up transmission lines and insulators. The proper care and “its timely replacement could have prevented the ignition of the Camp fire,” said investigators.
PG&E Chief Executive Bill Johnson released a statement:
We cannot change the devastation or ever forget the loss of life that occurred. All of us at PG&E deeply regret this tragedy and the company’s part in it. We cannot replace all that the fire destroyed, but our hope is that this plea agreement, along with our rebuilding efforts, will help the community move forward from this tragic incident.
While he’s right that they cannot change what happened, many people think they are literally getting away with murder. The plea agreement includes the following:
The Utility will be sentenced to pay the maximum total fine and penalty of approximately $3.5 million. The Agreement provides that no other or additional sentence will be imposed on the Utility in the criminal action in connection with the 2018 Camp fire,” PG&E said in its filing. “The Utility has also agreed to pay $500,000 to the Butte County District Attorney Environmental and Consumer Protection Fund to reimburse costs spent on the investigation of the 2018 Camp fire.
Mindy Spatt from the Utility Reform Network talks about how much different this would be if an individual had started the fire:
You know, if corporations are people as the Supreme Court has suggested, PG&E would be in jail right now. That is normally the penalty for manslaughter. I think from the customer end, it kind of feels like PG&E got away with murder. There hasn’t been a lot of accountability.
As noted by the Los Angeles Times, this is not the first time PG&E has been involved in a disaster caused by their own negligence. In 2010 a PG&E natural gas pipeline explosion killed 8 people and destroyed 38 homes in San Bruno, California.
In 2016, the company was found guilty by a federal jury of violating pipeline safety regulations and misleading investigators for a San Francisco pipeline explosion.
Now, this latest admission by the company is only going to cost them 4 million dollars when they caused an enormous amount of damage with many lives lost. It seems as long as these giant corporations have money to pay their way out of things, then they do not play by the same rules as the rest of us.
Think of all the firefighters and first responders who will surely have health-related or lost their lives, it will cost them much more than PG&E.
