Message from the Issue Editor

• Jurisdiction: California,United States
• Author: Everett L. Green
• Citation: Vol. 2020 No. 2
• Publication year: 2020

Message from the Issue Editor

Everett L. Green

Prior to COVID-19, the wildfires that charred and devastated California's landscape served as the state's most pressing disaster.

In 2018, over 7,500 wildfires burned approximately 1.67 million acres, the largest area of burned acreage recorded in a fire season.¹

From mid-July to August 2018, a series of large wildfires erupted in Northern California, including the destructive Carr Fire and the Mendocino Complex Fire, prompting the Governor to declare a national disaster. The Mendocino Complex Fire burned more than 459,000 acres, becoming the largest complex fire in the state's history.

In November 2018, strong winds aggravated conditions in another round of large, destructive fires that occurred across the state, including the Woolsey Fire and the Camp Fire, which killed at least eighty-five people and destroyed more than 18,000 structures.

Commentators estimated that the wildfires caused from $11.5 billion to $400 billion in damage to California's economy, decreasing the state's economic growth for the first time since 2010.²

The costs resulting from the wildfires contributed to the chapter 11 filing of the nation's largest utility, PG&E, which estimates its wildfire liability costs in excess of $30 billion.

The devastation caused by the wildfires spawned a host of legislative, regulatory, and legal changes. The Governor and the state Legislature quickly moved to stabilize the health of the state's electric utilities by creating a $21 billion compensation fund to provide liquidity for utilities to cover third-party damage claims resulting from future wildfires. Insurers adjusted their risk/loss assessments. And, as often happens in most catastrophes, victims and litigants sought relief and pressed their claims in courts.

The articles in the following pages provide a small snapshot of the legislative, regulatory, and legal changes arising from the wildfires. In addition, we include an excerpt from the...