In 2020, the National Weather Service issued a warning to Oregon's PacifiCorp utility company: Power down your electrical equipment or risk starting a fire due to windstorms.
PacifiCorp ignored these warnings, and its electrical equipment indeed sparked a fire, which was further fueled by the fallen trees and uncleared vegetation the company had failed to maintain near its operations. The Archie Creek Fire burned over 200 square miles, destroyed thousands of homes, and killed nine people. Now, lawmakers and federal prosecutors are seeking justice, The Associated Press reported.
PacifiCorp has already settled two lawsuits and paid out over half a billion dollars in damages. A new suit brought by the federal government seeks further payment.
Ironically, to pay for these financial pressures, the company has raised rates for its customers by nearly 50% since 2021, per the AP. Three Oregon lawmakers are targeting these rate hikes in a newly introduced bill that aims to bar utilities from raising rates if they have unresolved wildfire lawsuits for three years or longer.
"The federal government is doing the right thing by filing this lawsuit, and we stand firmly behind it," said state Rep. Virgle Osborne, one of the co-chief sponsors of the bill. "PacifiCorp needs to pay up and take responsibility for the destruction they've caused, and putting a stop to rate hikes is the best way to achieve it."
Many communities face the issue of who should pay when humans exacerbate a natural disaster. This is particularly relevant for wildfires, approximately 85% of which are caused by humans, per the National Park Service. In the case of PacifiCorp and the Archie Creek Fire, the case is straightforward.
However, with other disasters, including hurricanes and floods, there is a growing concern that the broader impact of human-caused climate change, rather than one group, is responsible for damages. The atmosphere's significant rise in temperature due to human-caused emissions has altered weather and precipitation patterns, resulting in more erratic, severe, and frequent extreme weather events.
Many climate advocates emphasize that everyone is responsible for scaling back these emissions — from governments enforcing stricter regulations to corporations investing in cleaner energy and materials to consumers purchasing and living as responsibly as possible.
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