PORTLAND, Ore. — Three Oregon lawmakers say they plan to introduce a bill that would ban utilities from raising rates if they have unresolved lawsuits for three years or more. series of lawsuits following the deadly 2020 wildfires that ravaged the state.
Republican state Reps. Jami Cate, Virgle Osborne and Ed Diehl announced their proposal in a statement Monday, following an approved rate increase for PacifiCorp customers and a federal lawsuit against the electric utility.
The federal government sued PacifiCorp last week over the Archie Creek firewhich ignited in Oregon’s Douglas County in September 2020, burning more than 200 square miles (520 square kilometers), about half of which was federal land. The complaint accuses the company of negligence for failing to maintain power lines to prevent wildfires. In its filing, the government says it has filed a lawsuit to recover “substantial costs and damages.”
A spokesperson for PacifiCorp said in an emailed statement Monday that the company was working with the U.S. government to resolve the claims.
“It is unfortunate that the U.S. government has decided to file a lawsuit in federal court, but PacifiCorp will continue to work with the U.S. government to find a reasonable resolution to this matter,” the statement said.
The federal lawsuit was filed the same day the Oregon Public Utility Commission approved a 9.8% rate increase for PacifiCorp’s residential customers next year. In its rate filings, the company said its request to increase rates was partly due to higher costs due to wildfire risks and activities.
When the new rate takes effect in January, PacifiCorp rates will have increased nearly 50% since 2021, according to the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board, which advocates on behalf of utilities.
The three lawmakers said they will introduce their bill during the upcoming legislative session, which begins in January.
“The federal government is doing the right thing by filing this lawsuit, and we firmly support it,” Osborne, who will be a co-lead sponsor of the future bill, said in a statement. “PacifiCorp must pay and take responsibility for the destruction they have caused, and halting rate hikes is the best way to achieve this.”
PacifiCorp is ready to get started billions in damage in the series of lawsuits over the 2020 Oregon fires.
The company has already reached two settlement agreements over the Archie Creek Fire, including one for $299 million with 463 claimants affected by the fire and another for $250 million involving 10 companies with commercial timber interests, according to the website.
In other trials: an Oregon jury in June 2023 found it liable for negligently failing to turn off power to its 600,000 customers despite warnings from top fire officials, and determining that it should pay punitive and other damages — a decision that applied to a group that included the owners of up to 2,500 properties. Since then other Oregon juries have ordered the company to pay tens of millions other victims of wildfires.
The wildfires that broke out in Oregon over Labor Day weekend in 2020 were among the worst natural disasters in the state’s history, killing nine people and destroying thousands of homes.