California Gov. Jerry Brown and various California legislative leaders announced earlier this week that they would move Senate Bill 901 to a conference committee for amendments to strengthen disaster preparedness and set improved policies to deal with increasing wildfire danger and the effect it has on the climate, the governor’s office said.
The proposed legislation changes are part of California’s push to address broader climate change issues to prevent further damages. The governor currently has a host of goals to reduce climate change, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing renewable energy production, and reducing climate pollutants and petroleum use.
The conference committee will consider provisions to update rules and regulations for SB 901 that they deem necessary. One of these updates would be to strengthen vegetation removal, infrastructure maintenance, and utility company inspections and temporary shut off of power during extreme weather to decrease the risk of wildfires.
Other changes include appropriately determine who or what was responsible for a wildfire, fair allocation of wildfire prevention and response costs, and requiring utilities to participate in the state’s wildfire and emergency preparedness plans.
According to the governor’s office, more land has burned in California in the first six months of 2018 than during the same period last year. CAL FIRE has also dealt with more than 53,000 acres of wildfire this year compared to an average of 23,000 acres over the same time in previous years, and four of California’s five most destructive wildfires on record have burned in the last 15 years.
Mendocino County dealt with the Redwood Valley Complex fire in October of 2017, one of the largest in years, while Lake, Napa, and Sonoma County have also seen damaging wildfires.
The governor’s office said that even if these changes passed, the state would not implement them until sometime in the future, and nothing in the amended bill would affect any potential liability for last year’s wildfires.
