By Hudson Sangree

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The wildfire package that Gov. Gavin Newsom asked lawmakers to push through in a week cleared two key committees Monday and sailed through the State Senate, 31-7, in an extraordinarily accelerated process.

Some lawmakers complained they hadn’t had time to read the voluminous bill, which was printed late Friday (AB 1054). Newsom has urged them to pass it by July 12, when the legislature adjourns for its summer recess.

The goal of such haste is to signal to credit rating agencies that the state is prepared to prop up its investor-owned utilities in the face of billions of dollars in wildfire liability. The bill includes a multibillion-dollar wildfire recovery fund that would be financed by the IOUs and a surcharge on customers’ bills. Ratepayers and utilities would each pay $10.5 billion.

Assemblyman Christopher Holden, a co-author of the bill and chairman of the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee, told his Senate counterparts Monday that the measure would help “keep the lights on in order to protect customers.”

“Stable utilities are the backbone of our economy and the necessary background of our daily lives,” Holden said while presenting the bill to the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee, which passed the bill 9-2. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved it shortly afterward.

Lawmakers are under pressure to help the utilities while avoiding political blowback from any measure that could be labeled a bailout. Voter anger remains high with Pacific Gas and Electric, which has been blamed for starting massive, deadly fires in 2015, 2017 and 2018, including November’s Camp Fire, the deadliest in state history. The state’s largest utility and its parent company, PG&E Corp., filed for bankruptcy in January.

PG&E’s stock price plummeted along with its credit rating, which S&P Global Ratings now lists as “D,” its lowest mark. The price has recovered from its low point of about $6/share in January, closing at $21.73 on Monday.

Southern California Edison also has been blamed for deadly fires, such as the Thomas Fire in December 2017 and the Woolsey Fire in November 2018. The Woolsey Fire and ensuing mudflows killed nearly two dozen people.

S&P rates SCE and Sempra Energy, the parent company of San Diego Gas & Electric, as BBB, an investment grade, despite concerns about the IOUs’ long-term stability. But ratings agencies have said they may downgrade the ratings if the state fails to act. Their stock prices have been less volatile than PG&E’s.

AB 1054 includes provisions intended to increase the accountability of utilities for safety. To draw from the recovery fund, the IOUs would have to link executive compensation to safety performance. The California Public Utilities Commission would have to certify a utility had acted reasonably before it could recover wildfire costs.

Testimony and comments at Monday’s hearing were largely positive, even from staunch critics of the IOUs.

Up from the Ashes, a wildfire victims’ group, said it supported the bill because it could compensate victims more quickly. And The Utility Reform Network (TURN) backed the bill, with reservations, because it requires the utilities to contribute billions of dollars to the recovery fund.

Those who opposed it included some fire victims and Sen. Scott Weiner, a San Francisco Democrat, who took issue with a provision that could make it more difficult for utilities to sell assets. San Francisco is considering a bid to purchase PG&E’s equipment and establish a municipal utility.

The legislation goes next to the State Assembly for a concurrence vote as early as Thursday. Because it is an urgency measure that would take effect immediately upon being enacted, it requires a two-thirds supermajority vote by both houses to get to Newsom’s desk.