California regulators have proposed fining Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) $45 million for damages related to the Dixie Fire, the state’s second largest wildfire ever.

PG&E Logo
PG&E Logo

The Dixie Fire erupted in Butte County, CA, in the summer of 2021 after a tree fell on a PG&E powerline. The fire burned through 963,000 acres in five counties, destroying and damaging more than 1,400 structures and injuring four people, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire).

The utility, which serves more than 16 million natural gas and electric customers in Northern and Central California, “failed to identify the subject tree that started the Dixie Fire as a hazard tree…At minimum, PG&E failed to identify the hazard tree for five years” leading up to...