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Under the terms of AB 1054, the state law that bailed PG&E out of bankruptcy, utilities pre-certified as “safe” are not required to prove they acted reasonably to charge customers for the cost of the damage caused by the flames.
The safety certificate also gives PG&E the ability to tap into a multibillion-dollar state wildfire fund, paid for by customers, to help pay damages to fire victims and perhaps most importantly, it caps the amount of fire damage that PG&E shareholders would be on the hook for paying back to the fund.
After the 2018 Camp Fire, PG&E warned that it had caused around $30 billion in wildfire damage. It settled its bankruptcy for $25 billion.