Dive Brief: California regulators on Thursday voted to approve a financing order giving Pacific Gas & Electric Co. the official go-ahead to securitize $7.5 billion in costs related to wildfires caused by its power lines in 2017. The securitization would pave the way for PG&E to retire about $6 billion in debt and accelerate final payments to victims of the wildfires, the utility said in its application to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). But consumer advocates, who have raised concerns about the proposal’s impact on ratepayers, are in the process of challenging it. Regulators usually allow utilities to securitize costs only if the costs are supposed to be the responsibility of ratepayers, said Tom Long, legal director with The Utility Reform Network, “but this one is unique … because this is to securitize costs that are supposed to be paid solely by shareholders.”