PacifiCorp's Wildfire Prevention and Mitigation Plans
News releases:
April 7, 2025
We submitted an article to the op-ed — or opinion — section of the Oregon Capital Chronicle in response to a recent article that was published regarding wildfire legislation under consideration in Oregon. Op-eds provide readers with information and a viewpoint on a timely and relevant topic. The Oregon Capital Chronicle declined to publish this op-ed, we are making it available here.
At PacifiCorp, we continue to work with reporters to inform their reporting. We remain committed to maintaining transparency.
Erin C. Isselmann
Vice President, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, PacifiCorp
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The Labor Day fires of 2020 were undeniably tragic. In a catastrophic wildfire, there are no winners.
A newly released report by the Oregon Department of Forestry supports PacifiCorp’s longstanding conclusion, supported by expert evidence presented at trial, that its electrical equipment did not contribute to the widespread devastation that occurred in the Santiam Canyon Fire during Labor Day 2020. The investigation, which began shortly after the 2020 wildfires, found that the most probable explanation for these ignitions were embers and spot fires from the main Beachie Creek Fire, which was lightning-caused weeks before Labor Day 2020 and burning upwind of the Santiam Canyon.
Simply stated, PacifiCorp was falsely accused by trial attorneys and subsequently exonerated by the State of Oregon following ODF’s thorough, independent investigation. No trial should ever have occurred in the absence of an official investigation report.
The recent developments regarding the Beachie Creek fire underscore the need for comprehensive reform in how Oregon manages and accounts for wildfires. Moreover, during Oregon’s record-breaking wildfire season in 2024, none of the wildfires in the state were caused by utilities. Wildfires are a complex problem and the overwhelming majority of wildfires in Oregon are not caused by utilities. There is no benefit to anyone to ignore that reality just because it might be easier to make a utility the insurer of last resort.
For Oregon, inaction is not an option.
As wildfires spread beyond the West and impact increasingly diverse locations, such as Colorado, Hawaii, Texas, New York, North Carolina and South Carolina, several states are taking the responsible step of evaluating measures to address this evolving risk. Many of these measures recognize the impacts to customers and communities and call to question the utilities’ ability to continue providing essential electric service without necessary policy reform.
There are meaningful and holistic solutions under consideration in Oregon to address wildfire risk. Lawmakers are considering legislation that is designed to ensure accountability through an auditing process of approved wildfire mitigation plans and to compensate individuals impacted by wildfire in a timely manner so they can rebuild their lives. This legislation is not about immunity from future litigation.
Those who have a strong financial incentive to maintain the status quo, such as trial lawyers, continue to propagate misinformation. This is not a surprise.
The focus is on preventing wildfires, prioritizing the safety of customers and communities and accountability. In addition to strong support from the state’s electricity providers, these efforts have the support of a broad coalition of more than 30 municipal and county governments, chambers of commerce, regional economic development organizations and various others, who agree that utilities provide essential electric service to customers and communities.
The stark reality is that Oregon must have the courage to act when it comes to wildfire, as states across the West have already done. Political leadership owes it to everyone to ensure that wildfire risk is managed in a way that balances accountability and criticality. Absent reasonable and thoughtful policy choices, the state faces an uncertain future.
On February 5, 2025, Willamette Week published a story by the Oregon Journalism Project about Pacific Power and wildfires in Oregon. The article presented a one-sided view based on a narrative pushed by plaintiffs’ attorneys who are in active litigation against Pacific Power. We write to provide a more accurate picture of Pacific Power’s industry-leading efforts to prioritize the safety of its customers, communities and employees.
Nearly two years ago, a jury in Portland decided that Pacific Power was negligent in connection with certain fires that burned on Labor Day 2020. But the article fails to grapple with the complexity of what happened at that class action trial. The questions of if, when, where, and for how long the power should be shut off are as difficult as they are consequential.
With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy for plaintiffs’ lawyers to argue that power across Oregon should have been shut off on Labor Day 2020. But in real time, the decision is never so easy. Shutting off the power can be just as dangerous as leaving it on, and it is never a realistic option to shut off power for all 600,000 customers across an entire state—which is what the plaintiffs’ attorneys suggested that Pacific Power should have done that weekend.
That would have been disastrous. The article talked about two people, Doug Grafe and Nik Blosser, who may have thought, without identifying specific locations, that the general idea of power shut offs should have been considered. But the article did not talk about the even greater number of customer service calls that Pacific Power received that same evening from panicked residents who asked for the power to be kept on because they needed electricity, including for essential medical devices and to refrigerate medication.
The article also did not talk about the dangers of shutting off power when people are trying to evacuate. Going into the Labor Day 2020 weekend, a lightning-caused fire called the Beachie Creek Fire had already been burning on federal land for multiple weeks—uncontained—and posed an active and growing threat to many Oregonians living in the North Fork Canyon and Santiam Canyon. When the windstorm hit on the evening of Labor Day 2020, that fire exploded toward people’s homes faster than any of the firefighting experts on the ground predicted.
The article is right that there is still no authoritative account of what happened in the Santiam Canyon that night. At trial, numerous witnesses who were present in the Santiam Canyon, including a local fire chief who was himself a member of the plaintiff class, testified that the Beachie Creek Fire was responsible for the vast majority of the destruction in the canyon.
While the exact timing is not clear, there is no debate that the Beachie Creek Fire eventually entered the Canyon that night. Whether they knew it at the time or not, many people depended on the power staying on so that they could get out. Electricity powers countless emergency resources. Water systems that are used to fight fires and to protect properties from catching fire. Cell towers. Computers and televisions and phones that are used to distribute evacuation notices. Traffic signals that help facilitate an orderly and rapid evacuation. Gas pumps that ensure that evacuees can refuel their vehicles. Though the article does not acknowledge these needs, Pacific Power could not ignore them on Labor Day 2020.
This is not to say that Pacific Power will never shut off power. It has done so when the conditions warrant and will do so in the future. But we cannot pretend that it is a quick and easy fix. Lives will be impacted no matter the decision. In every instance, the hardworking people who work in our operations center and oversee our system feel the weight of that decision and take that responsibility seriously.
All of that is why Pacific Power is appealing the verdict in the class action trial. It is not about trying to deny compensation to people who lost their homes, and it is not about trying to cause delay for the sake of delay. Pacific Power fully recognizes the tragic impact of the 2020 Labor Day fires on our state and has worked hard to reach fair settlements with more than 1,500 people who did not join the class action. Most of those households have been able to receive substantial payments, both from Pacific Power through settlement and from their property insurers, to rebuild their homes and lives. But that just hasn’t been enough for the plaintiffs’ lawyers in this case who have decided to turn the utility into the enemy for their own gain, which knows no limits at this point. The article fails to even note the self-interested agenda of those attorneys, who may stand to gain an outsized portion of any award in the litigation.
Filing lawsuits against utilities for billions of dollars is not a sustainable long-term solution to the growing risks posed by wildfires and climate change. These outsized damages awards do nothing to solve the problem except divert crucial resources and attention away from much-needed safety improvements—equipment upgrades, undergrounding, monitoring stations, system hardening—and into the pockets of plaintiffs’ lawyers seeking windfall attorney fees.
That is disappointing, because Pacific Power has always worked hard to stay ahead of wildfire mitigation efforts. Just last year, Stanford University’s Climate and Energy Policy Program issued a detailed report assessing the wildfire mitigation programs of western investor-owned utilities. See Stanford Climate & Energy Policy Program, Wildfire: Assessing and Quantifying Risk Exposure and Mitigation Across Western Utilities (May 2024). The report ranked Pacific Power in the top tier for wildfire mitigation due to its development of a formal wildfire prevention plan, deployment of weather stations and meteorological experts and resources to warn of potential adverse weather events, integration of protective equipment and device settings, and implementation of an operational plan for proactive power shutoffs when conditions warrant.
Oregon state regulators have also vetted and approved Pacific Power’s wildfire mitigation efforts. Each year, Pacific Power must submit its wildfire mitigation plan to the Oregon Public Utility Commission. The plan is scrutinized both by an independent evaluator and by Commission staff who compare the plan against those measures adopted by other utilities in and outside of Oregon. Each year, the Oregon Public Utility Commission has approved Pacific Power’s plan.
Wildfires are a complex problem with no single root cause, and no winners. It does not benefit anyone to ignore that reality just because it might be easier to make the utility pay in the short term. When the next big wildfire happens, there might not be a utility to blame. Two of the biggest wildfires on Labor Day 2020, the Beachie Creek Fire and the Lionshead Fire, were caused by lightning – not by any utility. The people who lived in those areas and lost their homes in those fires were excluded from this class action lawsuit, and they are not going to make headlines for recovering millions of dollars in damages, because in those cases, there is no single easy target for the lawyers to blame.
As wildfires have spread beyond the West and impacted increasingly diverse locations, such as Hawaii, Texas, and New York, several states have begun to evaluate measures to address this evolving risk. Many of these measures recognize the need for healthy utilities that can continue to provide essential electricity service and support their communities. Those solutions include limits on uncapped liability and measures to ensure that property owners have access to adequate and affordable insurance. Large damage awards against electric utilities will eventually have an upward pressure on customer rates. Pacific Power supports any efforts to help us provide safe and reliable service, at a reasonable cost to customers. Many policies are forward-looking and will take years to implement. We need public support for measures to help us evolve electric services in a world at greater risk of devastating wildfires.
February 10, 2025
In reading the recently published article in Willamette Week, "PacifiCorp Was Grossly Negligent in Oregon’s 2020 Wildfires. Now It’s Asking Lawmakers for Protection," we noticed an error which needs to be corrected.
We would like to clarify that Nik Blosser is not a “neutral third party” as represented in the article. Mr. Blosser is in active litigation against the company. Last year, his winery in Dayton filed a lawsuit for smoke damage, and he is seeking millions of dollars in alleged business losses as well as punitive damages. The case is Sokol Blosser et al v. PacifiCorp (Multnomah County Case No. 24CV3044). It is not accurate to present Mr. Blosser (and his trial testimony) along with his subsequent interview with Mr. Manning, as neutral. Pre-trial depositions and testimony during the June 2023 trial may pre-date the filing of this litigation, however the same is not true of Mr. Blosser’s interview with Mr. Manning.
Thank you for your attention.
The James class action liability verdicts and first two damages trials have been appealed to the Oregon Court of Appeals. On April 1, 2025, PacifiCorp filed its opening brief in the Oregon Court of Appeals, challenging key legal rulings in the James class action involving the 2020 wildfires. PacifiCorp’s appeal raises numerous procedural and legal concerns, including:
In April 2025, a coalition of industry groups and organizations filed amici briefs in the James appeal case, weighing in as friends of the court on a variety of issues that could have impacts beyond the current litigation. Amici briefs provide policy or specialized guidance to help the appellate court reach an informed decision. The briefs argue in part:
As part of the appeal, PacifiCorp is challenging key legal rulings in the James class action involving the 2020 wildfires, raising several procedural and legal concerns.
PacifiCorp December 18, 2023, 8-K
PacifiCorp December 5, 2023, 8-K
PacifiCorp June 3, 2024, 8-K
News Release
James Class Action
PacifiCorp January 10, 2025, 8-K
Summary of Filing
In the motion, PacifiCorp asks the Multnomah County Circuit Court to correct several legal errors that occurred during the recent class action wildfire case captioned James v. PacifiCorp. If the trial court fails to correct these errors, they will be appealed to the Oregon Court of Appeals. Here is a brief summary of the relevant issues:
James case post-trial hearings: Case Management Order No. 8
On September 20, 2023, the judge in the James Multnomah County Court case entered Case Management Order No. 8 and set three phase II trials where plaintiffs will present evidence regarding their damages. Two of the trials will have 10-15 plaintiffs per trial. The third trial involves commercial timber plaintiffs. The first James phase II trial is set for January 8-17, 2024. The second James phase II trial is set for February 26 – March 1, 2024. The third trial regarding commercial timber interests is set for April 22-30, 2024.
James case post-trial hearings: Case Management Order No. 9
The Judge in the James case set the following post-trial hearings in Case Management Order No. 9:
Defendants’ Motion to Reduce Punitive Damages Award Under ORS 31.730
Summary of Filing
PacifiCorp is asking the Multnomah County Circuit Court to review the James jury’s punitive damages award to determine whether the award is within the range of damages that a rational juror would be entitled to award when applying the Oregon punitive damages statutory and common-law factors. PacifiCorp is requesting the Multnomah County Circuit Court reduce the punitive damages award based on the significant developments of PacifiCorp’s wildfire mitigation actions after the 2020 Labor Day wind event. Those actions include:
On January 14, 2025, class counsel filed the Mass Short-Form Complaint #6 (below) where individual plaintiffs are seeking $5 million in economic damages, $25 million in non-economic damages and punitive damages of 0.25 times the amount of economic and non-economic damages. This brings the total count of mass short-form plaintiffs up to 1,591.
On December 24, 2024, two additional short-form complaints were filed in the James case on behalf of eight plaintiffs associated with the Frank Timber company. The two complaints together seek a total of $29.3 million in damages, including $13 million in base economic damages, double damages, and $3.3 million in punitive damages. As a result of the six mass complaints, subsequent dismissals, active class plaintiffs in James total 1,594 for which per plaintiff damages sought vary.
The court has set the following damages trials in the James class action litigation with up to 10 plaintiffs per trial:
PacifiCorp’s Motion to Dismiss the Vineyards’ Smoke Damage Lawsuits
Summary of Filing
PacifiCorp filed the Motion to Dismiss the lawsuit filed by Bridgadoon Vineyards, LLC lawsuit in Lane County Circuit Court. Similar motions to dismiss were filed in the complaints brought by Retraite, LLC; Parlance, LLC ; Vendange, LLC; and Samuel Robert Winery, LLC. PacifiCorp presents the following arguments for the Circuit Courts’ consideration: