Sacramento, CA – Senator Mike McGuire and a coalition of bipartisan legislators from across Northern California representing areas devastated by recent wildfires caused by PG&E have sent a formal request to Attorney General Rob Bonta to hold the Fire Victim Trust accountable, expedite payments to fire survivors and avoid excessive administrative costs.

The Fire Victim Trust was created out of PG&E’s bankruptcy with the purpose of compensating survivors of the Butte Fire in 2015, North Bay Fire Storm in 2017 and Camp Fire in 2018. The settlement fund is meant to benefit fire survivors who lost loved ones and whose property was damaged or destroyed due to PG&E’s negligence. Despite the over 67,000 Californians included in the December 2019 settlement, there has been a disturbing lack of funds distributed to the survivors. Instead, the Trust spent almost 90% of the funds on overhead during the first year.

“Fire survivors have already been victimized once by a negligent utility and the trustees of this massive settlement are ushering in a further injustice by delaying payments and instead paying out millions for processor fees, legal and consulting fees and data collection. Californians deserve better,” the letter states.

A full copy of the letter from the legislators is attached.

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