Berkshire’s PacifiCorp Pays $575M to Settle Oregon, California Wildfire Claims

PacifiCorp, a utility owned by Berkshire Hathaway, agreed to pay $575 million to resolve U.S. government damages claims related to six wildfires in Oregon and California that burned nearly 290,000 acres of federal land, the U.S. Department of Justice said this month.

The settlement resolves claims that PacifiCorp’s electrical lines negligently started the fires.

Five of the fires – Archie Creek, Echo Mountain Complex, Slater, South Obenchain and 242 – began during Labor Day weekend in 2020 and burned approximately 250,000 acres of federal land. The sixth fire, McKinney, began in July 2022 and burned 39,000 acres of federal land.

PacifiCorp’s payment will help repay the government for firefighting costs, and allow the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to restore some of the burned land.

The settlement “ensures fair compensation to the American taxpayer,” and “strikes a balance by addressing the government’s significant fire-suppression costs and loss of natural resources without preventing PacifiCorp from offering electricity at fair prices,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson said in a statement.

PacifiCorp denied liability in agreeing to settle, the Justice Department said. The utility did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The settlement was announced three days after PacifiCorp said it planned to sell many of its assets in Washington state to Portland General Electric POR.N for $1.9 billion, to bolster liquidity as it defends against wildfire litigation.

(Reporting by Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Costas Pitas and Ismail Shakil; Editing by David Ljunggren and Deepa Babington)