Paying for wildfire damage through your utility bill

House Bill 2275 creates a state-run fund designed to pay for wildfire damages and lawsuits when an electric utility is found negligent. The fund would be paid through new surcharges added directly to customer electricity bills, allowing utilities to recover wildfire-related costs from ratepayers.

The fund would reimburse utilities for damage claims and settlements after a “covered wildfire,” even retroactively to 2021. Once money is paid into the fund, it is pooled statewide, meaning customers of one utility could end up paying for wildfire damages caused by a different utility operating in a more fire-prone part of the state.

Why is this a bad policy?

• Worsens Washington’s affordability crisis. Electricity is a basic necessity, not a luxury. Adding new surcharges to power bills raises everyday costs for families, seniors, and small businesses, making it even harder for people to afford to live and work in Washington.
• Raises electricity bills through permanent, uncapped surcharges. The bill allows utilities to pass the full cost of this wildfire fund onto customers through power bills. These surcharges are uncapped, ongoing, and set by a newly created council—not the Legislature—meaning families won’t know how much they’ll pay until after the charges are imposed.
• Makes ratepayers pay for wildfires caused by utility negligence. Rather than holding utilities financially accountable when fires start, no matter the cause, the bill protects utilities from claims arising from carelessness. For example, failing to do reasonable vegetation management near power lines. Families and small businesses would be forced to pay higher power bills to cover damages caused by utility carelessness—even when those customers had no role in the fire.
• Forces customers to pay for other utilities’ wildfire risks. By creating a single statewide fund instead of utility-specific accounts, the bill allows wildfire costs to be spread across all ratepayers. This means customers of utilities in low-risk areas could be forced to pay for wildfire damages caused by utilities operating in high-risk regions. For example, Puget Sound Energy’s 1.2 million customers could end up footing the bill for wildfire claims tied to other utilities elsewhere in the state.
• Hands control to an unelected council with no ratepayer representation. A new 15-member Wildfire Council would control how much utilities—and ultimately customers—must pay. The majority of council members are unelected, and no member is required to represent ratepayers, even though families fund the program through their bills.
• Provides no clear limits or safeguards for ratepayers. The bill sets no cap on claim amounts, no cap on attorney’s fees, and no limit on how much a single wildfire can drain the fund. There is also no clear requirement that insurance coverage be exhausted before ratepayer dollars are tapped, increasing the risk that customers pay before insurers do.
• Socializes wildfire risk instead of fixing the problem. By spreading wildfire costs across all ratepayers statewide, the bill moves Washington away from a fault-based system and toward socialized risk—where families pay the price for utility failures they didn’t cause, rather than focusing on prevention, accountability, and responsible utility practices.

Bottom line
HB 2275 raises electricity bills, shifts the cost of utility negligence onto ratepayers, and exposes families to uncapped, long-term surcharges set by an unelected council—all while allowing customers in low-risk areas to pay for wildfire damages caused elsewhere. It’s a costly policy shift that prioritizes utilities over affordability and accountability.