A move to protect a federally endangered plant by halting the state construction of new utility lines is being highlighted in a newspaper report as a potential factor in California’s Palisades fire.

Downed utility lines in the area are being investigated for fuelling, and potentially even causing, the immense Palisades fire, says The New York Times.

However, the California Coastal Commission, who intervened in the utility line construction, have said that they did give out new permits for the utility pole project and “are very supportive of wildfire resiliency work.”

Why It Matters

The cause of the Pacific Palisades fire is under investigation by the Bureau for Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and if government negligence was found to play a part, it would further fuel existing frustration with Mayor Bass, and Governor Newsom expressed by some California residents.

LA is also facing a climate-change-shaped future of increased droughts which will further impact the scope of wildfires, and needs to figure out how to balance everyday conservation with fire protection for the entire region.

What To Know

In 2020, the California Coastal Commission fined the Los Angeles Department of Public Works (LADWP) $1.9 million over their utility pole project in the Pacific Palisades, as the project had bulldozed almost 200 federally protected Braunton’s milkvetch (Astragalus brauntonii) plants.

According to the Sierra Club, there are only 3,000 of these “purple-petalled perennial wildflower” plants left in the mountains, and they are listed under the Endangered Species Act.

The utility pole project policed by the Coastal Commission in 2020 was a public works project designed to install stronger, metal, utility poles in the Palisades, as some of the utility poles in the area were built almost 100 years ago. Downed utility lines have caused blazes in the past, and reporters from The New York Times have now found bits of power line debris in the Palisade hills.

The Coastal Commission told the LADWP in 2020 that they needed to seek a permit from the Coastal Commission to restart the development, as well as undo their roadwork and revegetate the area. While the LADWP paid the fine, it does not appear they ever restarted the utility poles project.

The LADWP has been contacted via phone call and voicemail for comment.

Sarah Christie, a spokesperson for the Coastal Commission, spoke to Newsweek about this incident saying: “In 2019, a hiker reported unpermitted bulldozing through an area of endangered plants and hiking trails in Topanga State Park.

“In addition to damaging native plants and public trails, this type of grading also can also encourage highly flammable, non-native grasses to flourish. But the damage was repaired the following year, and the Commission approved a permit for the Utility to move forward with their work to replace the poles.

“We are very supportive of wildfire resiliency work and will continue to promote efforts to harden homes and public infrastructure and create defensible space.”

What People Are Saying

Eric Edmunds, Chair of the Santa Monica Mountains Task Force in a 2020 letter: “Our task force has been involved with far too many cases of utility companies not using good judgment and failing to comply with the laws, policies, and ordinances that are in place to protect and preserve our finite natural resources.”

The LADWP in 2020: “[This project is] essential in regards to our wildfire mitigation plan.”

What Happens Next

The cause of the Palisades fire is still under investigation by the ATF, who have said it will take time to figure out the root cause of the blaze.

In the meantime, Angelenos are still combating active blazes, with the Eaton fire now at 55 percent containment, and the Palisades fire at 22 percent containment.

Three days after immensely destructive and deadly wildfires broke out in and around Los Angeles, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a $322.3 billion state budget with a positive revenue forecast “based on an assumption of continued but slowing economic growth.”

The new 2025-26 budget is already outdated because the fires, which are still growing, will have a heavy impact on both the income and outgo sides of the budget, by reducing economic activity in Southern California and increasing pressure for fire suppression and recovery aid from Sacramento.

The fires struck as California’s economy was still recovering from the brief but sharp recession that hit the state five years ago when Newsom ordered shutdowns to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. About 3 million workers were idled, and recovery has been mediocre at best. California’s unemployment rate, 5.4% in November, the latest month for which data are available, was the second highest of any state, with more than a million unemployed workers.

A broader federal Bureau of Labor Statistics measure of unemployment or underemployment provides an even dimmer picture. The U-6 rate, as it’s dubbed, counts “total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers.”

(Marginally attached workers are people who aren’t working or looking for work but who want a job and have looked for one in the last 12 months.)

California’s current U-6 rate is 10%, by far the highest of any state and more than twice the national rate. It’s even higher — 11.8% — in Los Angeles.

Beacon Economics, in an analysis of the latest data, says that employment growth in California has trailed the nation in recent years: “Since February 2020 (the start of the pandemic), total nonfarm employment in the state has grown 2.5% compared to a 4.6% increase nationally.”

“There are a mix of influences both driving and constraining the state’s job growth,” Justin Niakamal, Beacon’s research manager, commented. “On one hand, California is seeing comparatively high incomes, strong consumer demand, and high economic output, but our critical lack of housing supply has led to the state’s well-known labor force contraction, and that is most certainly holding back job growth.”

The wildfires are obviously one uncertain factor in how California’s economy fares over the next few years — but not the only one.

Newsom’s budget, without mentioning him by name, cites Donald Trump’s recapture of the White House as “the most immediate risk to the forecast,” listing Trump’s vows to impose tariffs on imported goods and deport undocumented immigrants.

“California would also be especially vulnerable to tariffs as the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland and the logistics industry that is concentrated in the Inland Empire are highly dependent on foreign trade,” the budget declares, adding, “To the extent that existing workers are deported and potential new workers banned or discouraged from immigrating, many sectors of the U.S. and California economies could face labor shortages, leading to price increases in the goods and services produced by these sectors.”

However, even if the fires had not occurred and Trump not been elected, the state would still face a declining labor force, as a new report from the Public Policy Institute of California notes.

“In the last two decades, the share of the population participating in the labor force has fallen five percentage points (from 67% to 62% today) due to the aging of California’s population,” PPIC analyst Sarah Bohn writes. “As the population continues to age and the state faces a shrinking workforce, preparing Californians who can and want to work will become more essential.

“California’s current economic realities reflect the volatile macroeconomic conditions we’ve weathered since the pandemic as well as long-term challenges that have been brewing for decades,” she continues.