Oregon
Wildfires bankrupted California’s largest utility. What will happen to Oregon’s PacifiCorp?
Despite losing a costly wildfire lawsuit last week and staring down another perilous trial in November, Oregon’s second-largest utility appears positioned for now to weather the storm without the type of financial meltdown even its own lawyers warned could be on the horizon. But PacifiCorp is beginning to feel some pain.
The company’s decision to bring the class action lawsuit to trial instead of settling with victims was an unusual financial gamble. PacifiCorp now faces an unprecedented bill in Oregon that could conceivably reach billions of dollars. A Multnomah County jury awarded $90 million in damages to a subset of just 17 victims of four fires from Labor Day 2020, with potentially thousands of other victims in the class to be compensated in future court proceedings.