Wildfire claims against PacifiCorp surge to $46B on Oregon mass complaints

PacifiCorp faces at least $46 billion in claims related to Western US wildfires following recent lawsuits in Oregon, parent company Berkshire Hathaway Energy disclosed Aug. 5 in a Form 10-Q filing.

Plaintiffs in four separate mass complaints filed between April 29 and July 31 in the Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland, Ore., are seeking $43 billion in economic, noneconomic and punitive damages linked to catastrophic wildfires in September 2020, known as the Labor Day fires. The complaints, which name 1,443 individual class members, are part of broader litigation — Jeanyne James et al. v. PacifiCorp et al. — that has yielded several jury verdicts against PacifiCorp. The utility is appealing those verdicts.

"PacifiCorp believes the magnitude of damages sought by the class members in the James mass complaints to be of remote likelihood of being awarded based on the amounts awarded in the jury verdicts," the filing said.

A James case jury in June 2023 found PacifiCorp and its Pacific Power division liable to 17 named plaintiffs and to the class associated with four 2020 Labor Day wildfires, followed by several related trials that awarded damages.

Berkshire Hathaway Energy, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., reported an additional roughly $3 billion in outstanding complaints and demands filed against PacifiCorp in Oregon and California, "excluding any doubling or trebling of damages."

Various investigations into the causes of wildfires linked to PacifiCorp in Oregon and California are ongoing.

So far, PacifiCorp has paid $1.02 billion in settlements related to wildfires in Oregon and California and has reached agreements to pay another $199 million, the filing said. The Portland-based utility, which serves retail customers in six Western US states, reported $2.66 billion in cumulative estimated probable wildfire-related losses through the second quarter.

Oregon PUC to vote on resource plan

PacifiCorp and its parent company have been calling for regulatory and legislative reforms across its service territory to limit mounting multibillion-dollar wildfire liabilities, with some success.

A 2024 law in Utah placed a cap on certain damage claims and created a fire fund to augment insurance. Utility regulators in Oregon, however, in May rejected a PacifiCorp proposal to cap liabilities by limiting noneconomic damages in cases of willful misconduct and gross negligence.

Noneconomic damages account for the vast majority of claims against the utility.

PacifiCorp officials have cited wildfire risk and liability among the reasons for updating the utility's systemwide integrated resource plan (IRP), which seeks to delay and reduce new renewable energy and battery storage additions, and foresees the continued operation of existing coal-fired resources.

The Oregon Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote Aug. 8 on whether to acknowledge the IRP or place conditions on it. PUC staff, in an Aug. 1 memo, said the utility "has not demonstrated continual progress on the actions that will result in projected emission reductions" required under Oregon's landmark 2021 climate law.

Staff recommended the PUC order PacifiCorp to include an "executable" clean energy plan to be developed with regulators and stakeholders, and to launch a new request for proposals for resources to come online before 2030.