California utility Pacific Gas and Electric Company has agreed to plead guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of unlawfully starting the Camp Fire, according to court documents filed Monday.
The company is sentenced to a maximum fine of “no more than $3,486,950,” and it must reimburse the Butte County District Attorney’s Office $500,000 for the costs of its investigation into the blaze.
Among other provisions, PG&E must establish a trust, compensating victims of the 2018 Camp Fire and other wildfires to the tune of $13.5 billion, according to the plea agreement included in a regulatory filing.
It has to pay hundreds of millions to the town of Paradise and Butte County and cooperate with prosecutors’ investigation, the plea deal says. PG&E also waived its right to appeal the case.
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On November 21, 2018, Rolling Stone published this piece, “Ryan Zinke Blames Radical Enviros for California Fires,” which asked “Who exactly are the ‘environmental radicals’ and ‘radical environmentalists’ he might be talking about?
The article opened with:
The other day, after visiting the Camp Fire near Paradise, California, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke figured out who was to blame for the worst wildfire in California history, which has burned more than 105,000 acres, destroyed 12,600 homes, and killed at least 81 people (as of Wednesday morning, there are still more than 1,000 people unaccounted for). “I will lay this on the foot of environmental radicals who prevented us from managing the forests,” Zinke told Brietbart. “This is absolutely on them.”