PAYING FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
As California has grown drier and hotter over the past few decades, its wildfire season has expanded from a trying few months to a yearlong struggle—causing greater and greater damage. The situation sharpens a critical legal question being asked around the globe: Who should be responsible for the costs of climate change?
California is an exemplarily complex case. In June, the state’s department of forestry and fire protection determined that 12 devastating fires that struck Northern California late last year were the result of trees coming into contact with power lines or other problems tied to the electric utility Pacific Gas & Electric. Thanks to a policy known as inverse condemnation, the utility could be on the hook for those damages, which the company
