Wildfires are the only major natural disaster that humans can truly prevent. Unlike hurricanes, floods, or earthquakes, we have the tools and data to reduce wildfire ignition, spread, and destruction—if we choose to use them. But in the American West, a powerful legislative campaign is shifting wildfire risk away from the companies best positioned to prevent these disasters, and onto the backs of the public. The result? A continuation and worsening of the crisis in the insurance industry, a growing burden on ratepayers and homeowners, and a dangerous precedent in climate-era liability law.
wildfire laws to shield utilities"
At the center of this push is Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate led by Warren Buffett. Through its utility subsidiary, PacifiCorp, Berkshire is leading a multistate legislative blitz to limit utility liability for wildfires. After facing billions of dollars in claims for the devastating Labor Day fires in Oregon and elsewhere, Berkshire Hathaway has set its sights on reshaping the legal landscape across the West—starting with Utah, where the company successfully passed laws capping utility liability and creating a ratepayer-financed wildfire fund. Since then, similar proposals have surfaced in Idaho, Wyoming, and Oregon.
According to an article in Politico, the speed and coordination of this legislative push have caught many off guard. Timber companies, insurers, and consumer advocates describe it as a “sneak attack,” designed to move quickly before organized opposition could mount. The result is a growing body of law that protects utilities from the financial consequences of wildfires—even in cases where their equipment ignited the flames.
Critics warn that these changes will simply transfer the cost of wildfire disasters to the rest of society. If utilities are no longer fully liable, insurance companies will be left holding the bag—and so will homeowners, renters, and local governments. Which means POUs will not benefit from these legislative changes. Insurers, including Berkshire Hathaway's GeneralRe, are already retreating from high-risk regions, citing growing losses and systemic uninsurability. The system is beginning to break down: in wildfire-prone areas, premiums now exceed what most people or businesses can afford. And if insurance isn’t available, neither are mortgages, loans, or long-term investment. That’s not just a real estate crisis—it’s a threat to the foundation of the financial system.
This is the stark warning from Allianz SE, one of the world’s largest insurers. Günther Thallinger, former CEO and current board member, recently declared that the climate crisis is on track to “destroy capitalism,” as the cost of extreme weather outpaces the ability of insurers and governments to respond. In his words: “The economic value of entire regions—coastal, arid, wildfire-prone—will begin to vanish from financial ledgers. Markets will reprice, rapidly and brutally. This is what a climate-driven market failure looks like.”
Data is Our Only Way Out
Wildfires remain the one disaster where that market failure is avoidable—because wildfires can be prevented. Athena knows where risk accumulates. We know how weather, vegetation, topography, and infrastructure interact to create ignition conditions. With modern geospatial data, utility analytics, and new approaches to mitigation planning, the conditions that lead to wildfire disasters can be addressed before the first spark.
This is what makes the current liability debate so troubling. Instead of investing in data-driven mitigation and system hardening, some investor-owned utilities are pursuing legal immunity. The message is clear: shareholder risk must be managed, even if societal risk grows.
Expecting support from the insurance industry, which relies on shared accountability and recoverability, may be challenged because of their own slowness to use data effectively. Most wildfire modelers and risk managers at insurance companies lack the wildfire experience of the wildfire experts and disaster managers at utilities. The IOUs are attempting to shift the burden without a parallel shift in responsibility.
But there’s still time to choose another path. Instead of fighting over who pays after the fire, we can focus on preventing the fire in the first place. That means embracing better data, clearer standards, transparent mitigation plans, and independent oversight. Wildfire need not be an act of God— We can understand it as a human system failure, and one we still have time to fix.
In the end, it’s a choice between two futures. In one, utilities are shielded from accountability, insurers abandon high-risk regions, and residents are left without recourse. In the other, we use the data we already have to build smarter, safer, more equitable systems that reduce risk at the source.
Athena would like to demonstrate our pre-wildfire data to you. For utilities with under 200,000 meters the base map, which shows where wildfires are likely over the upcoming 12 months, is a fixed $500/month. This includes quarterly updates.
Wildfires don’t have to bankrupt utilities. But ignoring the data will.