Face of Nation : A northern California town has lost over 90% of its population since the nation’s deadliest wildfire in nearly a century last year, new figures show.
Door-to-door surveyors counted 2,034 residents in Paradise as of April, according to data released Thursday by California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The retirement community in the Sierra Nevada foothills was home to about 26,800 people in 2010.
Also Thursday, Newsom certified Paradise as a rural area to make the town eligible for loans, grants and assistance under federally funded rural development programs.
The development came the same day lawmakers approved a bill changing how the state pays for wildfire damage caused by utilities. Newsom is expected to sign it Friday, approving the creation of a fund of up to $21 billion that could help pay out claims related to blazes sparked by Pacific Gas & Electric Corp, such as through downed power lines.
As wildfire season kicks off again, supporters of the bill cited a need to provide financial certainty to the state’s investor-owned utilities, including PG&E, which declared bankruptcy amid lawsuits related to wildfires.
Customers will pay $10.5 billion to the fund that will cover costs from wildfires ignited by the equipment of participating electric utilities. Customers will contribute to the fund through a 15-year extension of an existing fee on monthly electricity bills.
“It is hard not to see this bill as something of a reward for monstrous behavior,” said Assemblymember Marc Levine, a Democrat from San Rafael who voted against the legislation. “They haven’t done the work. They should not be rewarded.”
