A new book is claiming that California Gov. Gavin Newsom intervened on behalf of the utility responsible for some of his state’s worst wildfires after receiving hundreds of thousands in donations from the utility’s executives. Rather than penalize the utility, Newsom instead sued oil and gas companies by declaring they bore responsibility for the wildfires due to their alleged role in climate change.
The New York Post previewed “Fool’s Gold: The Radicals, Con Artists, and Traitors Who Killed the California Dream and Now Threaten Us All” by Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter. In their book’s summary, the authors declared, “Newsom holds oil and gas companies responsible for wildfires but not the utilities that caused most of them after he and his wife raked in hundreds of thousands in donations.”
A downed power line belonging to Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) was responsible for the November 2018 Camp Fire that burned over 153,000 acres, destroying 13,500 homes and killing 85 people. PG&E pleaded guilty in June 2020 to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for its role in the destruction.
“But far from holding the massive utility accountable, Newsom spearheaded a legislative bankruptcy deal that allowed the utility to continue operating, then signed $21 billion in new insurance protections for PG&E into law,” the authors said.
Instead of taking on the utility, Newsom filed lawsuits against oil and gas companies, alleging they contributed to wildfire conditions by misleading the public about climate change.
“While blaming the oil companies for contributing to climate change, he failed to hold PG&E and other utilities accountable for wildfires that spewed record amounts of carbon and other toxic smoke into the area,” the authors stated.
PG&E is a major donor to California’s Democratic politicians and has close ties to Newsom and his wife, filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The authors stated the Newsoms “have accepted at least $700,000 in donations from PG&E. The funds went to Newsom’s many campaign coffers and his wife’s gender-justice films, at least one of which was screened in PG&E’s corporate San Francisco skyscraper in 2011.”
The authors added that PG&E was listed in the credits of two of Siebel Newsom’s films as an “associate producer.”
Photo courtesy of Gov. Newsom’s Facebook page.
