FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
National Coalition to Newsom: Choose Survivors Over Perpetrators of California’s Catastrophic Fires
The national NAACP, Public Citizen, and other groups join Eaton Fire Survivors urging Newsom to protect survivors, not California's electric monopolies.
ALTADENA, Calif., July 24, 2026 — Eaton Fire survivors, elected officials and a growing national coalition gathered in Altadena on Friday to urge Governor Gavin Newsom to publicly rule out another last-minute, closed-door deal shifting the cost of California's catastrophic wildfires onto survivors, policyholders and customers, and away from the state's three for-profit electric monopolies.
The press conference and postcard party followed a
Los Angeles Times front-page report that the governor's office and legislative leaders are again negotiating wildfire legislation behind closed doors, and that California's electric utilities have been impersonating survivors through a group called Wildfire Victims First, which was created and funded by the state's three electric monopolies.
Organizers said the closed-door negotiations echo what happened last September, when a consumer-protection bill was gutted in the final two days of the legislative session and rewritten to shield the state's electric monopolies instead.
"Today, millions of Americans, including Public Citizen and the national NAACP, stand together with Eaton Fire survivors to send one message: Governor Newsom, choose democracy over corporate special interests," said Joy Chen, executive director of the Every Fire Survivor's Network.
Edison's Profits Tripled While Survivors Face Homelessness
Eighteen months after the fire killed at least 19 people, two in three Eaton Fire survivors remain displaced, according to the nonprofit Department of Angels. Nearly half have drained their savings. More than four in 10 have taken on new debt, a median of roughly $100,000. More than half are approaching the loss of their insurance-funded temporary housing, with nowhere else to go. Seventy-four percent report their mental health is worse than before the fire, and providers say suicidal ideation is rising alongside the financial and housing strain.
Meanwhile, for the company behind the destruction, the picture looks rosy. In 2025, the first full year after the Eaton Fire, Edison's profit nearly tripled, from $1.28 billion to $4.46 billion. Its shareholders received a 22nd consecutive dividend increase, a $1.3 billion payout. Its CEO's pay rose 20 percent, to $16.5 million.
How Edison Got So Rich, So Fast
Organizers say the answer traces back to decisions made under Newsom's administration.
Last September, two days before the Legislature was scheduled to adjourn, the administration and legislative leaders transformed SB 254 from a consumer utility bill into legislation protecting California's electric monopolies. The new language was introduced so late that the Legislature had to extend its session to satisfy the minimum 72-hour public review requirement. The Los Angeles Times called SB 254 "
effectively a bailout."
In October, the California Public Utilities Commission, whose five commissioners, including its president, are all Newsom appointees, approved a $1.1 billion rate increase on customers plus nearly $1 billion in retroactive back pay for Edison, citing bankruptcy risk from the fire.
Two months later, far from bankrupt, Edison's board raised its shareholder dividend for the 22nd consecutive year, a $1.3 billion payout, almost the same amount customers had just been charged.
Two months after the dividend increase, Edison reported its full-year results: profit had nearly tripled to a record $4.46 billion. The same week, Edison disclosed that CEO Pedro Pizarro's compensation had soared 20 percent, to $16.5 million, also a record, while families whose homes were destroyed by the fire remain unpaid and are losing their housing.
Customers of California's three electric monopolies now pay 35 cents per kilowatt-hour, nearly double the national average of 19 cents, and 70% above what the publicly-owned Los Angeles Department of Water and Power charges.
In October, the California Public Utilities Commission, whose five commissioners, including its president, are all Newsom appointees, approved a $1.1 billion rate increase on customers plus nearly $1 billion in retroactive back pay for Edison, citing bankruptcy risk from the fire.
Two months later, far from bankrupt, Edison's board raised its shareholder dividend for the 22nd consecutive year, a $1.3 billion payout, almost the same amount customers had just been charged.
Two months after the dividend increase, Edison reported its full-year results: profit had nearly tripled to a record $4.46 billion. The same week, Edison disclosed that CEO Pedro Pizarro's compensation had soared 20 percent, to $16.5 million, also a record, while families whose homes were destroyed by the fire remain unpaid and are losing their housing.
Customers of California's three electric monopolies now pay 35 cents per kilowatt-hour, nearly double the national average of 19 cents, and 70% above what the publicly-owned Los Angeles Department of Water and Power charges.
"Ratepayers have already paid enough," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. "They paid billions for wildfire mitigation Edison never completed, and the aging transmission lines the company should have replaced are what sparked this fire. Eaton Fire survivors paid with their homes and their lives. Governor Newsom shouldn't sponsor an 11th-hour bailout for a for-profit utility that has to hide behind a phony survivor group like Wildfire Victims First because its own profiteering and negligence can't justify one."
The group has spent this year on television and social-media ads pushing lawmakers toward proposals that would cap what fire victims can recover from those companies and shift more wildfire costs onto insurers and policyholders.
A National Call: Protect Survivors, Not Perpetrators
Friday's event marked the launch of a national campaign, with organizations beyond California joining in solidarity as wildfires grow more destructive nationwide.
"The Eaton Fire devastated Altadena, home to one of California's most historic Black communities," said Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the national NAACP. "Now, as survivors fight to rebuild, they should not be asked to bear the cost of protecting the corporations whose failures devastated their community. The NAACP calls on Governor Newsom to stand with survivors, reject policies that shield corporate misconduct, and ensure California leads the nation by putting people before powerful interests."
We thank Governor Newsom for standing up to protect California's migrant communities from the Trump administration's attacks," said Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), a nationwide network of 70 immigrant rights organizations. "But today, many of those migrant families have lost their homes, their jobs and their entire community in the Eaton Fire. They are watching how their own recovery is being threatened by the governor's efforts to protect Edison instead of survivors. Governor Newsom, change course. Protect ALL fire survivors, including migrant families, not the corporation that failed them."
"Corporate accountability is not optional. It is the foundation of justice and public trust," said Rick Morris, senior insurance campaigner with Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization of more than one million members nationwide. "California should not protect corporations collecting billions in profits from the consequences of their actions while wildfire survivors are still fighting to rebuild their lives. Public Citizen calls on Governor Newsom to stand with survivors and ensure that accountability, not corporate influence, guides California's response."
"Our Democracy Depends on Decisions This Consequential Being Debated in the Open"
“I was deeply troubled by the use of a last-minute gut-and-amend last September, which undermined an open legislative process, deprived the public the opportunity to provide meaningful input, left fire survivors without the protections they deserved, and instead prioritized the interest of companies that evidence shows caused the fire” said Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, who represents the Eaton Fire area. “We must not be put in that position again. Transparency and meaningful stakeholder engagement for legislation of this significance should be the priority. Fire survivors deserve better.”
“The threat of catastrophic wildfire affects millions of Californians up and down the state, worsening the affordability crisis, as home and business owners struggle to find affordable insurance and pay rising utility bills,” said Sen. Ben Allen, Chair of the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee. “We must act, but that action must be transparent and centered on protecting victims and lowering costs for working people. Any solutions we advance this year should hold the responsible parties accountable, lower costs for people, and meaningfully reduce wildfire risk.”
"Behind These Policy Decisions Are Thousands of Families"
“Altadena wasn’t just a collection of homes. It was one of America’s most historic and diverse communities built across generations. If this can happen to fire survivors here, it can happen to disaster survivors anywhere. Government should never protect corporate perpetrators over the people who lost everything. The last thing fire survivors should lose is their right to full and fair justice,” said Shawna Dawson Beer, a survivor and founder of Beautiful Altadena.
"For 18 months, I've stood in survivor meetings where parents cried because they didn't know where their kids would sleep next month," said Heavenly Hughes, a survivor and founder of My TRIBE Rise. "This community has held each other up for eighteen months because no one else would. That shouldn't be their job. It's Governor Newsom's."
Dorothy Evans, a survivor and CEO of Hope Now Community Resource Center, which serves Altadena seniors, lost both her home and her home-based childcare business in the fire.
"I lost my home, and I lost the work that allowed me to care for my own family while caring for my neighbors' children," Evans said. "For the past eighteen months, I've been sleeping on a friend's couch. Through Hope Now, I've also watched three seniors in my community die from despair after the fire. Every delay has a human cost. This isn't just about rebuilding homes. It's about whether people survive long enough to rebuild their lives."
"I buried people from this fire who didn't die in the flames," said the Rev. Anthony McFarland of Lift Altadena Church, also a survivor. "They died waiting. Waiting on a check, waiting on a decision, waiting on a system that kept telling them to be patient while the corporation responsible for all this destruction tripled their profits. Justice isn't a policy position. It's whether the people who caused this suffering are made to answer for it."
“For the electric monopolies, limiting the compensation that wildfire victims can collect means more profits and bigger bonuses, all while still raising rates for consumers,” said Shimica Gaskins, a survivor and president and CEO of End Child Poverty CA. “For us, it means the difference in whether we can be made whole in the wake of enormous loss. It affects whether we can rebuild our homes and keep roofs over our heads as we do it. It impacts our ability to reclaim our lives to bring back a semblance of stability for our children, who have suffered catastrophic trauma and upheaval.”
"You Break It, You Fix It"
Chen closed the event by returning to a principle the coalition has invoked since its earliest correspondence with the Newsom administration.
"It's what every parent teaches their child, and it's the basis of our nation's system of civil justice," Chen said. "You break it, you fix it. Not: you break it, your victims lose everything, while your shareholders and executives walk away even richer."
Following the press conference, hundreds of survivors took part in a postcard party, writing personal
