20240912Comment_1.pdf

RECEIVED
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2024
IDAHO PUBLIC
UTILITIES COMMISSION
60 IDAHO
CONSERVATION
LEAGUE
208.345.6933 • PO Box 844.Boise,ID 83702•www.idahoconservatcrt.org
September 12, 2024
Submitted via email to [e-mail]
Idaho Public Utilities Commission
1331 W. Chinden Boulevard
Building 8, Suite 201-A
Boise, Idaho 83714
Re: Comments, Case No. PAC-E-24-09; Application of Rocky Mountain Power
Requesting Approval of the 2024 Idaho Wildfire Mitigation Plan
Dear Commissioners Anderson, Hammond, and Lodge,
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on PacificCorp's, DBA Rocky Mountain
Power, ("PacifiCorp", or"Company") 2024 Wildfire Mitigation Plan. ICL represents its
organizational interests and those of its more than 26,000 members and supporters. Our concerns
to the Company's fire management plans are both regulatory and touch our broader work public
lands access and management. Fires are growing as a critical driver of utility costs and regulation
as well as affecting the daily lives of Idahoans during our long fire seasons. ICL offers these
comments to the Commission as the utility and regulatory system faces growing pressure to
innovate around fire planning and management.
We commend the Company for offering a substantial and operable Wildfire Mitigation
Plan ("WMP" or"plan"). The Company's plan is a step forward in sophistication,particularly in
meteorological data collection and forecasting. These measures are an appropriate response to
the increased risk resulting from more frequent and aggressive fire behavior across the west. We
recommend the Commission accept the plan with the following considerations.
These comments include an attachment by Adrian Gallo, who holds a doctorate in Forest
Management with a specialization in soil science. Dr. Gallo's prior research concerned
ecosystem responses to climate change, noting that the observed change in fire frequency and
Idaho Public Utilities Commission
Case No. PAC-E-24-09; Comments of the Idaho Conservation League Page 1

intensity presages a step-change in wildfire behavior. Mitigation is essential, but the growing fire
risk the Company addresses in its plan is deepest rooted in a changing climate. We caution that
the Company's risk profile will grow at an unpredictable rate so long as emissions remain
unchecked.
At the same time as PacifiCorp offers its 2025 mitigation plan, the Company also seeks to
limit its financial and legal liabilities. As this Commision is well aware, the PacifiCorp faces
massive assessed, claimed, and settled liabilities resulting from previous fires.' While the
ongoing litigation is complex and unresolved, the full course will undoubtedly be expensive.Z
The Company claims that further liability threatens its financial standing. To this end, the
Company requested this Commission limit or manage further exposure in multiple administrative
requests.' It is also possible Idaho will join neighboring states in altering fire liability through
legislation.'PacifiCorp is at the center of a rapidly changing legal landscape concerning utility
fire liability across the West.
Fire liability is a vexing problem without a clear solution, not to be resolved in this
docket, but should be considered critical context as the Commission reviews this and other
Wildfire Mitigation Plans. The plan should be considered in tandem with the Company's
insurance programs, legal exposure, and larger shifts in the regulatory regime surrounding fire. A
change in liability does not make costs go away, it merely shifts who pays them, be they a
recovering plaintiff, appropriately assessed ratepayers, or utility shareholders. The exact balance
between these parties will be difficult to find, but any waiver or limitation of liability is
appropriately exchanged for increased obligations and scrutiny to a Company's expenses and
operations.
The Governor's recent Wildfire Recommendations Report includes policy
recommendations from a utility/insurance workgroup developed with input from all three Idaho
investor-owned utilities.'Among other things, the report recommends "State-level legislation
adopting clear wildfire liability standards for electric utilities based upon utilities implementing
wildfire mitigation measures contained in their Wildfire Mitigation Plans".' This
recommendation appropriately ties a shift in responsibility to obligations to physically manage
'Information on Fire Litigation,PacifiCorp,(accessed Sept, 11,2024).
https://www.pacificoEp.com/about/information-wildfire-litigation.html
2 Berkshire Hathaway,Form SEC 10-Q at 23 and 24(quarter ending June 30,2024).
https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/gtrly/2ndgtr24.12df
s See Case No.PAC-E-23-22,Order No. 36175 (Commission rejected liability shield in tariff language);Case No.
PAC-E-24-04,Application at 5(pending rate case;Company seeks insurance cost adjustment mechanism and
catastrophic fire fund).
'Utah S.B.224,Energy Independence Amendments(2024),Amending Utah Code§ 54-17-102 et. seq. (capping
economic and non-economic damages in third-party fire claims).
'Wildfire Recommendations Report,Office of the Governor(August 2024).
https://Rov.idaho.izov/wp-content/uyloads/2024/08/2024-wildfire-report.pdf
'Id. at 37(page 6 of the Utility/Insurance workgroup report).
Idaho Public Utilities Commission
Case No.PAC-E-24-09; Comments of the Idaho Conservation League Page 2

fire risk. While the life of these recommendations is yet to play out, it is quite likely that legal
standards around fire liability and adequacy of utility mitigation plans will be re-defined in the
coming years.
We recommend the Commision consider and write on the interconnection of the
Company's plan and various proposals to increase insurance coverage, establish catastrophic fire
funds, or alter liability caps and standards. In recognition of the thoroughness and continuing
development of the Company's Plan, we recommend its approval. Fire will continue to grow as a
predominant issue for utilities and the public in the West. In this period of ecological, regulatory,
and legal flux we hope for a considered and productive resolution of this difficult problem.
Submitted,
Brad Heusinkveld
Energy and Regulatory Counsel
Idaho Conservation League
[e-mail]
Idaho Public Utilities Commission
Case No.PAC-E-24-09; Comments of the Idaho Conservation League Page 3

Attachment: Supplement of Adrian Gallo, PhD
Wildfire ecology's unstable equilibrium for the upcoming decades
Fire ecology and wildfire research has rapidly evolved over the past decade. Some of that
information is beginning to show up in wildfire management plans, as shown in aspects of
PacificCorps' Wildfire Management Plan (WMP)'. However, more acute and widespread
wildfire impacts are beginning to manifest, yet they are not reflected in the WMP. The purpose of
this supplement is to bring the newest research from fire ecology into the present to ensure
utilities in Idaho understand the rapidly changing landscape they sprawl across.
Acreage burned and money spent on fire suppression activities have increased
substantially in the last three decades. In 1992, approximately 4.5 million acres of federally
managed lands in the US burned, the suppression costs alone approached $400 million dollars. In
2022, 7.1 million acres burned and wildfire suppression costs ballooned to nearly$4.4 billion
dollars2. As PacificCorp is well aware, suppression costs are not the only costs to consider when
evaluating the impact of wildfires.
There are a confluence of factors driving this paradigm change. Some examples include a
century of wildfire exclusion that have overstocked our landscapes, the increasing severity and
duration of extreme heat events and droughts, higher insect and invasive species pressures that
change local fire ecology behaviors, and the increasing movement of people into the wildland
urban interface with the simultaneous expansion of wildfire prone areas. Individually these are
concerning trends, collectively it requires a total re-evaluation of what to expect from wildfires
moving forward.
It is well established that humans remain the primary cause of wildfires,but electrical
utilities are feeling an unwelcome spotlight. From 1992-2012, humans are responsible for 84%
of all wildfires and nearly half of the acreage burned resulting in a human-caused fire season that
is three-times longer than the lightning-only fire season'. From 1992-2020 wind-driven
downslope fires represent barely 13% all wildfires in the west, but they are responsible for 60%
of all structural losses and 52% of all human lives lost from wildfires4. A deeper examination of
these wind-driven downslope fires reveals energy systems are responsible for the majority (51%)
'PacificCorp Idaho Wildfire Management Plan(WMP)-
hW2s://lf-12uc.idaho.gov/WebLink/DocView.asl2x?dbid=0&id=134433
2 National Interagency Fire Center,Wildfire Suppression Costs on Federally Managed Lands.
hlWs://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/statistics/suppression-costs
3 Balch,J.,et al.,2017.Human-started Wildfires expand the fire niche across the United States.
hW2s://www.12nas.org/doi/el2df/10.1073/pnas.1617394114
a Abatzoglou,J.,at al.,2023.Downslope wind-driven fires in the western United States.
hqps:HaWpubs.onlinelibrLr$.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022EF003471
Case No.PAC-E-24-09; Attachment to ICL Comments Page 1

of all acreage burned whether they're caused by lightning or humans (e.g. recreation, equipment
failures, debris burning, arson, fireworks).
It remains a failure of risk communication from fire ecology researchers that the west has
yet to adequately feel the new risk-landscape. While the 2020 western fire season burned in
excess of 10 million acres, this remains within the historic range of wildfire behavior. As a result
of ignitions coinciding with east-wind-driven conditions that were preceded by dry fuel loading,
approximately 300,000 acres burned in a 48-hour periods. As the authors state "the Labor Day
fires were fundamentally a weather-driven event. The influence of forest management on fire
severity was minimal and variation in forest structure or fuels played little role."Although those
authors focused on the Cascades and wet forests typical of northern Idaho, other wildfire
research focused on the Rocky Mountains found similar results'. The researchers note "our
results support expectations that Northern Rockies fire activity will continue to increase with
climatic warming, surpassing historical burning if more than one exceptional fire year akin to
1910 occurs within the next several decades." The allusion to the 1910 fire year is illustrative; it
was a wind-driven event across much of the inland northwest known as the Big Burn that
significantly altered the trajectory of US land management policies','. Approximately 3 million
acres were burned in a short period of time. As other researchers note, the likelihood of
large-scale catastrophic events will double from 2021-2050, with a"three-fold increase in the
probability of years exceeding the record-breaking 2020 season 9". To assume future years will
be similar, or even slightly worse than previous years, is a severe underappreciation of expected
wildfire behavior.
While the WMP uses tools that separate out fuel/terrain-driven and wind-driven wildfire
ignition events, there remain many deficiencies. The FireSight modeling tools developed by
Technosylva use a wide range of areas (e.g. CalFire jurisdiction)that may accurately capture the
impacts of fuel and wind-driven events. A benefit of using this approach is that it can model
wind-driven events here in Idaho when there are no modern examples of such occurrence. The
downside is when calculating the Fire High Consequence Areas (FHCA); because FireSight uses
a large geospatial database, the upper quintiles of the composite score are relative to all areas
analyzed, rather than Idaho's specific geographic locations. This leads to the unnatural
conclusion that"Rocky Mountain Power has not identified any geographic areas in Idaho for
inclusion in an FHCA." (page 18)1. The reason for this is the composite scores calculated include
5 Reilly,et al.,2022. Cascadia Burning: The historic,but not historically unprecedented,2020 wildfires in the Pacific
Northwest,USA.hops://esajoumals.onlinelibrgy.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.4070
'Clark-Wolf K.,et al.,2023.Wildfire activity in northern Rocky Mountain subalpine forests still within
millennial-scale range of variability.hUs:Hiol2science.iop.org/article/10,1088/1748-9326/aceel6/pdf
7 Egan,T.2009.The Big Burn:Teddy Roosevelt and the fire that saved America.
s Little.J.J. 1968. 1910 forest fires in Montana and Idaho:Their impact on federal and state legislation.
hW2s:Hscholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2474&context=etd
v Abatzoglou,J.T,et al.,2021.Projected increases in western US forest fire despite growing fuel constraints.
hgps://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00299-0
Case No.PAC-E-24-09; Attachment to ICL Comments Page 2

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