The U.S. Attorney General鈥檚 Office accuses PacifiCorp of failing to maintain its equipment or the vegetation around it, thus sparking the fire that would destroy about 170 homes.
Thursday鈥檚 lawsuit adds to a growing list of cases against utility companies for the role that charged powerlines play in sparking fires during wind storms and other extreme weather events. It filed on the same day that the Oregon Public Utility Commission approved . The company partly blamed wildfire costs for driving rate increases.
PacifiCorp has so far settled with over 2,000 plaintiffs across multiple class action suits tying its equipment to wildfires. Last year it agreed to pay to settle with 463 plaintiffs, many of them people and businesses displaced by the fires. In , it reached a $250 million settlement with commercial timber companies.
In its most , from November, PacifiCorp executives estimate 2020 and 2022 wildfire lawsuits have cost the company nearly $2.7 billion.
This federal lawsuit claims PacifiCorp has a history of 鈥渇ailing to satisfy basic safety standards鈥� and doing little to fix safety issues.
It outlines data showing how often it has incurred state violations for not clearing vegetation from its power lines. It also references a 2021 federal investigation in Utah, in which utility regulators concluded that almost half of the PacifiCorp transmission lines were so poorly maintained, they should not have carried an electrical current.
The federal lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court of Oregon, demands the company pay for all costs and damages the federal government incurred from the Archie Creek Fire.
In a statement, PacifiCorp said it 鈥渨ill review legal filings and will respond appropriately.鈥�
The legal complaint doesn鈥檛 say how much the Archie Creek cost the federal government, but PacifiCorp鈥檚 November financial report says the U.S. Department of Justice estimates the fire cost the country $625 million.
The PacifiCorp filing also says the Oregon Department of Justice has informed the company it might pursue similar litigation. The office calculated state costs at $109 million.
The company鈥檚 report, filed with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, says it is 鈥渁ctively cooperating鈥� with the state and federal offices, 鈥渋ncluding through the pursuit of alternative dispute resolution.鈥�
The U.S. Attorney General鈥檚 Office and the Oregon Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Courtney Sherwood contributed to this report
