# Who Should Pay When Utilities Companies Start a Fire? Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728/who-should-pay-when-utilities-companies-start-a-fire Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728/who-should-pay-when-utilities-companies-start-a-fire.md Podcast: [KQED's Forum](https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728) Published: 2026-09-01T18:28:00+00:00 Episode link: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC7344186977.mp3 Audio file: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC7344186977.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/kqed-s-forum-910728/episodes/who-should-pay-when-utilities-companies-start-a-fire Duration seconds: 3287 ## Resource Wildfire season is underway in California, but the state’s wildfire fund is running low after billions went to victims of last year’s massive Altadena fire, sparked by faulty equipment owned by Southern California Edison. Governor Newsom and the legislature’s debate over fixing the wildfire fund has hinged on the extent utilities, insurance companies and homeowners would pay into it. We’ll dig into the details, and hear your thoughts on who should pay to rebuild after wildfires. Guests: Guy Marzorati, correspondent, KQED’s California Politics and Government Desk Michael Wara, policy director for the Sustainability Accelerator at the Doerr School of Sustainability, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program, senior research scholar at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University Joy Chen, executive director, Every Fire Survivor’s Network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/kqed-s-forum-910728/episodes/who-should-pay-when-utilities-companies-start-a-fire/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728/who-should-pay-when-utilities-companies-start-a-fire.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.