SACRAMENTO (KRON) — A locked hearing room — that’s what Santa Rosa resident Will Abrams drove hours to find Friday.
“I’m really concerned about these issues,” he said. “It really needs to be a collaborative approach.”
He and his family fled the Tubbs Fire in 2017.
He had his testimony ready to go against Assembly Bill 1054.
It’s the governor’s proposal to create a fund that would help utility companies pay for future wildfires when their equipment is to blame.
“One of the things I’m particularly concerned about is that these funds are going to be able to flow to the utilities without strict wildfire mitigation standards,” he said.
Abrams wants there to be ownership for the utility companies to pay those claims.
“That’s what’s important for us to move forward and this doesn’t get us there,” he said.
With the postponement, lawmakers will have five days to get the measure passed before going on summer break.
The governor has said he hopes to get it passed by July 12 with the concern that doing nothing will hurt rate payers.
“I think while all of us feel urgency, I’m concerned this is being done with haste and there’s a fine line between urgency and haste,” he said.
The committee hearing on this is scheduled for monday but a time has not yet been set.
Abrams says he’ll be back.