liveinsurancenews.com · Alicia Williams · September 8, 2026
Washington and Oregon Homeowners Are Paying for Wildfire Twice — Once on Their Insurance Bill and Once on Their Electric Bill » Live Insurance News
# Washington and Oregon Homeowners Are Paying for Wildfire Twice — Once on Their Insurance Bill and Once on Their Electric Bill
September 8, 2026 September 8, 2026 Alicia Williams
The wildfire season is not just showing up in homeowners insurance premiums in Washington and Oregon. It is showing up in the monthly electric bill too.
Puget Sound Energy raised residential electricity rates by almost 19 percent in January 2026. The utility is now proposing another increase — a 16.75 percent hike starting January 2027 — pending approval from the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.
That is roughly 38 percent more in electricity costs over two years. And the primary reason is wildfire.
The same wildfire risk that is making homeowners insurance harder to find and more expensive in the Pacific Northwest is driving utility spending on mitigation — spending that gets passed directly to ratepayers on their electric bill. Washington and Oregon homeowners are paying for the same problem twice.
## What Utilities Are Actually Spending
Utilities in the Pacific Northwest are required to submit wildfire mitigation plans to state regulators at least once every three years. Those plans document how they intend to reduce the risk that their equipment — power lines, transformers, substations — sparks a wildfire in increasingly dry conditions.
Pacific Power forecasted investing more than $10 million in wildfire mitigaton projects in its 2024 plan. Avista, which powers homes across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska through 19,000 miles of distribution lines, is also spending heavily on mitigation. Puget Sound Energy has not disclosed its exact wildfire spending in public filings but has tied the 19 percent January increase and the proposed 16.75 percent 2027 increase specifically to grid hardening, rising electricity demand, and compliance with Washington’s clean energy requirements.
“Capitalizing costs enables us to spread the rate impact over several years instead of hitting customers all at once,” Puget Sound Energy spokesperson Gerald Tracy told the Washington State Standard.
That is the utility’s framing. The customer’s framing is simpler: 19 percent this year. Another 16.75 percent next year. The spreading is happening — but the bill keeps going up.
### The Insurance Side of the Same Problem
Washington homeowners with properties in wildfire-exposed areas — Eastern Washington, the foothills communities near the Cascades, rural counties along the Oregon border — are simultaneously seeing homeowners insurance premiums rise and, in some cases, policies not renewed.
The same fire risk that utilities are spending billions to mitigate is the risk that insurance actuaries are using to justify higher premiums and in some cases non-renewals. It is the same risk showing up on two separate monthly bills.
Meredith Fowlie, faculty director at UC Berkeley’s Energy Institute at Haas, put it plainly when discussing the California version of this dynamic: “We’re seeing them on our electricity bills.” The same observation applies to Washington and Oregon — wildfire risk that is not fully priced into homeowners insurance in some areas is appearing in electricity bills instead.
### The Bill That Would Have Helped — and Why It Failed
State Representative Kristine Reeves, a Democrat who represents Federal Way, proposed a bill this year that would have created a wildfire liability fund for utilities. She described it as “a state version of wildfire insurance” — a pool that utilities could draw on to settle wildfire claims beyond what their own insurance covers.
The bill did not pass. The reason it did not pass is the same reason the problem is hard to solve: creating the fund would have required raising utility rates to capitalize it.
The solution to the problem that is raising electricity rates was rejected because it would raise electricity rates. That is the policy loop Washington homeowners are caught in right now.
Reeves remained concerned about what happens when a utility-sparked wildfire causes more damage than utilities can absorb on their own. She was not wrong to be worried. The 2017-2018 Thomas Fire and mudslides in California cost utilities roughly $2 billion in claims — money that California regulators eventually approved utilities to recover from ratepayers anyway.
### What the Wallet Actually Looks Like
A Washington homeowner in a wildfire-exposed area who has seen homeowners insurance rise 30 percent over the past three years — conservative for many communities — and is now absorbing a 19 percent electricity rate increase plus a potential additional 16.75 percent in 2027 is looking at significant cumulative cost pressure from two separate household bills driven by the same underlying risk.
Neither increase involves a claim. Neither involves a fire. Both reflect what it costs to live in a state where wildfire risk is real and growing.
Jennifer Moore, a consumer advocate focused on utility regulation, told the Washington State Standard she fears state regulators do not have enough resources to adequately scrutinize utility wildfire mitigation plans. Without that scrutiny, utilities can justify spending — and rate increases — that may not be as cost-effective as regulators and ratepayers deserve.
### What Washington and Oregon Homeowners Can Do
The 16.75 percent Puget Sound Energy proposal is pending — it has not been approved. The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission reviews rate proposals and can reduce or reject them. Public comment is part of that process. Homeowners who want to weigh in can find the commission’s filing information at utc.wa.gov.
Oregon’s utility rate proceedings are overseen by the Oregon Public Utility Commission at oregon.gov/puc. Pacific Power customers in Oregon can access rate case information through the commission’s public docket system.
#### Sources
- Central Oregon Daily / Washington State Standard — PSE 19% January 2026, 16.75% 2027 proposal, Tracy “capitalizing costs” quote, Reeves liability fund bill/state version of wildfire insurance, bill failed over rate concerns, Avista 19,000 miles, Pacific Power $10M+, Moore regulator capacity concern, September 4, 2026
UC Berkeley Energy Institute / KQED — Fowlie “seeing them on our electricity bills” quote, Washington wildfire insurance market context, utc.wa.gov rate proceedings, oregon.gov/puc, 1-800-562-6900 Washington Insurance Commissioner, 1-888-877-4894 Oregon Insurance Division, Thomas Fire $2B utility recovery comparison