One General Session at the 2024 NARUC Annual Meeting and Education Conference was called "Hot Stuff: Navigating Financial Risks of Wildfires Without Getting Burned." The session looked at how wildfires pose a growing nationwide risk to communities, utilities, and consumers, with escalating financial impacts and affordability concerns. Panelists discussed innovative strategies for balancing the financial responsibilities of utilities with the need to maintain consumer affordability.

The 2024 NARUC Annual Meeting and Education Conference held in Anaheim from November 10-13 was a resounding success. Enjoy and learn from these excepts of panels discussing Wildfires, Natural Gas Demand, and Electric and Water Best Practices.

“We are founding the Readiness Forum. The goal is a nationwide effort at the beginning of every winter season to get members from industry aligned with state Commissions. It’s to talk about access to gas, production of gas, as well as interstate and intrastate pipeline access. It’s to share best practices across state Commissions.”

“NARUC serves as a place for gathering, exchanging information on a nonpartisan basis, and problem solving on issues coming before our members and the industry. It was an amazing opportunity to continue to provide service to our members.”

Conversations with NARUC Executive Director Greg White and NARUC President and Georgia PSC Commissioner Tricia Pridemore.

“There’s a lot of sharing that goes on with our peers across the industry through EEI’s efforts around the broader wildfire-risk mitigation and solutions efforts. I co-chair EEI’s CEO Task Force on Wildfires and this is one of the key pieces.”

“We’ve invested billions of dollars into preventing wildfires, but just as important are the post-ignition protections. We have 45 two-person teams – 90 people – in Safety and Infrastructure Protection in place.”

Conversations with PG&E CFO Carolyn Burke and Southern California Edison CEO Steve Powell, co-moderated with PUF’s Steve Mitnick and Guidehouse’s Chris Rogers.

Eminem I’m not. But if you were at the “How Can We Afford All This?” Luncheon, hosted by the Public Utilities Fortnightly team at NARUC’s Annual Meeting, you’ll long remember the compelling verses of my Affordability Rap.