The CPUC's Safety and Enforcement Division proposed a $22 million Administrative Consent Order against PG&E on July 10 for violations tied to the 2022 Mosquito Fire — including destroying a transmission pole suspected of starting the blaze. Commissioners vote August 13. None of the penalty funds reach the affected communities.

Near Oxbow Reservoir in Placer County, a PG&E transmission pole was the likely starting point of the 2022 Mosquito Fire, according to state regulators — electric arcing at a jumper cable, scorch marks on the tower. That pole was gone before investigators finished their work.

Under an Administrative Consent Order proposed July 10 by the California Public Utilities Commission's Safety and Enforcement Division, PG&E has agreed to pay $22 million in penalties: $21 million directed to the state's General Fund from shareholder funds, and $1 million for an independent review of the utility's Transmission Centralized Inspection Review Team. Commissioners are scheduled to vote August 13. PG&E does not admit liability.

The Mosquito Fire burned 76,788 acres across Placer and El Dorado counties — NBC Bay Area reported it was the largest single fire in California that year — and destroyed 78 structures. No one was injured.

The violations the CPUC cited fall under General Order 95, the state's standards for design, construction, and maintenance of overhead electrical lines. Regulators found that PG&E failed to maintain required clearance between pole components, failed to conduct timely repairs, and maintained inadequate vegetation clearance. Most pointedly: the utility disposed of the fire-linked transmission pole while the investigation was still active — the same pole where regulators concluded the fire likely ignited.

PG&E spokesperson Lynsey Morrison did not contest the violations directly. "While no official cause of the Mosquito Fire has been determined," she told NBC Bay Area, "settling this matter now will allow us to keep focusing our time, resources, and efforts on continuing to make our system safer throughout California."

None of the $22 million goes to El Dorado or Placer counties. Both have filed separate civil lawsuits against PG&E seeking compensation for fire suppression costs, emergency response, lost tax revenue, and destroyed public infrastructure — and those suits are where any community recovery money would have to come from.