Five years and 2,500 miles apart, fires devastated thriving communities — and major U.S. utility companies stood at the center of the infernos.
It’s a story increasingly familiar in the energy industry: Some utility companies don’t properly assess the risks wildfires pose to their operations. A failure to mitigate these risks can have disastrous consequences for both fire victims and utility investors.
Through interviews with experts and a review of public records, CNBC found evidence of safety shortcomings in the utility sector and a lack of state oversight.
Those factors are part of what exacerbated wildfires in Paradise, California, in 2018.
Michelle Glogovac lost her childhood home, though her parents were able to escape safely.
“It’s completely devastating to see what Paradise looks like now,” Glogovac said. “We were up there a year ago and literally drove past almost the street that I grew up on because there are no landmarks to recognize. The trees are all gone.”
Michelle Glogovac lost her childhood home in the Paradise, California, wildfires of 2018.
CNBC
The Paradise blaze burned for two weeks, displaced tens of thousands of residents and closed schools and offices as far away as the Bay Area, more than 150 miles south.
Utility giant PG&E later pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of unlawfully starting a fire in relation to the Paradise fire.
The company in 2019 settled a $13.5 billion lawsuit alleging its infrastructure caused several deadly wildfires. It ultimately filed for bankruptcy, emerging in June 2020.
Glogovac’s parents were fortunate that they had fire insurance on their home and were able to rebuild. But many PG&E fire victims are still waiting for relief. PG&E established a Fire Victim Trust after bankruptcy to compensate victims. To date, the trust has disbursed $11.11 billion to fire victims, but victims have received less than 60% of their total claims and are still waiting on payouts.
PG&E declined an interview for this story but said in a statement that since 2017 it has reduced wildfire risk from its equipment by 94% through measures such as burying power lines, vegetation management and, as a last resort, power shut-offs.
Mitigating wildfire risk
The experts CNBC spoke with said wildfire mitigation efforts can include a power shut-off plan — a predetermined course of action outlining when and how utility companies will intentionally cut off electricity to specific areas. The primary purpose is to prevent power lines from igniting a wildfire during periods of high fire danger. Such a fire could be triggered by factors such as strong winds, low humidity and dry vegetation.
In addition to power shut-off plans, utility companies can enhance wildfire mitigation efforts through measures such as burying power lines underground, clearing vegetation around their infrastructure to reduce fire ignition risks, and conducting regular inspections and replacements of aging infrastructure.
Those or similar efforts could have helped quell fires in Lahaina, Hawaii, last year, according to wildfire experts interviewed by CNBC. The flames were the most destructive and deadly human-made disaster in Hawaii history. By the afternoon of Aug. 8, intense winds had knocked down approximately 30 utility poles throughout Maui. The fires burned over 3,000 acres and caused an estimated $5.5 billion in damage, according to Maui County.
Laurie Allen, a Lahaina resident, ran through a burning field to escape the fire. She had found evacuation roads blocked by flames and a fallen tree, so she escaped by foot, according to an account from her nephew, Brent Jones. Allen spent 53 days in the hospital with 70% of her body burned before she died, becoming the 98th victim of the fire.
“There were a lot of days that were really very difficult,” Jones told CNBC. “She was in extreme amounts of pain.”
Brent Jones recounts the story of his aunt, Laurie Allen, who ran through a burning field to escape wildfires in Lahaina, Hawaii, in 2023. Allen later died.
CNBC
The cause of the Hawaii wildfire has yet to be determined by local, state, and federal officials, but Maui County says utility company Hawaiian Electric is responsible. The county filed a lawsuit, alleging the utility “knew that their electrical infrastructure was inadequate, aging, and/or vulnerable to foreseeable and known weather conditions” and had a “responsibility to maintain and continuously upkeep” that infrastructure.
The lawsuit also alleges the company “inexcusably kept their power lines energized during the forecasted high-fire danger conditions.” Hawaiian Electric has said that the fire that began at 6:30 a.m. Aug. 8 “appears to have been caused by power lines that fell in high winds.” However, it says, this first fire was contained and a second, afternoon fire — the cause of which is unknown — is what devastated Lahaina.
Hawaiian Electric’s 2023 wildfire mitigation plan did not include a predetermined strategy for power shut-offs. That was partly in light of word from California, which does implement that mitigation strategy, that the shut-offs upset customers, according to Michael Wara, director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford University and an expert in wildfire mitigation plans.
Hawaiian Electric’s plans said that PG&E’s practice of shutting off the power preemptively was “not well-received by certain customers affected by the preemptive outages.” And when Hawaiian Electric CEO Shelee Kimura testified before Congress in September, she said the company decided that shutting down power as a predetermined precaution during high-risk conditions was not an “appropriate fit.”
Hawaiian Electric restores electric poles in the aftermath of the Maui wildfires, in Lahaina, Hawaii, Aug. 16, 2023.
Yuki Iwamura | AFP | Getty Images
Hawaiian Electric declined an interview with CNBC for this story, but in response to the lawsuit said that the company’s power lines to Lahaina had been de-energized in cooperation with state utility commissions for more than six hours when the afternoon fire that spread to Lahaina broke out.
The company further said in a statement to CNBC that it is evaluating whether to implement a public safety power shut-off program as a “tool of last resort,” pointing out that shutting off the power for a community can present its challenges in emergency situations, such as traffic signal outages or reduced digital access to emergency updates.
Protecting profits
The failure to assess and mitigate wildfire risk across the utility industry boils down to protecting profits, according to David Pomerantz, executive director of the Energy and Policy Institute — a watchdog of utility companies that is funded by philanthropic foundations that support climate actions, environmental conservation and environmental justice.
Utility companies make money by building new infrastructure, such as putting power lines underground, for example, and baking that cost into customers’ bills over time, pursuant to regulations, Pomerantz said.
David Pomerantz is the executive director of the Energy and Policy Institute, a utility company watchdog.
CNBC
Trimming back trees or getting rid of dry, dangerous grasses near power lines doesn’t make money for the companies or their shareholders, and utilities might be less motivated to spend on such expenses as a result, Pomerantz said.
In a statement to CNBC, Hawaiian Electric said that from 2018 to 2022 it spent $950 million on grid improvement and a separate $110 million on vegetation management efforts.
In November, PG&E got approval to bury 1,230 miles of power lines underground between 2023 and 2026 as a way of reducing ignitions due to severe weather and downed wires. In an interview on CNBC in December, PG&E CEO Patti Poppe called the project the “ultimate” way to minimize risk.
It’s also a massive capital investment for the utility, costing about $3 million per mile, according to a PG&E press release. PG&E estimates the plan will increase customers’ monthly bills by approximately 12.8% in 2024 and 1.8% in 2025, and then lower their bills by 2.8% in 2026.
But utilities are protecting profits in another way, according to Pomerantz: leaning on regulators that could ultimately help maintain favorable policies. In many states, utilities are the largest donor to politicians, he said.
“They are able to take all this money from ratepayers and use it to fund these incredibly powerful political machines,” he said.
A burned neighborhood in Paradise, California, Nov. 15, 2018.
JOSH EDELSON | AFP | Getty Images
There are no federal or state laws that prohibit a utility company from making political contributions. CNBC looked at hundreds of legal political contributions made by public utilities and their CEOs since 2016 and found millions of dollars in donations to candidates, parties and political action committees.
In one instance, NV Energy, the big Nevada utility and a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy, contributed over $63 million to defeat a ballot measure that would prevent the utility company from having a monopoly over the state.
The failed ballot measure would have added Nevada to a list of states that have deregulated their energy markets at least partially, allowing customers to choose their energy provider. Instead, residents must get their energy from the utility that serves the area where they reside.
The monopolistic nature of the industry dates back to the 19th century, when state governments decided to have only one set of poles and wires to deliver energy, according to Stanford’s Wara.
CNBC’s Brian Sullivan, left, interviews Michael Wara, the director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford University and an expert in wildfire mitigation plans.
CNBC
The lack of competition, he said, has made utilities less nimble in responding to challenges and risks.
It also means that if customers such as Glogovac, whose childhood home in Paradise, California, went up in flames, are dissatisfied with their utility, they are left with no other options.
“We don’t have a choice. It’s PG&E or nothing here,” Glogovac said.
Lack of state oversight
Utility companies are regulated by state public utility commissions. These commissions are state regulatory bodies that enforce rules, oversee rates and make key energy decisions.
To understand how many utility-caused wildfires have occurred in the last 10 years, CNBC reached out to public utility commissions for relevant data in 10 states that wildfire trackers have identified as particularly prone to ignite — Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
CNBC requested information on the number of wildfires since 2013, the location of the fires, the total acreage affected, any deaths or injuries that occurred as a result, and the estimated cost of the damage.
Only one state of the 10 CNBC reviewed — California — publishes this wildfire data annually on a government-run website.
A PG&E utility worker locates a gas main line in the rubble of a home burned down by wildfire in Paradise, California, Nov. 13, 2018.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Public utility commissions for Arizona, New Mexico and Washington told CNBC they do not track utility-caused wildfire data and recommended asking other state departments or the utility companies directly.
Other states, such as Nevada and Utah, have some of the requested data scattered in utility companies’ wildfire mitigation plans or incident reports, but do not track and publish the data in one compiled location that members of the public can easily access.
The Energy and Policy Institute’s Pomerantz said he finds the lack of oversight by public utility commissions to be troubling.
“These public utility commissions are really the first and only line of defense that we have to make sure that electric utilities are keeping us safe, that their infrastructure isn’t causing these terrible fires,” he said. “The fact that they’re not even keeping track of that problem in many cases — that should be really concerning and a sign that they have a long way to go.”
CNBC also reached out to state fire marshals, forestry departments and natural resources departments for wildfire incident data. Several of those agencies track statewide wildfire information, but most did not keep track of the names of utility companies associated with wildfire incidents.
Fires were indicated as “powerline-caused” or “equipment failures” but did not include more detail on whether the cause was a company’s faulty infrastructure or an external factor, such as a bird flying into a power line.
Paying out to victims
In instances where a utility company’s role in a wildfire is clear, or even suspected, publicly traded companies can find themselves the subject of complex litigation.
Hawaiian Electric, in addition to the lawsuit brought by Maui County for the August fires, faces a separate lawsuit, brought by investors, which claims the company made “misleading statements” about its wildfire prevention and safety protocols, calling them “inadequate.” As a result, the investors said they have “suffered significant losses and damages.”
Burned buildings and cars in Lahaina, Hawaii, seen Oct. 7, 2023, nearly two months after a wildfire swept through the historic town.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
After the 2021 Marshall Fire in Colorado, Xcel Energy faces a pending lawsuit alleging it “failed to take any measures to reduce the risk of a fire igniting from its equipment.” The fire destroyed more homes than any wildfire in Colorado state history, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which provides data and information on climate science, adaptation and mitigation.
And following wildfires in Oregon in 2020, Pacificorp in December reached a $299 million settlement agreement with wildfire victims, on top of $87 million the company owed a separate group of property owners.
Among the largest settlements CNBC found: San Diego Gas and Electric paid out $2.4 billion to resolve allegations it caused a series of 2007 wildfires that killed 10 people and destroyed more than 1,500 homes.
Victims funds and settlement payouts, while a potential lifeline for those affected, can come with strings attached.
In November, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green announced a $150 million recovery fund for victims who lost family members or were injured in the Lahaina wildfire. Those affected can receive money as soon as this year, but to receive the money, victims must waive their right to sue the parties paying into the fund for wrongful death or severe personal injury.
That includes the state of Hawaii, Maui County and Hawaiian Electric, which has vowed to contribute $75 million toward the fund.
Forget fumbling with cables or hunting for batteries – TILER is making electric bike charging as seamless as parking your ride. The Dutch startup recently introduced its much-anticipated TILER Compact system, a plug-and-play wireless charger engineered to transform the user experience for e-bike riders.
At the heart of the new system is a clever combo: a charging kickstand that mounts directly to almost any e‑bike, and a thin charging mat that you simply park over. Once you drop the kickstand and it lands on the mat, the bike begins charging automatically via inductive transfer – no cable required. According to TILER, a 500 Wh battery will fully charge in about 3.5 hours, delivering comparable performance to traditional wired chargers.
It’s an elegantly simple concept (albeit a bit chunky) with a convenient upside: less clutter, fewer broken cables, and no more need to bend over while feeling around for a dark little hole.
TILER claims its system works with about 75% of existing e‑bike platforms, including those from Bosch, Yamaha, Bafang, and other big bames. The kit uses a modest 150 W wireless power output, which means charging speeds remain practical while keeping the system lightweight (the tile weighs just 2 kg, and it’s also stationary).
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TILER has already deployed over 200 charging points across Western Europe, primarily serving bike-share, delivery, hospitality, and hotel fleets. A recent case study in Munich showed how a cargo-bike operator saved approximately €1,250 per month in labor costs, avoided thousands in spare batteries, and cut battery damage by 20%. The takeaway? Less maintenance, more uptime.
Now shifting to prosumer markets, TILER says the Compact system will hit pre-orders soon, with a €250 price tag (roughly US $290) for the kickstand plus tile bundle. To get in line, a €29 refundable deposit is currently required, though they say it is refundable at any point until you receive your charger. Don’t get too excited just yet though, there’s a bit of a wait. Deliveries are expected in summer 2026, and for now are covering mostly European markets.
The concept isn’t entirely new. We’ve seen the idea pop up before, including in a patent from BMW for charging electric motorcycles. And the efficacy is there. Skeptics may wonder if wireless charging is slower or less efficient, but TILER says no. Its system retains over 85% efficiency, nearly matching wired charging speeds, and even pauses at 80% to protect battery health, then resumes as needed. The tile is even IP67-rated, safe for outdoor use, and about as bulky as a thick magazine.
Electrek’s Take
I love the concept. It makes perfect sense for shared e-bikes, especially since they’re often returning to a dock anyway. As long as people can be trained to park with the kickstand on the tile, it seems like a no-brainer.
And to be honest, I even like the idea for consumers. I know it sounds like a first-world problem, but bending over to plug something in at floor height is pretty annoying, not to mention a great way to throw out your back if you’re not exactly a spring chicken anymore. Having your e-bike start charging simply by parking it in the right place is a really cool feature! I don’t know if it’s $300 cool, but it’s pretty cool!
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Tesla has launched a new software update for its vehicles that includes the anticipated integration of Grok, but it doesnt even interface with the car yet.
Today, Tesla started pushing the update to the fleet, but there’s a significant caveat.
The automaker wrote in the release notes (2025.26):
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Grok (Beta) (US, AMD)
Grok now available directly in your Tesla
Requires Premium Connectivity or a WiFi connection
Grok is currently in Beta & does not issue commands to your car – existing voice commands remain unchanged.
First off, it is only available in vehicles in the US equipped with the AMD infotainment computer, which means cars produced since mid-2021.
But more importantly, Tesla says that it doesn’t send commands to the car under the current version. Therefore, it is simply like having Grok on your phone, but on the onboard computer instead.
Tesla showed an example:
There are a few other features in the 2025.26 software update, but they are not major.
For Tesla vehicles equipped with ambient lighting strips inside the car, the light strip can now sync to music:
Accent lights now respond to music & you can also choose to match the lights to the album’s color for a more immersive effect
Toybox > Light Sync
Here’s the new setting:
The audio setting can now be saved under multiple presets to match listening preferences for different people or circumstances:
The software update also includes the capacity to zoom or adjust the playback speed of the Dashcam Viewer.
Cybertruck also gets the updated Dashcam Viewer app with a grid view for easier access and review of recordings:
Tesla also updated the charging info in its navigation system to be able to search which locations require valet service or pay-to-park access.
Upon arrival, drivers will receive a notification with access codes, parking restrictions, level or floor information, and restroom availability:
Finally, there’s a new onboarding guide directly on the center display to help people who are experiencing a Tesla vehicle for the first time.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla is really playing catch-up here. Right now, this update is essentially nothing. If you already have Grok, it’s no more different than having it on your phone or through the vehicle’s browser, since it has no capacity to interact with any function inside the vehicle.
Most other automakers are integrating LLMs inside vehicles with the capacity to interact with the vehicle. In China, this is becoming standard even in entry-level cars.
In the Xiaomi YU7, the vehicle’s AI can not only interact with the car, but it also sees what the car sees through its camera, and it can tell you about what it sees:
Tesla is clearly far behind on that front as many automakers are integrating with other LLMs like ChatGPT and in-house LLMs, like Xiaomi’s.
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Robinhood stock hit an all-time high Friday as the financial services platform continued to rip higher this year, along with bitcoin and other crypto stocks.
Robinhood, up more than 160% in 2025, hit an intraday high above $101 before pulling back and closing slightly lower.
The reversal came after a Bloomberg report that JPMorgan plans to start charging fintechs for access to customer bank data, a move that could raise costs across the industry.
For fintech firms that rely on thin margins to offer free or low-cost services to customers, even slight disruptions to their cost structure can have major ripple effects. PayPal and Affirm both ended the day nearly 6% lower following the report.
Despite its stellar year, the online broker is facing several headwinds, with a regulatory probe in Florida, pushback over new staking fees and growing friction with one of the world’s most high-profile artificial intelligence companies.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier opened a formal investigation into Robinhood Crypto on Thursday, alleging the platform misled users by claiming to offer the lowest-cost crypto trading.
“Robinhood has long claimed to be the best bargain, but we believe those representations were deceptive,” Uthmeier said in a statement.
The probe centers on Robinhood’s use of payment for order flow — a common practice where market makers pay to execute trades — which the AG said can result in worse pricing for customers.
Robinhood Crypto General Counsel Lucas Moskowitz told CNBC its disclosures are “best-in-class” and that it delivers the lowest average cost.
“We disclose pricing information to customers during the lifecycle of a trade that clearly outlines the spread or the fees associated with the transaction, and the revenue Robinhood receives,” added Moskowitz.
Robinhood is also facing opposition to a new 25% cut of staking rewards for U.S. users, set to begin October 1. In Europe, the platform will take a smaller 15% cut.
Staking allows crypto holders to earn yield by locking up their tokens to help secure blockchain networks like ethereum, but platforms often take a percentage of those rewards as commission.
Robinhood’s 25% cut puts it in line with Coinbase, which charges between 25.25% and 35% depending on the token. The cut is notably higher than Gemini’s flat 15% fee.
It marks a shift for the company, which had previously steered clear of staking amid regulatory uncertainty.
Under President Joe Biden‘s administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission cracked down on U.S. platforms offering staking services, arguing they constituted unregistered securities.
With President Donald Trump in the White House, the agency has reversed course on several crypto enforcement actions, dropping cases against major players like Coinbase and Binance and signaling a more permissive stance.
Even as enforcement actions ease, Robinhood is under fresh scrutiny for its tokenized stock push, which is a growing part of its international strategy.
The company now offers blockchain-based assets in Europe that give users synthetic exposure to private firms like OpenAI and SpaceX through special purpose vehicles, or SPVs.
An SPV is a separate entity that acquires shares in a company. Users then buy tokens of the SPV and don’t have shareholder privileges or voting rights directly in the company.
OpenAI has publicly objected, warning the tokens do not represent real equity and were issued without its approval. In an interview with CNBC International, CEO Vlad Tenev acknowledged the tokens aren’t technically equity shares, but said that misses the broader point.
“What’s important is that retail customers have an opportunity to get exposure to this asset,” he said, pointing to the disruptive nature of AI and the historically limited access to pre-IPO companies.
“It is true that these are not technically equity,” Tenev added, noting that institutional investors often gain similar exposure through structured financial instruments.
The Bank of Lithuania — Robinhood’s lead regulator in the EU — told CNBC on Monday that it is “awaiting clarifications” following OpenAI’s statement.
“Only after receiving and evaluating this information will we be able to assess the legality and compliance of these specific instruments,” a spokesperson said, adding that information for investors must be “clear, fair, and non-misleading.”
Tenev responded that Robinhood is “happy to continue to answer questions from our regulators,” and said the company built its tokenized stock program to withstand scrutiny.
“Since this is a new thing, regulators are going to want to look at it,” he said. “And we expect to be scrutinized as a large, innovative player in this space.”
SEC Chair Paul Atkins recently called the model “an innovation” on CNBC’s Squawk Box, offering some validation as Robinhood leans further into its synthetic equity strategy — even as legal clarity remains in flux across jurisdictions.
Despite the regulatory noise, many investors remain focused on Robinhood’s upside, and particularly the political tailwinds.
The company is positioning itself as a key beneficiary of Trump’s newly signed megabill, which includes $1,000 government-seeded investment accounts for newborns. Robinhood said it’s already prototyping an app for the ‘Trump Accounts‘ initiative.