Hello All,
First and foremost - my condolences to all those who are effected by the wildfires in Los Angeles. It's truly a terrible situation, and as you will see, a completely preventable one.
On the night of Tuesday, January 7th, Los Angeles experienced historical winds reaching in excess of 80 mph. During that night there were a few fires that started and quickly spread, the Palisades fire and the Eaton Canyon Fire. We will be focusing on the latter.
Southern California Edison (ticker symbol EIX) is the main power provider for the Altadena, Pasadena, and many other Southern California neighborhoods. As you can read in this thread -- [https://www.reddit.com/r/pasadena/comments/1hynfjr/who\_was\_responsible\_for\_the\_eaton\_canyon\_fire/](https://www.reddit.com/r/pasadena/comments/1hynfjr/who_was_responsible_for_the_eaton_canyon_fire/)
They were servicing the Altadena neighborhood near Eaton Canyon and during that night they said that they turned off the power lines, when in fact, many neighborhoods reported that they still had electricity right before the power went off and even after.
I will also submit to you this video from a survivor of the fire -- [https://www.reddit.com/r/pasadena/comments/1hzdlo8/have\_you\_all\_seen\_this\_how\_eaton\_fire\_started/](https://www.reddit.com/r/pasadena/comments/1hzdlo8/have_you_all_seen_this_how_eaton_fire_started/)
Which clearly shows that the fire started underneath a power line station.
Given the historic precedence for these fires (both Hawaiian Electric (HE) for the Laihana fire and Pacific Gas & Electric (PCG) for the Camp fire). I believe that Edison will be found responsible and liable for the Eaton Canyon fire and the rising death toll (up to 24 at this time).
Yes they have dropped - but I believe they will continue to drop. The PCG settlement for the Camp Fire literally bankrupted PCG and cost them $13.5B -- [https://www.wattstrialfirm.com/powerful-results/historic-13-billion-pge-wildfire-settlemen/](https://www.wattstrialfirm.com/powerful-results/historic-13-billion-pge-wildfire-settlemen/)
I can see a similar settlement being reached by Edison before the end of year - which would bring their market cap down significantly from the current level of 23B to somewhere in the range of 10-15B which would represent a stock price of around \~$38 conservatively
Also like I said - this is a horrible tragedy and the only reason I don't feel guilty about making money off it is because these companies end up just increasing rates to pay their fines. No one loses out but the current shareholders, there is never corporate responsibility or punishment for these greedy companies that put shareholder profit above safety. Open to questions, comments, concerns
Positions below --
https://preview.redd.it/kqsu1qhc0sce1.png?width=2846&format=png&auto=webp&s=da8e86e6502e8bed82a8514a7105e0132e9db990