Other Wildfire, Survivor Protections, & Electric Company Accountability Laws Signed Into Law

See the bills below that were signed into law for the CA 2026 legislative session.

Wildfire and survivor protections laws enacted:

• AB 1642 (Harabedian) — Wildfire Environmental Safety and Testing Act. Establishes statewide wildfire-contamination testing, remediation and clearance standards, including guidance for schools. Signed Sept. 15.
• AB 1795 (Gipson) — Smoke Damage Recovery Act. Creates wildfire smoke-damage insurance protections, including testing, remediation, restoration and ALE requirements. Signed Sept. 15.
• AB 1842 (Harabedian) — California Mortgage Relief Act. Creates a statewide post-disaster mortgage-forbearance framework, including up to 12 months for qualifying homeowners. Signed Sept. 15. 
• AB 1847 (Harabedian) — Los Angeles wildfire mortgage-forbearance extension. Extends Eaton/Palisades survivor protections and allows up to 24 months of forbearance where permitted. Signed Sept. 15.
• AB 2038 (Harabedian/Zbur) — Residential Property Insurance: Cancellations and Nonrenewals. Extends post-disaster insurance-renewal protections, including two years for properties within or adjacent to fire-perimeter ZIP codes and longer protections for total losses. Signed Sept. 30. Harabedian
• SB 876 (Padilla) — Disaster Recovery Reform Act. Major claims-handling reform for disaster survivors, including stronger penalties, restitution, adjuster-transition requirements and coverage reforms. Signed in September. 
• SB 1090 (Pérez) — Keep Altadena Land in Altadena Hands Act. Establishes the three-year Altadena-specific moratorium on specified SB 1123 density provisions during the Eaton Fire rebuilding period. Signed Sept. 30 and effective immediately.
• SB 1263 (McGuire) — Contractors: Debris Removal. Establishes licensing and hazardous-material requirements for contractors performing certain post-disaster debris removal. Signed Sept. 27.
• AB 1278 (Harabedian) — Mortgages: Hazard Insurance Proceeds: Interest. Addresses interest owed on insurance proceeds held by mortgage institutions, including provisions arising from the 2025 Los Angeles fires. Signed Sept. 30. 
• AB 2700 (Patterson) — Wildfire Victim Restitution Shortfalls. Requires the CPUC to assess restitution shortfalls for victims of utility-caused wildfires and recommend mechanisms to address them. Signed Sept. 30.

Wildfire-related insurance reforms enacted:

• AB 69 (Calderon) — FAIR Plan Policy Notices and Renewals. Changes FAIR Plan notice and renewal requirements. Signed Sept. 27.
• AB 1680 (Calderon) — Make It FAIR Act. Requires stronger FAIR Plan oversight, corrective actions, claims-handling improvements and financial accountability; the Department of Insurance specifically framed it as improving protections for wildfire survivors. Signed Sept. 27.
• AB 2061 (Chen) — California FAIR Plan Association: Data. Expands FAIR Plan data requirements. Signed Sept. 30. 
• AB 2724 (Bauer-Kahan) — Insurance: Distressed Areas. Addresses catastrophe modeling and insurance-distressed areas, including wildfire-exposed areas. Signed Sept. 30.
• SB 1301 (Allen) — Residential Property Insurance: Nonrenewals. Beginning in 2028, generally expands nonrenewal notice from 45 to 90 days and creates additional disclosure/cure protections. Signed Sept. 27. 
• SB 1209 (Allen) — Insurance Examination Compliance and Accountability Act. Gives the Department of Insurance stronger authority and penalties to compel insurers to correct violations found in examinations. Signed Sept. 30.

Statewide wildfire prevention, home-hardening laws enacted:

• AB 1699 (Rogers) — Good Fire Act / prescribed-fire liability pilot.
• AB 1749 (Dixon) — Prohibits interference with wildfire suppression and emergency response by drones.
• AB 1934 (Bennett) — State Fire Marshal home-hardening certification implementation plan.
• AB 1960 (Bennett) — Wildfire Prevention Grants Program / community wildfire-mitigation validation.
• AB 1964 (Bennett) — State Fire Marshal home-hardening standards.
• AB 2075 (Bennett) — Forestry fire-equipment and internal-combustion-engine safety requirements.
• AB 2152 (González) — CEQA streamlining for essential local fire-station projects.
• AB 2513 (Petrie-Norris) — Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program and regional wildfire grants.
• SB 742 (Pérez) — Electrical infrastructure and emergency-response liaison requirements.
• SB 894 (Allen) — California Wildfire Resilience Loan Program for home hardening, defensible space and related mitigation.
• SB 904 (Seyarto) — Creates a framework for streamlining permits and procedures following declared wildfire emergencies.
• SB 959 (Grayson) — School attendance protections related to emergencies and major safety hazards.
• SB 973 (Becker) — Wildfire County Coordinator Program / California Wildfire Preparedness Program.
• SB 1079 (Stern) — Creates a CAL FIRE Fire Innovation Unit.
• SB 1093 (Allen) — Disaster assistance for mobilehome parks.
• SB 1153 (Caballero) — Requires wildfire-specific disaster preparedness by urban water suppliers and public water systems.
• SB 1370 (Stern) — Expedited environmental review for covered wildfire-mitigation projects.
  

Electric company accountability laws enacted:

• SB 742 (Pérez) — Requires utilities to account for active, inactive and abandoned transmission infrastructure in wildfire-mitigation plans; requires removal of permanently abandoned transmission facilities under updated CPUC rules; and creates emergency-response liaison requirements. This is one of the most directly relevant laws to Southern California Edison and the Eaton Fire.
• AB 2700 (Patterson) — Wildfire Victim Restitution Shortfalls. Requires the CPUC to assess unpaid restitution owed to victims of utility-caused wildfires and recommend mechanisms for electrical corporations to address those shortfalls. The law directs that proposed mechanisms provide fair and timely compensation and not simply shift restitution costs onto ratepayers.
• SB 905 (Becker) — Major utility accountability and electricity-affordability law. Requires the CPUC to consider reducing utilities' authorized return on equity for certain lower-risk capital investments and contains measures aimed at performance accountability, better use of existing grid infrastructure and reducing unnecessary ratepayer costs.
• SB 327 (McNerney) — Protecting Ratepayers. Strengthens the Public Advocates Office's ability to inspect utility accounts and prohibits investor-owned utilities from using ratepayer money to fight efforts to establish municipal utilities.
• AB 2065 (Petrie-Norris) — Rates: Prohibited Cost Recovery. Prohibits utilities from improperly placing costs into accounts paid by customers when those costs are legally excluded, outside CPUC authorization, or already recoverable through another mechanism. It strengthens accountability over what utilities can pass through to ratepayers.
• AB 1715 (Schiavo) — Public Utilities: Reporting. Requires electric and gas utilities to disclose significant taxpayer funding they receive or seek, including how the money is spent and whether it produces savings for ratepayers; it also increases public transparency around utility filings and rate changes.
• AB 2463 (Petrie-Norris) — Utility Return-on-Equity Transparency. Requires greater transparency and analysis by the CPUC when determining the profits—authorized return on equity—that investor-owned electric and gas utilities are permitted to earn.
• AB 2493 (Petrie-Norris) — Electrical Corporation / Transmission Development Oversight. Establishes additional CPUC oversight of electrical-corporation interconnection and transmission development, including a transmission development monitor intended to provide independent scrutiny of projects, costs and performance.