The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday morning said it will not hear San Diego Gas & Electrics appeal of a California Supreme Court case that turned back the utilitys request to pass along $379 million in costs related to the 2007 wildfires that blazed through San Diego County.
“The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied,” the high court said in regard to the SDG&E request that was part of a long, 78-page list of dispositions of cases from parties from around the country who were asking for their cases to be heard.
The U.S. Supreme Court generally receives more than 7,000 such requests a year and agrees to hear only 100 to 150 of those petitions.
The dispute over the $379 million dates back more than a decade, when SDG&E first applied to recover the money from ratepayers.
But investigations into the causes of the Witch, Guejito and Rice fires three of the worst wildfires in a devastating firestorm that befell San Diego County in October 2007 found they were sparked by SDG&E equipment that had not been properly maintained.