California utility customers sue over wildfire law

Two Pacific Gas & Electric customers want the federal judge overseeing that company's bankruptcy to strike down a new California law.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has championed the law as a way of shoring up the state's major electric utilities in the face of disastrous wildfires.

A lawsuit filed Friday indicates the law violates the rights of utility customers by making it easier to raise electric rates to cover the costs of wildfires caused by power company equipment.

The lawsuit also takes aim at plans to extend a fee on electric bills. And it targets provisions that critics argue will allow a new Wildfire Safety Advisory Board to keep records secret.

Newsom had argued that the law is key to supporting major electric utilities in the face of another wildfire season.