There is a particular brand of audacity that can only be cultivated in the climate-controlled, mahogany-lined boardrooms of a California utility giant—a place where responsibility is something you outsource to a legal firm and the public’s well-being is a rounding error on a quarterly report. Southern California Edison (SCE) has recently graced us with a masterclass in this special brand of sociopathy. Having finally admitted that their equipment likely ignited the Eaton fire, they didn’t offer a mea culpa or a checkbook. Instead, they filed claims against Los Angeles County and a grab-bag of 'others,' effectively arguing that while they may have dropped the match, everyone else is at fault for being so flammable.

It is the quintessential American comedy of errors, played out on a stage of charred hillsides and insurance premiums. The Eaton fire, which roared through the San Gabriel Mountains like a bored locust, is no longer just a disaster; it is a litigious asset. SCE’s legal strategy is as transparent as it is revolting: the 'shared liability' defense. It is the corporate equivalent of a toddler setting the curtains on fire and then blaming the parents for choosing such a combustible fabric. They aren't denying the spark; they are simply offended that the world didn’t fireproof itself against their inevitable incompetence.

Let us look at the targets of this legal tantrum. On one side, we have Los Angeles County and various government agencies—entities that are, by all measurable standards, bureaucratic sinkholes of inefficiency. These are the same agencies that couldn't manage a two-car parade without a three-year environmental impact study and a tax hike. SCE’s argument is that these agencies failed in their duty to mitigate the damage. And honestly, they probably did. Our government is a lumbering, arthritic beast that treats infrastructure maintenance as a suggestion rather than a requirement. But there is a sublime irony in a monolithic utility company, which has enjoyed a functional monopoly for decades, pointing a shaking finger at a government agency for failing to clean up the mess the utility created. It’s a marriage made in hell: the greedy versus the incompetent, while the rest of us provide the tinder.

Then there are the 'others.' This vague category likely includes other businesses and private entities that SCE feels should share the bill for the devastation. It is a beautiful, nihilistic worldview where no one is truly responsible because everyone is partially at fault for existing in a state of entropy. In Edison’s universe, the fact that trees are made of wood and that wind exists are mitigating factors that should legally absolve them of the consequences of their crumbling, neglected hardware. They treat the basic laws of physics as a personal affront to their profit margins.

This legal maneuver is a perfect distillation of the modern social contract: the privatization of gain and the socialization of disaster. When the lights stay on, the executives take the bonuses. When the hills burn, the liability is 'shared.' They want the public—through tax dollars and increased rates—to subsidize the risk they failed to manage. It’s a feedback loop of failure. The utility neglects the lines because maintenance is expensive; the fire starts because the lines are neglected; the utility sues the government because the fire spread; the government settles with the utility using tax dollars; the utility raises rates to cover the legal fees. Around and around we go, until the entire state is a scorched-earth monument to the 'failing upward' philosophy.

We are expected to watch this play out with a straight face, as if this isn't a grotesque parody of justice. The lawyers will spend years billable-houring their way through the ashes, filing motions that deconstruct the exact percentage of blame that can be assigned to a dry bush versus a sparking wire. Meanwhile, the residents of Los Angeles County can look forward to a future of higher bills and more smoke, safe in the knowledge that their 'partners' in power and government are hard at work deciding whose pocket to pick next.

In the end, SCE’s filing is more than a legal document; it is a manifesto of the new age. It tells us that accountability is for the little people. For the behemoths, there is only the 'claim'—a desperate, grasping attempt to turn a catastrophe into a collaborative project. They didn't just burn the forest; they are trying to burn the very concept of consequence. It’s almost impressive, in a deeply sickening sort of way. As the next fire season looms, fueled by the same rot and the same arrogance, we can at least take comfort in one thing: the sparks may be Edison’s, but the bill, as always, is ours.