Utilities seek to pass wildfire costs to customers amidst surge in lawsuits and climate change risks.

A jury verdict that found an Oregon power company liable for devastating wildfires is highlighting the legal and financial risks utilities face if they fail to take proper precautions in a hotter, drier climate. Utilities, especially in the U.S. West, are increasingly finding themselves in a financial bind that’s partly of their own making, experts say. While updating, replacing and even burying thousands of miles of powerlines is a time-consuming and costly undertaking, the failure to start that work in earnest years ago has put them on the back foot as wildfires have grown more destructive — and lawsuits over electrical equipment sparking blazes have ballooned.