Guest Opinion | Brandon Lamar: When Will Sacramento Finally Put Our Communities Before Idle Wires?

[Senate Bill 256 authored by Senator Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena/Alhambra) remains stalled in the legislature. It would have, among other things, required removal of permanently abandoned electrical infrastructure like the tower that likely caused the Eaton Fire—Editor]

There can be no sugarcoating it: the recent collapse of SB?256 in the California legislature isn’t just a political setback, it’s a profound betrayal of the communities still reeling from the Eaton fire and a glaring failure of accountability to protect vulnerable lives.

Senator Sasha Renée Pérez, whose district includes Altadena and Pasadena, understood exactly what was at stake. Her bill would have forced Southern California Edison and other investor-owned utilities to create a concrete plan to remove decommissioned power lines across the state. This isn’t an abstract reform; it addresses the very infrastructure that may have ignited the horrendous Eaton fire on January 7, leaving thousands of our neighbors displaced, neighborhoods shattered, and, of course, Black and Brown families in limbo.

In the aftermath, many of us believed that real change might be within reach. Edison, once opposed, had withdrawn its resistance, leaving no formal opposition on record. Yet in what communities across the state perceive as shadow lobbying, the bill died quietly without even a committee vote. If this isn’t a dereliction of moral duty, I don’t know what is.

For our families, this is more than policy, it’s about preventing another fire that could consume more homes, destroy more lives, and displace more residents, especially residents of color.

The history here is clear and blistering. As far back as?2001, state regulators pushed to remove idle transmission lines, many dating to the Vietnam War era, as a wildfire safeguard. But under withering lobbying, that proposal was diluted. By 2005, utilities could simply decide for themselves whether a line was “permanently abandoned,” allowing idle wires to remain indefinitely even if they posed clear danger. Now, 20 years later, with tragedy as proof of their warnings, we are still arguing over words on a page.

That failure, that unwillingness to prioritize safety over profit, continues to ripple through our community. Let’s be clear: no one should have to live in fear that a forgotten wire will spark an inferno, especially when the tools to mitigate that risk are within reach.

This is not just about Altadena and Pasadena or Eaton Canyon. It’s about a state that claims to lead in climate resilience but still allows infrastructure rot to run unchecked. It’s about our Black and brown communities being the ones who bear the brunt of policy failures. It’s about bold leadership failing us in the moment when we need it most.

So where do we go from here?

– We demand that senators and assembly members explain how a bill with no registered opposition and direct testimony from affected residents could fail so starkly.
– We call for transparency: if utilities influenced legislators behind the scenes, voters deserve to know who whispered what and why lives were treated as collateral.
– We must prepare for action: this isn’t over. The Pasadena NAACP, alongside impacted residents and advocates, will push forward. We’ll organize, we’ll testify, and we’ll show up if our political leaders won’t. Our safety is not negotiable.

In the crucible of crisis, leadership is revealed not when the waters are calm, but when the fire burns brightest. Today, Sacramento failed. But we, the community, will not.

We will not rest until our families no longer live under the shadow of an idle power line. Because if the people who make our laws refuse to act, we will.

Brandon D. Lamar
President, Pasadena NAACP