Equitably Allocating Wildfire Resilience Investments for Power Grids: Challenges with Vulnerability Indices and the Need for Group-Level Protections

Vulnerability indices like Justice40 and Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) fail to adequately protect disadvantaged minority groups, particularly indigenous communities, when allocating investments for power line undergrounding and de-energization to mitigate wildfire risk. Group-level protections are necessary to ensure equitable outcomes.