PG&E bankruptcy may cost wildfire victims
SAN FRANCISCO
Faced with potentially ruinous lawsuits over California’s recent wildfires, Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday in a move that could lead to higher bills for customers of the nation’s biggest utility and reduce the size of payouts to fire victims.
The Chapter 11 filing allows PG&E to continue operating while it puts its books in order. It was seen as a glimpse of the financial toll that could lie ahead for the industry because of climate change and could also jeopardize California’s ambitious program to switch entirely to renewable energy sources.
PG&E, which supplies natural gas and electricity to 16 million people in Northern and central California, cited hundreds of lawsuits over fires in 2017 and 2018 and tens of billions of dollars in potential liability when it announced it planned to file for bankruptcy.
Blazes include the nation’s deadliest wildfire in a century – the one in November that killed at least 86 people and destroyed 15,000 homes in and around the town of Paradise. The cause is still under investigation, but suspicion fell on PG&E after it reported power line problems in the area around the time the fire broke out.
Last week, however, state investigators determined the company’s equipment was not to blame for the 2017 fire that killed 22 people and destroyed more than 5,600 buildings in Northern California wine country, thus sparing PG&E from billions in liability.
PG&E said the bankruptcy will not affect electric or gas service and will allow for an “orderly, fair and expeditious resolution” of wildfire claims.