Tag: Chris Holden

SACRAMENTO — As PG&E Corp. and its utility subsidiary filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday over mounting costs from the past two wildfire seasons, California lawmakers expressed frustration that controversial wildfire liability reform legislation passed last year was not enough to prevent PG&E’s move and dismissed the possibility of intervening again to assist the troubled utility. Opponents dismissed the measure as a bailout. Yet PG&E is now facing even greater potential liabilities from the Camp Fire, which ravaged Butte County last November and is not covered by the bill. Related Stories State Sen. Bill Dodd, the Napa Democrat who carried SB901, said Tuesday that it “remains hard to do anything more than we’ve done” without a complete change in PG&E’s management. He noted that much of the board of directors is the same as it was in 2010, when one of the company’s natural gas pipelines exploded in San Bruno, killing eight people. He called for new executive leadership that would “submit to a culture of safety throughout the whole organization.” “The mismanagement at PG&E has led to this,” Dodd said. “I was kind of out there by myself on that one,” Holden said. The Legislature’s focus will likely shift instead to issues that remain unresolved from last session, particularly whether California should change a legal principle called inverse condemnation that holds utilities liable for any damage caused by wildfires started by their equipment, even if they were not negligent in maintaining it. He is exploring a way to give lawmakers veto power over whatever arrangement the state utilities commission signs off on for PG&E. “You can’t believe a word they say, and they keep trying to fool the public and fool legislators into thinking they are something different than what they are,” said Hill, who has been a fierce critic of the company since the San Bruno explosion.