Tag: Pacific Gas and Electric Company

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.

Upcoming political events in the Bay Area. 7 p.m., Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California St. More information is here. 5 p.m., San Jose State University Student Union, Student Theater, 211 South Ninth St. More information is here. Jesse Jackson: A conversation with the founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, sponsored by the Commonwealth Club. 2 p.m., Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin St. More information is here. 2781 24th St., San Francisco. Palestinian holiday crafts bazaar: A crafts fair benefiting Palestinian children. Leah Daughtry and former Clinton administration official Minyon Moore are featured in a forum at the Commonwealth Club, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics.” $30 nonmembers, $8 students. 7 p.m., the Women's Building, 3543 18th St. No. 8, San Francisco.