Chimney Sweep

PG&E-friendly invoice deliberate by state lawmakers in wake of Camp Hearth – Marin Unbiased Journal

Even before the cause of the deadly campfire is cleared, California lawmakers are drafting laws to protect PG&E from massive fire-related liabilities.

“We want to send a signal to the financial markets that we are not going to let the utilities flutter in the wind,” said Kellie Smith, chief adviser to the state committee on utilities and energy, on Tuesday. The bill is expected to be introduced by Los Angeles County’s Democratic Rep. Chris Holden, who chairs its main legislative body.

The bill is expected to protect major California investor-owned utilities from wildfires.

“What a happy Thanksgiving gift for PG&E shareholders, directors, and executives to enjoy this holiday weekend as over 12,000 Butte County residents spend Thanksgiving in shelters, tents, or their cars, with some mourning their deaths or despair over their missing “Said Senator Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, a frequent critic of PG&E, on Tuesday.

The idea behind the expected legal framework would be to ensure that financial liabilities resulting from destructive forest fires in 2018 like the Camp Fire in Butte County don’t destabilize a major utility like PG&E.

Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 901, a comprehensive law to end past, present, and future California wildfires, in September, brushing aside criticism that the move was a bailout for PG&E that came with a troubling mountain of inferno-related liabilities is facing the the Wine Country and other regions in October 2017.

This bill created a smoother way for state regulators and PG&E to pass costs on to the company’s customers with higher monthly utility bills. SB 901 requires the powerful state commission on public utilities to conduct a stress test to determine the maximum amount a utility and its shareholders can bear without going bankrupt. SB 901 contained a narrow provision to include the wine country fire storms, a number of which were believed to be caused by PG&E devices.

The new legislation appears to address the bug in SB 901 that primarily applied to fire liabilities in 2017 and potential fires in 2019 and years thereafter, but not specifically applicable to fire disasters in 2018.

“There will be a time and a place for all of this, but for now PG&E is solely focused on helping first responders and helping our customers recover and rebuild,” said PG&E spokeswoman Andrea Menniti on Tuesday.

Ultimately, the legislation is designed to prevent a utility company from going bankrupt in connection with the forest fires, and that protects customers, Smith said.

“When a utility goes bankrupt, it will do a lot more harm to tariff payers than this mechanism we create to make the utility pay until it hurts,” said Smith. “The idea is to make the utilities pay until it hurts.”

San Francisco-based PG&E is using the specter of bankruptcy to alert state lawmakers and regulators to come to the rescue, Hill says.

“PG&E is using the bankruptcy bogeyman to scare lawmakers,” Hill said. “You could have a PG&E payment plan for many years, which BP did after the Gulf oil spill. Instead, PG&E is always looking for the easy way out, no matter how many people are affected. “

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