California wildfire victims say PG&E Corp. shouldn’t be allowed to draw on a bankruptcy financing package unless it agrees to provide emergency funding for the hard-hit city of Paradise and people left homeless by the blazes, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. In bankruptcy court papers filed on Monday, the San Francisco utility said that it is considering setting up a housing fund to aid people whose homes were destroyed or damaged in wildfires. PG&E filed for chapter 11 protection in January, hoping to use bankruptcy law to deal with an estimated $30 billion in fire-damage claims. PG&E said that the housing aid shouldn’t be a condition for approval of a $5.5 billion bankruptcy finance package, which is slated for review today in bankruptcy court in San Francisco. Fire victims also are seeking a ban on lobbying by the California utility as they seek to push back against Wall Street lenders who have offered to finance the utility’s chapter 11 case. In its reply, PG&E said that it will need to interact with regulators and government bodies to work out its problems, and asked the court to reject the lobbying ban.
