PG&E Corp. CEO Bill Johnson personally urged state lawmakers yesterday to let the company take on billions of dollars in new debt to help pay victims of catastrophic wildfires caused by its power lines, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Johnson traveled to Sacramento to advocate for legislation that would allow PG&E to use as much as $20 billion in tax-exempt bonds as part of the company’s plan to resolve its bankruptcy case. PG&E unsuccessfully tried to get the bonds authorized as part of a different bill the Legislature passed last month to address future electric utility fire costs, and the company is now making a renewed push for the financing tool to help resolve its liabilities from the past. Combined with billions of dollars in proceeds from selling new stock in PG&E, the bonds are intended to raise enough money to pay claims from victims of wildfires started by the utility’s equipment, including last year’s historically deadly and destructive Camp Fire. PG&E says that the bonds would be paid off with shareholder profits and would not raise customers’ rates. Read more.
In related news, PG&E Corp. conducted an unusual inspection of the power line that sparked the deadliest wildfire in California history just weeks before it failed, a step the utility has said that it normally takes only when it suspects a potential safety problem, the Wall Street Journal reported. The disclosure that workers climbed portions of the Caribou-Palermo line last fall, which PG&E noted in a recent court filing, suggests that the company had concerns about the condition of its lines before the Camp Fire, which killed 86 people and destroyed the town of Paradise. The Nov. 8 fire is now being investigated by state and local authorities, which could ultimately lead to criminal charges against PG&E and its executives. A PG&E spokeswoman said that the company performed inspections of about 80 towers on the Caribou-Palermo line before the Camp Fire as part of a larger effort to determine “the condition of its aging transmission lines.” Read more. (Subscription required.)
