A lawyer for the committee representing wildfire victims in the bankruptcy of PG&E Corp. said at a hearing yesterday that the committee sees $13.5 billion as the cost to the power provider for paying claims of the victims, Reuters reported. Cecily Dumas of BakerHostetler was comparing that expectation with the maximum of $8.4 billion PG&E has proposed for paying victims of the wildfires in 2017 and 2018 in Northern California that forced it to file for chapter 11 protection in January. At the time, PG&E said that it expected wildfire-related liabilities topping $30 billion. The utility has already struck settlements worth a combined $12 billion to resolve claims of a group of public entities hit hard by the blazes and insurers who had made payments for wildfire-related claims.
