More than 110 Northern California city and county officials representing the majority of bankrupt PG&E Corp.’s customers are proposing to turn the utility giant into a customer-owned cooperative, Bloomberg News reported. The coalition led by the city of San Jose includes officials from 58 cities and 10 counties who altogether represent more than 8 million residents, according to a statement from San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. The group is proposing, among other things, to continue managing PG&E’s expansive territory as a single system, honor existing power and labor contracts and have a board overseeing the co-op set customer rates. “With these principles, we’ve presented a framework for a viable customer-owned PG&E that will be transparent, accountable, and equitable,” said Liccardo, who has spent weeks getting local officials behind the idea of a cooperative. He didn’t detail how the governments would finance a takeover, but a consultant for the group said bonds would be issued to cover much of the cost. Calls for a takeover of San Francisco-based PG&E have intensified since the company filed for bankruptcy in January amid billions of dollars in liabilities tied to wildfires that its equipment ignited. The latest proposal comes as PG&E’s shareholders and creditors are jostling over control of the state’s largest utility in bankruptcy court.
