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Beset by fires, bankruptcy and blackouts, PG&E Corp. now faces a marketing campaign from government officials in its hometown bent on replacing the utility giant, Bloomberg News reported. San Francisco has launched the “Our City, Our Power” campaign to rally public support for buying PG&E’s local wires and taking over electricity service within the city. It includes a website asking residents to sign up in favor of the effort, arguing the city can provide better service. “Local control of the entire San Francisco electric system will provide increased affordability, safety, reliability and accountability,” said Mayor London Breed. PG&E, which filed for chapter 11 last year facing $30 billion in liabilities from wildfires blamed on its equipment, has already turned down a $2.5 billion offer from San Francisco to buy the gear, saying that it’s worth more. Allowing communities to buy parts of the system could delay needed investments in California’s aging electric grid, the company said yesterday.

PG&E Corp. said it aims to shrink the breadth and duration of intentional blackouts during California’s wildfire season as part of a $2.6 billion plan aimed at improving safety, Bloomberg News reported. The bankrupt utility giant wants to reduce the average geographic reach of deliberate blackouts by one-third and will try to restore power to affected areas 12 daylight hours after unsafe conditions pass. The goals were outlined in a wildfire mitigation proposal that was filed with state regulators on Friday. PG&E, forced into bankruptcy after its equipment was blamed for sparking deadly wildfires, took the extreme measure of widespread shutoffs last year as a way to prevent blazes during dangerous weather. The blackouts resulted in more than 2 million people losing power at one point, provoking outrage as lives were disrupted and billions of dollars in economic activity were lost.

A recent inspection of a PG&E Corp. transmission line uncovered equipment issues similar to those cited as the cause of the deadliest blaze in California history, according to lawyers for wildfire victims, Bloomberg News reported. During a December inspection, an expert for the attorneys photographed worn and rusted c-hooks on a transmission line near the Caribou-Palermo line in Northern California’s Sierra foothills, the official committee representing fire victims in PG&E’s bankruptcy said in a statement. That’s the same line that failed and sparked the 2018 Camp Fire. Some of the hooks on the Cresta-Rio Oso line “appeared to be held together by black electrical tape,” the committee said. U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who oversees the utility’s criminal probation, has ordered the company to be prepared to address the findings at a hearing on Feb. 19. California investigators concluded last year that a worn c-hook on the Caribou-Palermo line broke and ignited the Camp Fire, which destroyed the town of Paradise and killed 85 people. State regulators said that PG&E could have prevented the catastrophic blaze if it had conducted proper inspections and repairs on the line.

Watson Grinding & Manufacturing Co and Watson Valve Services, Inc. yesterday filed for chapter 11 protection with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of Texas, KHOU.com reported. The companies stated in a press release that once the court approves their filing it will allow the company to continue operation of its businesses and service to its customers while it works through a plan of reorganization. Watson Grinding & Manufacturing said it ceased operations after a massive propylene gas explosion on Jan. 24. The company also stated it was forced to terminate the employment of approximately 80 workers this week. Watson Valve also had its business near the explosion site and would contract with Watson Grinding to machine products for customers. The company said that it continues to operate at approximately 20 percent of normal capacity by utilizing other suppliers. The preliminary investigation into the deadly explosion at Watson Grinding points toward an accident, according to ATF Special Agent-in-Charge Fred Milanowski. He said that the suspected cause is an electrical spark that ignited a leaking propylene tank.

PG&E Corp. won court approval of a settlement with bondholders that had threatened to derail its bankruptcy strategy, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The ruling yesterday from Judge Dennis Montali keeps the California utility on course to exit bankruptcy by the end of June, in time to qualify for a statewide fund designed to cushion utilities against the rising risk of wildfires. PG&E has reached settlements totaling $25.5 billion of damage claims stemming from wildfires that swept the state in 2017 and 2018 that were linked to its equipment. The settlement approved yesterday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Francisco concerns PG&E’s bond debt, which is in the hands of large investors including Elliott Management Corp. and Pacific Investment Management Co. Bondholders agreed to drop their competing chapter 11 plan, which would have slashed the value of existing shares of PG&E’s stock, and support PG&E’s plan, in return for improved treatment and the company’s agreement to pay $99 million worth of underwriting and professional fees. Shareholders will be able to hold on to their stock under PG&E’s chapter 11 plan, which still must survive rounds of voting and a review by the California Public Utilities Commission. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has asked PG&E for corporate governance changes that would improve its focus on safety and allow for enhanced state controls if dangerous conditions arise. PG&E has offered some concessions in its plan, including appointing new board members and strengthening its roster of safety executives.

A hearing to finalize Philadelphia Energy Solution’s bankruptcy plan and consummate a sale of the company’s refinery to a real estate developer was pushed back on Tuesday along with a deadline for objections to the deal, according to federal court filings, Reuters reported. The plan is now scheduled to go before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to be finalized on Feb. 12 instead of Thursday. The deadline for objections was extended two days to Wednesday. No official reason was given for the rescheduling and PES did not immediately respond to requests for comment. PES last month entered into an agreement to sell its refinery, the largest and oldest on the East Coast, to Chicago-based Hilco Redevelopment Partners, which is expected to use the site largely for warehousing. Los Angeles developer, Industrial Realty Group, was selected as a backup buyer. Several groups, including the union that provided hundreds of workers to the plant, have objected to the bankruptcy plan, citing lacking information about how PES would settle all of its debts. The U.S. Trustee has also objected saying in a filing PES cannot release itself from its more than $1 billion in debts and other obligations under the plan because it will be liquidating its assets instead of restructuring or selling its business.

A California lawmaker has introduced a bill aimed at making PG&E Corp. a publicly owned utility, a year after liabilities from wildfires traced back to some of its equipment pushed the power producer into bankruptcy, Reuters reported. “Today I’m introducing legislation to force PG&E to become a publicly owned utility,” California State Senator Scott Wiener (D) said yesterday, adding that it was time for a new approach at the utility company. The power producer said on Saturday it had submitted an updated reorganization plan including a new board of directors and new roles aimed at addressing concerns raised by California Governor Gavin Newsom (D). Newsom last month rejected an earlier PG&E reorganization plan saying it lacked major changes in governance and tougher safety enforcement mechanisms mandated under a recent state wildfire statute.

PG&E Corp. said that it will overhaul its board of directors, bring in safety experts and create regional operating units as part of a broad reorganization proposal aimed at winning state approval for its bankruptcy exit, Bloomberg News reported. PG&E detailed the organizational changes in filings on Friday with the California Public Utilities Commission and U.S. bankruptcy court. The company will seek new board members with extensive safety experience and wants half of its directors to reside in California. The utility will also appoint an independent safety adviser who would take over after the term of its federal probation monitor ends, according to the filings. The revised restructuring proposal comes as PG&E makes a final push to emerge from the largest utility bankruptcy in U.S. history. The company filed for chapter 11 last year facing $30 billion in liabilities from wildfires blamed on its equipment, and California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has threatened a state takeover if the utility doesn’t take aggressive enough steps to reform itself. “Under our Plan, the company will emerge from chapter 11 as a reimagined utility with an enhanced safety structure, improved operations, and a board and management team focused on providing the safe, reliable, and clean energy our customers expect and deserve,” said PG&E Chief Executive Officer Bill Johnson.

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) yesterday reiterated his threat for a state takeover of PG&E Corp. if the bankrupt utility falls short in the changes he wants, Bloomberg News reported. At an event in Sacramento, Newsom said that his administration has laid out “detailed terms” on what a takeover would look like and is working on it with legislative leaders in case it’s needed. The San Francisco-based company faces a June deadline to exit court protection to be able to tap a state fund for fire damages, and Newsom has raised concerns about its bankruptcy plan. “It has to to be completely reimagined, completely transformed company,” Newsom said on the one-year anniversary of the utility’s bankruptcy filing. “If PG&E can’t do it, we’ll do it for them.” Still, the state is making progress in talks with the company, Newsom said. “We are meeting with PG&E on a daily basis,” he said. “We are making progress on governance. We are making progress on finance.” If a deal can’t be reached within the next few weeks, Newsom will lay out a detailed plan for a takeover, he said.

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP is the unnamed company that surfaced in criminal charging documents filed earlier this week in a probe of illegal kickbacks from drugmakers, Reuters reported. Purdue Pharma, which faces U.S. Justice Department probes and sprawling litigation over allegations it played a central role in the deadly U.S. opioid crisis, faces new scrutiny in connection with a case Vermont federal prosecutors unveiled on Monday against a San Francisco electronic health records vendor. The vendor allegedly received a roughly $1 million illegal kickback from an opioid company identified in the documents as “Pharma Co. X.” The unnamed company is Purdue Pharma. Purdue was not criminally charged in the case or accused of wrongdoing. Members of the wealthy Sackler family who control Purdue but no longer sit on its board have also been named in litigation and issued a separate statement. “Throughout their time on the board since 2007, the directors were regularly and consistently assured that the company was in full compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements, and so we would be profoundly disappointed if any of those assurances turned out not to be true,” they said.