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PG&E Corp. said that its chapter 11 reorganization plan has been confirmed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California, bringing the power provider one step closer to emerging from bankruptcy and participating in a state-backed wildfire fund, Reuters reported. The court’s approval follows the confirmation of the plan by power regulator California Public Utilities Commission in May. The company said that it expects to emerge from bankruptcy in July and that it is on track to participate in a state-backed wildfire fund, which reduces liability for investor-owned utilities but requires them to spend billions of dollars upgrading equipment. The utility filed for chapter 11 protection in January last year, citing potential liabilities exceeding $30 billion from major wildfires sparked by its equipment in 2017 and 2018. Earlier last week, the company pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter stemming from a devastating 2018 wildfire in Northern California touched off by the utility company’s power lines.

A federal bankruptcy judge in Delaware has approved the prepackaged chapter 11 plan submitted by West Virginia’s Longview Power LLC., Kallanish Energy reported. The plan was approved by Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon. Last April, the company had filed the plan that will transition ownership to its senior secured lenders. The plan will eliminate the company’s debt and provide $40 million in a new money exit facility, the company said. The action was taken due to less demand for electricity due to cheap natural gas, a warm winter and the coronavirus pandemic, the company said. Longview has announced plans to add a natural gas-fired unit and a solar facility near Morgantown, W.Va., at the cost of about $1.2 billion.

Nearly 90 percent of California wildfire victims who voted on PG&E Corp.’s plan to pay them and restructure its finances have accepted the proposal, but the company’s problems are far from over, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. PG&E must now steer its $57.65 billion restructuring plan through a pivotal month-long period that will determine whether its blueprint to exit bankruptcy succeeds — and how fire victims are ultimately paid. PG&E needs to get its plan to exit bankruptcy approved in court and by state regulators by June 30 to access a $21 billion fund to pay claims from victims of future major wildfires. In the coming days, the company is expected to face two major steps toward that goal: Regulators at the California Public Utilities Commission will weigh whether to approve the plan, and a confirmation trial should start in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. “It’s all coming together,” said Jared Ellias, a UC Hastings law professor who has been following the case. But the outcome is not guaranteed. Attorneys for various creditors have filed many objections to the company’s bankruptcy plan, and some important elements of the case remain unresolved. Also, if PG&E fails to meet the June deadline, it could be forced to put itself up for sale, according to the terms of a deal the company previously reached with Gov. Gavin Newsom. And some wildfire victims who object to the way PG&E intends to pay them still want changes to the deal, while other critics of the company have said its bankruptcy plan falls far short. As it races to wrap up the case, PG&E also faces the looming specter of the 2020 wildfire season, which could prove highly dangerous because of the relatively meager amounts of rain and snow that fell this winter. The company desperately needs to avoid causing more catastrophic wildfires like the ones it started in 2015, 2017 and 2018, all of which prompted it to file for bankruptcy protection last year.