California Devastated Utility Proposes $2 Billion Rate Hike To Fund "Wildfire Safety"

[Swordsmyth]

One month after the stock and bonds of troubled California Utility Pacific Gas & Electric cratered after the company hinted of a liquidity crisis as a result of mounting legal obligations following California's destructive Camp Fire, shocking and infuriating its investors...

... PG&E is now set to reap the ire of its clients as well after a demand for a rate hike of almost $2 billion from customers, saying more than half will go toward wildfire safety.
In a proposal submitted late last week to the California Public Utilities Commission, PG&E asked for $1.1 billion in new revenue in 2020, including $576 million for the Community Wildfire Safety Program, $273 million toward liability insurance, and $209 million for core gas and electric operations. The proposal also asks for another $454 million in 2021 and $486 million in 2022.
If the commission approves the hike, California clients of PG&E could see their bills jump more than $10 a month, a troubling development for Californians who already pay one of the highest prices in the nation for electricity. According to the US Energy Information Administration, last year’s average monthly bill was $101.49.
PG&E claims the money for the Community Wildfire Safety Program would go toward reducing wildfire threats. According to Fox6, parts of those efforts will include installing "stronger poles, introducing technology to respond faster to fallen power lines, enhancing weather forecasting models, and increasing coverage in high-threat areas by adding close to 600 cameras."

“We understand and embrace our responsibility to safely provide electricity and gas to the communities we have the privilege to serve,” PG&E Senior Vice President of Energy Supply and Policy Steve Malnight said in a news release.
“As California experiences more frequent and intense wildfires and other extreme weather events, we must take necessary, bold and urgent steps to protect our customers. The prudent investments we are proposing will help build a safer and more resilient energy system for the future.”

While the explanation will hardly mollify the angry clients, PG&E's legacy liquidity problems still remain as the proposal does not include money for potential claims from the 2017 and 2018 California fires, PG&E said.
The proposed rate increase will have an even more difficult time to pass in light of the company's operational negligence to date. A class action lawsuit filed last week accuses the utility of negligence and poor maintenance of electrical infrastructure.
“Even though PG&E knew that its infrastructure was aging, unsafe, and vulnerable to weather and environmental conditions, it failed to fulfill these duties, and failed to take preventative measures in the face of known high-risk weather conditions, such as de-energizing its electrical equipment,” the lawsuit states.
Another suit calls the Camp Fire an “inevitable byproduct of PG&E’s willful and conscious disregard of public safety.”
Meanwhile, as the company heads toward legal collision course which analysts believe will cost it tens billions, in a PG&E report this week the company outlined employee reports of damaged power towers minutes before the Camp Fire broke out. One employee called 911 the day the wildfire started after spotting flames close to a high-voltage tower in Butte County. That was 15 minutes after a transmission line went out near that location.
On Wednesday, the state’s insurance commissioner reported $9 billion in insured losses from the 2018 wildfires.

“The tragic deaths of 88 people and over $9 billion in insured losses to date are shocking numbers — behind the insured loss numbers are thousands of people who’ve been traumatized by unfathomable loss,” Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said.

The utility could see $26.5 billion in liability costs, co-head of Utilities, Power Equipment & Renewable Energy at SSR, Hugh Wynne said.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...ildfire-safety

[oyarde]

CalExit

[Swordsmyth]

One of California’s largest utilities company was accused Friday of falsifying safety documents for the state’s natural gas pipelines for years, even after it was blamed for a 2010 pipeline explosion that killed eight people.
An investigation by the California Public Utilities Commission found that Pacific Gas & Electric Co. had allegedly falsified data from 2012 to 2017 because it lacked enough employees to find and mark natural gas pipelines.
According to investigators, PG&E "had common knowledge among its supervisors that locators falsified data.”


"Utility falsification of safety-related records is a serious violation of law and diminishes our trust in the utility's reports on their progress," commission President Michael Picker said in a statement. "These findings are another example of why we are investigating PG&E's safety culture."
PG&E has been under scrutiny for some time over safety concerns – just last year the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection found that the company equipment was responsible for starting 16 wildfires.
While a cause has not yet been determined for the massive Camp Fire blaze that wiped out the town of Paradise and killed at least 86 people last month, PG&E equipment is being scrutinized. A number of victims have sued the utility, alleging negligence.
It’s most notable disaster came in 2010 when a gas pipeline exploded and wiped out an entire neighborhood in suburban San Bruno, resulting in eight deaths.

More at: https://www.foxnews.com/us/californi...ars-regulators

[Swordsmyth]

Pacific Gas & Electric says it's open to "a range of solutions" that will make its energy system safer after California regulators said they will consider drastic measures, including breaking up the utility.
The Northern California power company says its most important responsibility must be public and employee safety.
The Public Utilities Commission on Friday outlined options it could take against PG&E in the wake of a deadly 2010 gas pipeline explosion and more recent concerns that PG&E equipment may have sparked the recent Camp wildfire that killed at least 86 people and destroyed close to 15,000 homes.
Concerns about the utility's safety procedures prompted a review several years ago. The commission says it's looking at several measures, including replacing PG&E's board of directors or turning it into a public utility.

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/latest-drasti...041256098.html

[Swordsmyth]

California's attorney general has told a federal judge it's possible the giant utility Pacific Gas & Electric Co. could face charges up to murder if investigators find reckless operation of power equipment caused any deadly wildfires in the past two years.The brief from the office of Attorney General Xavier Becerra is purely advisory, and any criminal charges would most likely be filed by county district attorneys, not the state, the Sacramento Bee reported .
Prosecutors would have to assess PG&E's "mental state" before determining whether to bring charges, which could range from murder to misdemeanor negligence, according to the brief filed late Friday.
The opinion was submitted to a judge overseeing a criminal case involving a PG&E natural gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people in the San Francisco suburb of San Bruno in 2010.
PG&E was convicted of violating federal pipeline safety laws, and the judge asked for the attorney general's opinion on whether any wildfires constitute a probation violation.
The company has until Monday to file its response to the court, but it told the newspaper: "PG&E's most important responsibility is public and workforce safety. Our focus continues to be on assessing our infrastructure to further enhance safety and helping our customers continue to recover and rebuild. Throughout our service area, we are committed to doing everything we can to help further reduce the risk of wildfire."

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/filing-utilit...194418925.html

[Swordsmyth]

For PG&E, just like for AIG ten years ago, this is the beginning of the end.
As we discussed on Tuesday, one of the biggest surprises involving the ongoing collapse of troubled California utility PG&E is how it was possible, that with the company reportedly contemplating a DIP loan ahead of a possible bankruptcy filing which sent PCG stock plunging and its bonds cratering to all time lows, that rating agencies still had the company rated as investment grade.


Late on Monday, this question got some closure after S&P became the first rating agency to take a machete to its rating for PG&E, when it downgraded the company by five notches, from BBB- to B, the fifth-highest junk rating while warning that more cuts are imminent. But while S&P slashed PG&E's IG ratings, Fitch and Moody bizarrely had yet to do so, well over a month into the company's death spiral. And when they do, both management, shareholders and bondholders would have nightmare on their hands because a similar "junking" by Moody’s to high-yield would result in a rerun of the AIG death sprial, as at least once cash collateral call for PG&E of at least $800 million - to guarantee power contracts - would be triggered according to a regulatory filing.
Well, PG&E's AIG moment hit late on Thursday, when Moody’s did precisely what S&P did two days earlier, and cut the utility's credit rating to junk citing the electric company’s potential wildfire liabilities. The credit grader lowered PG&E’s rating by five notches, to B2 from Baa3, and the utility Pacific Gas & Electric rating four levels to Ba3. Like S&P, the bond grader said it may (read: will) cut the company further, sending PG&E shares and bonds sliding after hours.
But it wasn't the prospect of more downgrades that spooked the market: it was the fact that with two junk ratings, PG&E will now be required to use cash as collateral to guarantee power contracts, according to the company’s latest quarterly filing, which estimates the utility will have to fully collateralize as much as $800 million of positions.
That... is a problem because PG&E had only $430 million of cash on its books in September, precipitating what now appears to be an imminent liquidity crisis, one which as a result of some $30 billion in wildfire legal liabilities will quickly escalate into a solvency inferno, to use a term closely associated with California utility companies.
Meanwhile, assuming that PG&E somehow survives the upcoming insolvency, its junk credit ratings will assure that the company will have to pay more to borrow for years to come. In fact, the company's 3.5% bonds due next year are currently yielding more than 9.9%, far above where most high-yield securities are paying and a level reserved for deeply distressed credits. As shown in the chart below, B-rated debt, the mid-tier of junk bonds, yields on average 7.5% as of Monday’s close, according to Bloomberg index data.

Of course, the above take assumes PG&E will survive a few quarters, which thanks to nearly $1 billion in cash collateral the company must somehow find and post immediately, it won't.
Not even Moody's could find a silver lining in this liquidity bonfire: “We see a much more challenging environment for PG&E,” said Moody’s analyst Jeff Cassella in the statement. “The company is increasingly reliant on extraordinary intervention by legislators and regulators, which may not occur soon enough or be of sufficient magnitude to address these adverse developments."
Meanwhile, even as shareholders - among which bizarrely is value investing "god" Seth Klarman - hold on to hope, bondholders appear to have given up: with $18.4 billion of long-term debt, PG&E most actively-traded bonds plunged sharply after the downgrade: Pacific Gas & Electric bonds with coupons of 6.05 percent due in 2034 fell as much as 4.5 cents on the dollar to 85 cents, the lowest level since the financial crisis.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...quidity-crisis

[timosman]

How much is Jerry Brown going to make out of this business?

[Swordsmyth]

A U.S. judge on Wednesday proposed restricting utility PG&E Corp from using power lines deemed to be unsafe during high winds in the 2019 California fire season, adding another complication for the California utility as it faces billions of dollars in wildfire liabilities.In an order, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco also proposed that PG&E be required to reinspect its grid and "remove or trim all trees that could fall onto its power lines."
The judge is overseeing conditions of PG&E's probation following a 2010 gas pipeline explosion, and directed the company to respond to his proposed order by Jan. 23. Alsup scheduled a hearing for Jan. 30.

"This will likely mean having to interrupt service during high-wind events (and possibly at other times)," Alsup wrote, "but that inconvenience, irritating as it will be, will pale by comparison to the death and destruction that otherwise might result from PG&E-inflicted wildfires."

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/judge-propose...--finance.html

[Swordsmyth]

18 years after becoming one of America's largest bankruptcies, the writing is on the wall for California's utility giant after its cash-collateral-call triggering second downgrade to junk has led to reports that PG&E may notify employees as soon as Monday that it’s preparing a potential bankruptcy filing, according to people familiar with the situation.

California passed legislation last year in the aftermath of the deadly Wine Country fires requiring utilities to post public notices for employees at least 15 days before a change of control, including a bankruptcy filing.


As Bloomberg reports, a notice may signal that the company has accelerated plans to make a Chapter 11 filing as way of dealing with crippling liabilities from wildfires that tore through California in 2017 and 2018, killing over 100 people and destroying hundreds of thousands of acres.

PG&E declined to provide a statement, saying the company doesn’t comment on rumor or speculation.
During its 2001, bankruptcy, California governor Gray Davis used the state's treasury to bail out the utility, provoking a controversy that eventually contributed to his ouster. PG&E emerged from bankruptcy in April 2004 after returning $10.2 billion to creditors.
Newly appointed California Governor Gavin Newsom said during a press conference Thursday that his office would be making an announcement related to PG&E within the next few days and that the issue was at the top of his agenda. He said in a later interview that the announcement would involve appointments to the California Public Utilities Commission, the state’s grid operator and to a commission established by legislature to explore wildfire issues.
Newsom’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.


PG&E’s deepening financial crisis has already spread to the companies that supply its natural gas and generate electricity for its customers. At least two small gas suppliers have restricted sales to PG&E out of concern that the company won’t be able to pay, people with direct knowledge of the situation said earlier this week. Some banks are taking a long look at a potential $2 billion debt financing for the Geysers, the world’s largest geothermal complex, because it supplies the utility, people familiar with the matter also said this week.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...workers-monday

[angelatc]

According to the US Energy Information Administration, last year’s average monthly bill was $101.49.

Doesn't seem like that much.

[Swordsmyth]

PG&E Corp Chief Executive Geisha Williams has stepped down, the company said on Sunday, as pressure from potentially crushing liabilities linked to catastrophic wildfires have pushed the California utility owner to the financial brink and prompted it to make bankruptcy preparations.Williams, who took the helm of the provider of electricity and natural gas to millions of customers in March 2017, will be replaced by General Counsel John Simon on an interim basis, the company said. She also resigned from the boards of both PG&E and its utility subsidiary, Pacific Gas and Electric Co.
“While we are making progress as a company in safety and other areas, the Board recognizes the tremendous challenges PG&E continues to face. We believe John is the right interim leader for the company," PG&E Chairman Richard Kelly said in a statement. "Our search is focused on extensive operational and safety expertise, and the board is committed to further change at PG&E."

More at: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pg-e-...--finance.html

[Swordsmyth]

For days, California Governor Gavin Newsom and lawmakers deflected questions about what they’d do to keep the state’s largest utility, PG&E Corp., from going under. On Monday, their response became clear: Not much -- at least not until the power giant has actually gone bankrupt.Once the San Francisco-based company has made a Chapter 11 filing -- in what’s likely to be one of the largest utility bankruptcies of all time -- California can jump into the case as a party and wield its power as one of the few entities that must sign off on the company’s final plan to emerge. That leaves room for Newsom to still carry heavy weight in the outcome.
The new Democratic governor said at a press conference Monday that he’s focused on safety, reliability and affordability for Californians, even as PG&E takes steps to address its $30 billion in potential wildfire liabilities. His statement earlier also keyed in on a top priority: keeping the state on track to “make progress toward our climate goals.”
The filing, viewed by some as the worst outcome, may actually help California decide what type of utility is right for a state with an ever-increasing risk of multibillion-dollar wildfires, according to Severin Borenstein, an energy economist at the University of California, Berkeley. Options such as breaking up the utility giant or turning it into government-owned entities are likely to be hashed out in concert with the bankruptcy proceeding, he said.
“It will accelerate the discussion that was being had before bankruptcy, which is what is the appropriate structure of utilities given the increased wildfire risk?” Borenstein said in an interview. “If we are going to have investor-owned utilities, how do we deal with the fact that they may face multibillion liabilities?”

More at: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pg-e-...163848465.html

[Swordsmyth]

PG&E Corp’s chances of emerging from bankruptcy proceedings hinge in part on an arcane California legal rule that threatens to keep the utility owner perpetually on the hook for liabilities from catastrophic wildfires even beyond the more than $30 billion the company expects to face from recent blazes.

The doctrine, known as “inverse condemnation,” exposes California utilities to liabilities from wildfires regardless of their negligence, as long as their equipment is involved.
That legal rule could keep PG&E exposed to additional liabilities from future fires and leave the company stuck in bankruptcy limbo, according to restructuring experts and people familiar with the matter.


A bankruptcy judge could even refuse to approve PG&E’s reorganization and exit from court proceedings if the judge finds that inverse condemnation calls into question its future as a viable company, according to U.S. law.
“Inverse condemnation is a state law but a bankruptcy judge is god,” said Robert McCullough, principal at energy consulting firm McCullough Research in Portland, Oregon, noting that PG&E faces widespread lawsuits. “He’s going to have to figure out, once he releases the company from bankruptcy, if it’s actually a viable entity.”
Private companies generally are not subject to this law, though it varies state by state, McCullough said. California’s laws are more extreme than most, he said.
In a regulatory filing on Monday, PG&E questioned whether it could continue to operate as a so-called investor-owned utility while being exposed to that risk. PG&E’s exposure to inverse condemnation represents a key issue the utility owner hopes to address should it seek bankruptcy protection, according to a person familiar with the matter.
PG&E challenged inverse condemnation in California’s Supreme Court unsuccessfully late last year. In a legal filing, the company noted that regulators decide how much private utilities such as PG&E can charge customers, limiting their ability to mitigate pain from crushing liabilities.
PG&E also highlighted in the legal argument a decision by regulators to deny another private utility’s request to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in uninsured costs resulting from settling claims related to wildfires.
That status quo will cause private utilities to “face increasing difficulty in obtaining capital from investors, threatening financial harm to the utilities and potentially rendering them economically unsustainable,” the company said in the petition to California’s highest court.
Absent a court intervention, it would be up to California’s state politicians, including Governor Gavin Newsom, to come up with a legislative fix to inverse condemnation.
“Bankruptcy is PG&E’s response to the risk of (inverse condemnation),” said Severin Borenstein, the faculty director of the Energy Institute at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
“That leads to the larger question of whether or not this bankruptcy leads to...how we have utilities in California, and if we move from private firms to government owned,” he said.

More at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-p...KCN1P91BY?il=0

[Swordsmyth]

PG&E Corp. is so cash-starved that it won’t commit to paying settlements reached with people who lost their homes in a 2015 wildfire caused by a tree falling on a power line.The disclosure by a lawyer for the utility giant was greeted warily by a state judge at a hearing Thursday in Sacramento. He declined to grant PG&E’s request, in light of its plan to file for bankruptcy this month, to put off an April trial over damages from the Butte Fire that torched 70,000 acres and destroyed almost 500 homes.
The September 2015 fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills did modest damage compared with Northern California blazes in PG&E’s service area in 2017 and 2018 that, taken together, killed more than 100 people, razed tens of thousands of homes and burned hundreds of thousands of acres.
Financial uncertainty over as much as $30 billion in liabilities from the 2017 and 2018 wildfires has created a state of “limbo” in which PG&E can’t commit to previously reached settlements, said Kristin Bird, a lawyer for the company.

More at: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pg-e-...230845190.html

But finding bonus money for their executives isn't a problem.

[Swordsmyth]

Judge tentatively finds uninsulated PG&E power lines sparked 2017-2018 wildfires

[Swordsmyth]

After rallying in the 'good' news that the company has entered Chapter 11, PG&E's stock is lower today, not helped by a federal judge's comments slamming the triple-bankrupt utility for serially starting fires.

Following a series of massive fires along its 125,000 miles of power lines over the last two years, Bloomberg reports that U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup - who is overseeing PG&E’s probation for safety violations that led to felony convictions for the 2010 explosion of one of its gas pipelines, which killed eight people - didn’t back down from his criticism of the utility despite being told he had overreached.

“Usually a criminal on probation is forthcoming and admits what they need to admit. You haven’t admitted much,” Alsup told lawyers for the company at a hearing Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco.
“There’s a clear-cut pattern here: that PG&E is starting these fires.”

Among other suggestions, the judge proposed subjecting the company to criminal sanctions if it failed to shut off electric supply to portions of the grid on extremely windy days, trim tree branches and inspect and repair thousands of miles of power lines.



More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...starting-fires

[Swordsmyth]

Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) may shed more than $40 billion worth of power purchase agreements after the California utility was driven into bankruptcy by liabilities for sparking deadly wildfires, The Wall Street Journal reports.PG&E wants the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Francisco to rule whether the company must honor $42 billion worth of contracts with about 350 different energy suppliers, mostly solar and wind plants.


The court’s decision could have a major impact on California’s renewable energy industry and power makeup. Many green energy suppliers only do business with PG&E, California’s largest utility. Shedding those contracts would likely drive those companies under and cripple California’s ability to meet energy goals set by the state government.
“A lot of companies are in that position, where PG&E is responsible for 100% of their revenues,” Credit Benchmark lead researcher David Carruthers told WSJ.
Former California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation in September that mandated the state run on 100 percent green energy by 2045. It also bumped a previous target of 50 percent by 2030 to 60 percent.

More at: https://truepundit.com/bankrupt-cali...rgy-contracts/

[Swordsmyth]

A federal judge reprimanded Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), California’s largest utility, for its role in starting deadly wildfires across California in the past two years.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup opened a Wednesday court hearing by comparing PG&E to a drug dealer who violates his probation by allowing its equipment to ignite massive fires. PG&E filed for bankruptcy Tuesday, facing more than $30 billion in wildfire-related liabilities.
“Those fires killed 22 people, burned alive in their cars and homes,” Alsup said in court Wednesday, the Chico Enterprise-Record reported that evening.
“There is one clear pattern here: PG&E is starting these fires. Global warming is not starting these fires,” Alsup said.
California officials blamed PG&E for 17 northern California wildfires in 2017 and investigators are looking into whether or not the utility’s equipment sparked 2018’s Camp Fire. That fire killed 86 people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses.
In the wake of the fires, PG&E lobbied California lawmakers to change wildfire liability laws, arguing global warming increased wildfire risks beyond what utilities could handle. State law holds utilities liable for wildfire damages even if there was no negligence.

Alsup ruled PG&E violated its probation regarding the 2010 San Bruno gas pipeline explosion. The judge found the company didn’t adequately notify its probation monitor of the investigation into its role in the 2017 fires.


“You’ve got to be on your absolute best behavior — no more crimes,” Alsup warned.
Alsup could require PG&E to shut off power to electric lines during high-wind events and could order the utility to embark on the costly effort of trimming trees and removing debris from around its power lines.
“In two years, 3 percent of California burned up,” Alsup said. “Think about that. Three percent of the whole state burned up. We cannot continue to sustain these kinds of catastrophic injuries to the state, death and destruction.”
“PG&E is not the only source of these fires, but it is a source and to most of us it’s unthinkable that a public utility is causing that type of damage,” Alsup said.



More at: https://dailycaller.com/2019/01/31/j...nia-wildfires/

[timosman]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-p...-idUSKCN1PI00P

JANUARY 23, 2019

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California power company PG&E Corp, which expects to soon file for bankruptcy, said on Wednesday it would cost between $75 billion and $150 billion to fully comply with a judge’s order to inspect its power grid and remove or trim trees that could fall into power lines and trigger wildfires.


PG&E said in a filing in U.S. District Court in San Francisco that it could not on its own afford the work proposed in a Jan. 9 order by U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who is overseeing conditions of the company’s probation following a 2010 gas pipeline explosion.

To pay for the proposed work, PG&E said it would have to pass the bill to ratepayers who get their power from the utility company’s nearly 100,000 miles (161,000 km) of overhead lines in northern California.

“PG&E would inevitably need to turn to California ratepayers for funding, resulting in a substantial increase - an estimated one-year increase of more than five times current rates in typical utility bills,” the company said.

PG&E, which provides electricity and natural gas to 16 million customers in northern and central California, is facing widespread litigation, government investigations and liabilities that could top $30 billion following fatal wildfires in 2017 and 2018.

On Tuesday, PG&E said it had secured $5.5 billion in financing from four banks as it prepares to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on or about Jan. 29.

The utility on Wednesday estimated it would have to remove 100 million trees or more to safeguard power lines, a campaign that would face “myriad legal obstacles to reconfiguring the California landscape,” as it would require contending with state and federal agencies as well as private property owners.

A proposal to restrict using power lines deemed unsafe during high winds is not feasible because lines traverse rural areas to service urban zones, while “de-energization” of lines could also affect the power grid in other states, PG&E said.

State Senator Bill Dodd questioned PG&E’s filing, underscoring the frustration of many California policymakers after they approved legislation last year to let utilities recover some of the costs related to wildfires in 2017 and others starting in 2019.

The legislation, which critics called a bailout, did not make provisions for fires last year and it was approved before November’s Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history.

“PG&E’s mismanagement and lack of credibility casts doubt over anything they put forward,” Dodd told Reuters in an email. “The company can and must do more to ensure safety, and I expect the court and regulators will make that happen.”

In separate court papers citing concerns about the complexity of regulations around PG&E’s power transmission, the U.S. government recommended a court-assigned monitor review Alsup’s proposals and consult with relevant agencies to reach “workable” terms for the company.

The government said the monitor is “in the best position to determine whether wildfires can be prevented by fixing gaps in the currently regulatory scheme, or by improving PG&E’s compliance with current regulations.”

While PG&E questioned the judge’s proposals, the company said it has no issue with the monitor checking its efforts to mitigate wildfire risks.

Alsup’s order would modify terms of PG&E’s probation. He will hold a hearing on the new terms on Jan. 30.

[timosman]

$1.5M/mile inspection.