• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

PG&E Announces $11bn Settlement in Deadly California Fires

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
09/13/19
in Featured, National
Dividends and Disaster: How For-Profit Utilities Threaten Public Safety

Firefighters battle the Camp Fire in Northern California, November 2019. Photo: AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Bankrupt U.S. utility company Pacific Gas and Electric announced Friday it has reached an $11 billion settlement with insurance companies over the deadly wildfires in California last year blamed on faulty power lines.

The San Francisco-based company said the settlement covers 85 percent of the insurance claims in the 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California – the deadliest in the state’s modern history – that left 86 people dead.

“Today’s settlement is another step in doing what’s right for the communities, businesses, and individuals affected by the devastating wildfires,” PG&E chief Bill Johnson said in a statement.

The blaze ravaged more than 60,000 hectares (153,000 acres) of land and destroyed nearly 19,000 houses and other structures, consuming the small town of Paradise.

PG&E acknowledged that its equipment was to blame for the disaster, and filed for bankruptcy protection in January. Johnson took over the reins in April.

The Camp Fire was not the first time a failure of PG&E’s equipment has resulted in disaster. The company remains under criminal probation after it was convicted on charges stemming from a 2010 gas line explosion under the city of San Bruno, which sent flames 1,000 feet into the air. Eight people were killed in the blast and 38 homes were leveled.

Investigators concluded that PG&E’s equipment was also responsible for a series of fires that ravaged Northern California in 2017, killing 43 people and destroying more than 14,000 homes.

The insurance settlement is part of the bankruptcy reorganization plan, and the company said it would continue to work with individuals to “fairly” resolve their claims.

The company in June reached a settlement with local governments and agencies totally $1 billion.

Despite being in bankruptcy, Jared Ellias, a bankruptcy expert and professor at the University of California’s Hastings College of Law, told The Globe Post that the company has plenty of cash on hand to pay out in damages. 

“Just because a company is in bankruptcy doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a lot of value, and PG&E is one of the most valuable companies in the country,” he said, explaining that the company continues to enjoy a “captive market” in Northern California, where consumers have little to no alternative utility options. 

At the time it filed for bankruptcy, PG&E had more $70 billion in assets, and Wall Street investors have continued to pour billions of dollars into the company since the fire.

“As we work to resolve the remaining claims of those who’ve suffered, we are also focused on safely and reliably delivering energy to our customers, improving our systems and infrastructure, and continuing to support California’s clean energy goals,” Johnson said.

The company’s share price surged 7.5 percent in early trading in New York.


More on the Subject

“It’s difficult to overstate the unpopularity of PG&E in California,” Ellias told The Globe Post in April.

Harsh criticisms of the company have not been confined only to the public. U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who is overseeing PG&E’s probation, has called the company’s safety record “dismal.”

In March, Alsup blasted the company for paying about $1 billion in dividends to its shareholders in 2016 and 2017 while it “knowingly failed to trim or remove thousands of trees it had already identified as posing a hazard.”

And while PG&E has traditionally wielded significant political power in California’s state government, there are signs that officials’ patience is wearing thin.

“Time and again, PG&E has broken the public trust and its responsibilities to ratepayers, wildfire victims and employees,” Nathan Click, a spokesman for Governor Gavin Newsom, said in a statement in April.

Dividends and Disaster: How For-Profit Utilities Threaten Public Safety

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

The remnants of a neighborhood in Paradise, California
National

Are Microgrids a Solution to California’s Public Energy Woes?

by Alex Graf
November 19, 2019
Charred areas of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, August 27, 2019
Opinion

California Missed a Chance to Put Out Next Year’s Amazon Fires

by Jeff Conant
October 10, 2019
The remnants of a neighborhood in Paradise, California
Featured

Dividends and Disaster: How For-Profit Utilities Threaten Public Safety

by Bryan Bowman
April 16, 2019
A homeless veteran in the US
Featured

Children Not Spared by California’s Homelessness Crisis

by Staff Writer
March 14, 2019
The charred remains from a hilltop house after the wildfire in California
Opinion

Conflagrating California: Evolution of Wildfires and How to Stop Them

by Stephen Pyne
November 28, 2018
Firefighters in front of fire in Napa, California
Environment

Are Wildfires and Climate Change Related?

by Kevin E. Trenberth
March 12, 2019
Next Post
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim ben Hamad al-Thani shake hands.

Turkey’s Support for Qatar Goes Beyond Damaged Ties with Saudi Arabia and UAE

Pro-marijuana activists take part in a rally on Capitol Hill in 2017

Marijuana Legalization in US: Is End of Cannabis Prohibition in Sight?

Recommended

refugees

More Than 100 Million People Forcibly Displaced, UN Says

May 23, 2022
Volkswagen logo

German Farmer Sues Volkswagen Over CO2 Emissions

May 20, 2022
Vladimir Putin

Russia Says Economy Grew 3.5 Percent in First Quarter

May 18, 2022
Mexico missing people

Over 100,000 People Reported Missing in Mexico, Data Reveals

May 17, 2022
Shireen Abu Akleh

Jerusalem Archbishop Condemns Israeli Police Raid at Journalist’s Funeral

May 16, 2022
A Lebanese election official stands at a polling station

New Group Threatens Lebanese Elections… and Potentially Middle East Peace

May 18, 2022

Opinion

A Lebanese election official stands at a polling station

New Group Threatens Lebanese Elections… and Potentially Middle East Peace

May 18, 2022
A man holding a gun

Safely Back in USA, Land of Guns and Burgers

May 2, 2022
China Muslim Uyghurs

Unfair Politicization, Corruption, and the Death of Modern Olympism

April 23, 2022
Ukraine war

The Ukrainian Refugee Crisis and the Hierarchies of Western Compassion

April 20, 2022
Chinese leader Xi Jinping

How Wrong ‘How China Can End the War in Ukraine’ Is

April 1, 2022
Ukraine children

The War for Ukraine’s Lives and Minds

March 30, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post