PG&E Is Finally Filing For Bankruptcy After California Wildfire Crisis

With more than billions of dollars in claims from the tremendous Camp Fire and other 2017 wildfires in Northern California, the Pacific Gas and Electric company has officially announced that they plan to file for bankruptcy, but will not be going out of business, according to the Sacramento Bee. 

This announcement comes less than 12 hours after CEO, Geisha Williams has stepped down from the company as well. These announcements also came with a 15-day notice of the company's intent to file for protection under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code. 

“We believe a court-supervised process under Chapter 11 will best enable PG&E to resolve its potential liabilities in an orderly, fair and expeditious fashion,” said interim CEO John R. Simon in a statement.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the total liabilities from the 2017 and 2018 wildfires could exceed $30 billion dollars. This would easily go over PG&E's liability insurance coverage and the $1.5 billion in cash it has on hand. 

That's sure a lot of debt, kind of sounds like they may be going of out business soon.

Senior Vice President of PG&E Steve Malnight says otherwise. He believes the company's filling of Chapter 11 will stabilize the company's finances and allow them to invest in wildfire safety programs.

“PG&E’s not going out of business. Employees are going to continue doing their job, and continue to get paid .... Our most important responsibility is the safety of our customers and the communities we serve, and nothing that we are announcing today will impact that commitment" Manlight told the Sacramento Bee.

Photo: Getty Images


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