by Katy Grimes
As Appearing in the California Globe
PG&E is under the authority of the federal Bankruptcy Court
The California mega-utility Pacific Gas & Electric filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy reorganization January 29, 2019. So it’s curious how Governor Gavin Newsom continues to publicly threaten that if PG&E doesn’t do what he wants, the state may just take over the utility.
Last week Governor Gavin Newsom told the company in a meeting, if PG&E didn’t work to get itself out of bankruptcy, that the state might take over the entire company as early as June, California Globe reported.
But the state cannot just take over the private utility without Bankruptcy court approval – that talk is all chest thumping and bravado.
PG&E filed its Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization in Bankruptcy Court September 9, 2019, which lays out how the company will satisfy its pre-Chapter 11 obligations to creditors and other stakeholders.
Adding to the confusion, under a proposed bill by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), PG&E would become a state-owned public utility through the state of California.
“We are looking at legislation to force PG&E to become a public utility, but that’s still in the early planning stages and we haven’t settled on the exact details yet,” Senator Wiener told Bloomberg News on Tuesday. “[I plan to introduce] some sort of legislation forcing them to become a public utility.”
