Wildfires

As a publicly traded corporation, Pacific Gas & Electric reported $17.1 billion a year in revenues from its electric and gas operations. After operating costs, expenses and taxes, it still made out with a profit of $1.7 billion last year. So why has California’s largest utility filed for bankruptcy? PG&E may be solvent, but it is facing […]

Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed tens of millions to help local governments recover tax revenues, and $19 million in direct aid to school districts affected by wildfire. If Newsom really wants to change the direction of the state’s long-neglected northern region, he’ll need to do more. He included $2 million in his 2019-20 budget to review options for a new California State University campus in San Joaquin County, likely in Stockton, 135 miles from Paradise, the epicenter of the Camp Fire. The governor’s proposal should be expanded to include study of another potential campus: a Cal Poly for Northern California.

PG&E is cleared of one big fire, but stil on the hook for so many others. Wall Street speaks. Another California Republican bails on the the GOP.

Mention Pacific Gas & Electric to Victor Porter, and the response is nothing like the bland non-opinion most Americans have of the companies that provide their electricity. “They have to pay,” said Porter, a 64-year-old artist who fled for his life with his partner and their dog when the towering Camp Fire swept down on […]

PG&E's bankruptcy in 2001 and the one to come are at once similar and very different. But we did learn lessons the hard way in 2000 and 2001. Having lived through the last bankruptcy, my suggestion to policymakers is to slow down and conduct a thorough analysis to fully understand the nature of the problem.

PG&E customers shouldn't have to foot the bankruptcy bill if the utility is responsible for deadly California wildfires, says a state watchdog.

By Catherine Brinkley Catherine Brinkley is an assistant professor of human ecology at University of California, Davis, who has written extensively on community energy infrastructures, ckbrinkley@ucdavis.edu. She wrote this commentary for CALmatters. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. is filing for bankruptcy. Again. When PG&E filed in 2001, it was the third largest bankruptcy filing in […]

Newsom reveals his budget, Republicans slam Trump on FEMA threats, shutdown could worsen wildfires, CA vs. Big Pharma, DMV reinvention and why tiny toilets matter.

Bankruptcy looms for PG&E, Newsom calls for more wildfire funding, the Montecito mudslides, Kamala Harris preps for 2020 and are legislators really like us?