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What happens if PG&E goes bankrupt?
Bottom lines:
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Bankruptcy could affect wildfire victims seeking damages because the filing triggers a stay on lawsuits against PG&E.
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“Ultimately, the customers pay”
(Interesting Loretta Lynch(???), who was president of PUC when PG&E filed for bankruptcy, said she’d be suspicious about PG&E’s motives if the company were to seek a reorganization. Lynch said the utility’s bankruptcy filing was a strategic choice after failing to escape state regulation and that the company did not really need a lifeline.
“Consumers should be on high alert,” she said.
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Under bankruptcy, a company can seek to modify labor agreements.
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If PG&E were to go bankrupt, it’s unlikely the state would be out any money because customers are on the hook for the bonds.
https://www.chicoer.com/2018/11/30/what-happens-if-pge-goes-bankrupt/
sauce:
That was the case when PG&E filed for bankruptcy during California’s power crisis.
PG&E filed for Chapter 11 on April 6, 2001, when the state was hit with rolling blackouts and market price manipulation. According to the Associated Press, “PG&E, based in San Francisco, began its bankruptcy odyssey with more than $12 billion in debt that piled up as the cost of wholesale electricity soared beyond the retail prices established under a state power deregulation plan introduced in 1998.”
Although the filing did not trigger layoffs, the AP noted that ratepayers were stuck with paying back the bills for years and years. At the time, the rehabilitation was expected to cost customers $6.2 billion to $8.2 billion in above-market prices through 2012. That worked out to about $1,300 to $1,700 per customer.
Loretta Lynch, who was president of PUC when PG&E filed for bankruptcy, said she’d be suspicious about PG&E’s motives if the company were to seek a reorganization. Lynch said the utility’s bankruptcy filing was a strategic choice after failing to escape state regulation and that the company did not really need a lifeline.
“Consumers should be on high alert,” she said
https://www.chicoer.com/2018/11/30/what-happens-if-pge-goes-bankrupt/