By Mark Chediak, Bloomberg
California Governor Gavin Newsom said he doesn’t see the state having the appetite to take over PG&E Corp., which has come under criticism recently for blackouts that hit San Francisco.
“I’m not convinced” the state wants to get into the utility business, Newsom said during an event in San Francisco hosted by Bloomberg News.
Newsom previously weighed a possible takeover of PG&E during negotiations over the company’s restructuring after it filed for bankruptcy in 2019 due to billions of dollars of wildfire liability claims. More recently, some elected officials in San Francisco have renewed calls to take over PG&E’s wires and poles in the city after power outages darkened neighborhoods over the holidays. Separately, gubernatorial candidate and billionaire Tom Steyer has called for the state’s utility monopolies to be broken up after they’ve sharply raised rates.
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Newsom noted that the state already has the ability to take control of PG&E if the utility fails to meet safety and regulatory standards, a condition agreed upon as part of PG&E’s emergence from bankruptcy. He also noted that the company’s executive pay is now tied to safety metrics.
“PG&E is a very different company than it was prior to bankruptcy,” Newsom said.
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