Josh Edelson/AFP
On Tuesday, PG&E Corp. will plead guilty 84 separate times to involuntary manslaughter — the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history.
That admission in a California courtroom will mark the end of one portion of the power company’s legal travails after its equipment sparked the largest wildfire in state history, consuming the town of Paradise. Many who lost loved ones or homes to the 2018 conflagration may not find much comfort in the utility paying a $4 million fine…For the company it amounts to conceding that “the evidence will show beyond a reasonable doubt that we killed 84 people and burned down a town by a criminally reckless fire,”…
PG&E calls the plea agreement “an important step in taking responsibility for the past and working to create a better future for all concerned…We want to do right by the victims and the communities…”
Well, all right, then. Says, no one.
“Guilty of 84 Counts of Manslaughter, and No One Held Responsible” https://www.dcreport.org/2020/06/20/guilty-of-84-counts-of-manslaughter-and-no-one-held-responsible/
“How a PG&E Contractor With a Sketchy Past Made Millions After California’s Deadliest Fire” https://www.propublica.org/article/how-a-pg-e-contractor-with-a-sketchy-past-made-millions-after-californias-deadliest-fire
PG&E emerges from bankruptcy, pays $5.4 billion into wildfire fund https://www.marketwatch.com/story/pge-emerges-from-bankruptcy-pays-54-billion-into-wildfire-fund-2020-07-02
This marks the second time in 16 years that PG&E has navigated a complex bankruptcy case that has raised questions about how it should operate in the future. The last time the company emerged from bankruptcy, in 2004, electricity rates soared and management focused even more on boosting profits instead of upgrading its power supply.
Because its restructuring plan was approved by the bankruptcy court last month, the company will be able to take part in a state wildfire fund, half financed by California rate payers, created to cover costs of future catastrophic wildfires. It contributed $5 billion to the fund as part of its emergence, the company said. https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page?title=20200701_pge_emerges_from_chapter_11