California Regulators Threaten to Tighten Oversight of PG&E

(Bloomberg) -- California regulators are weighing whether to put utility giant PG&E Corp. into a higher level of oversight for series of safety lapses.

Marybel Batjer, the president of the California Public Utilities Commission, has directed the agency’s staff to conduct a fact-finding review regarding a “pattern of self-reported missed inspections and other self-reported safety incidents,” according to a letter sent to PG&E CEO Patricia Poppe that was obtained by Bloomberg News. 

Earlier this year, state regulators put PG&E into the first level of a six-step enforcement process that could ultimately lead to California taking control over the embattled utility. State regulators put in place the oversight measure as a condition of approving PG&E’s emergence from bankruptcy last year. 

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