PG&E Bankruptcy Is Deja Vu for Judge Who Handled 2001 Filing
PG&E Bankruptcy Is Deja Vu for Judge Who Handled 2001 Filing
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali knows a thing or two about reorganizing PG&E Corp.
The San Francisco judge assigned Tuesday to oversee the utility’s bankruptcy filing handled its restructuring after California’s 2001 energy crisis, when power prices surged tenfold.
Back then, PG&E faltered under $9 billion in debt after purchasing power for more than it could charge customers under California’s deregulation plan. Montali presided over 2 1/2 years of proceedings, including a trial over competing reorganization plans, that cost PG&E more than $400 million in legal fees. In 2003, Montali and regulators approved a plan allowing PG&E to pay creditors in full by selling $8 billion in bonds and charging customers $4 billion.
To contact the reporter on this story: Joel Rosenblatt in San Francisco at jrosenblatt@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Heather Smith at hsmith26@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg
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