PG&E Says New Probation Conditions ‘Undermine Wildfire Safety’

(Bloomberg) -- PG&E Corp. is asking a court to halt a recent round of probation requirements, saying they are “more likely to undermine wildfire safety than they are to promote it.”

The company is challenging four new requirements laid out by a judge on April 29, including that the company employ its own inspectors for vegetation management, that it identify the age of equipment on every transmission tower and line and that it ensure its inspection contractors carry enough insurance in case a fire erupts.

The requirements interfere with actions from the state legislature and regulator, known as the CPUC, to address the same issues, the San Francisco-based company said in a court filing dated Wednesday. To meet the new conditions, PG&E said it “will be forced to divert significant resources from its CPUC-approved Wildfire Safety Plan to satisfy the Court’s conditions, with no evidence that those conditions will enhance safety and a risk that they may well decrease it.”

California’s largest utility is on probation after it was convicted in 2016 of gas-pipeline safety crimes. Judge William Alsup has pushed the company to prevent its equipment from causing another devastating wildfire, as happened in 2017. PG&E is working through probation as it simultaneously navigates a complicated exit from bankruptcy.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.