The California Legislature convened today for the first meeting of the 2019-’20 legislative session to swear in new members and take care of other housekeeping items. Today’s session follows Thursday’s
open meeting at the California Public Utilities Commission at which Commissioner Michael Picker noted that the Legislature would have to be involved in any changes to PG&E’s organizational model.
No bill to protect Pacific Gas & Electric and other utilities from wildfire liabilities was introduced today, although both Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon spoke in their opening remarks about the need to address past wildfires and prevent future ones. (You can search 2019-’20 session bills
here; after a bill is introduced, 30 days must pass before it can be heard in committee.)
Today marked the last session of 2018 and the Legislature will reconvene on Jan. 7, 2019.
In an
interview today with Sonoma County radio station KSRO, state Sen. Bill Dodd, the sponsor of
SB-901, said he believed that PG&E “probably [is], right now, too big to fail” and that a bankruptcy would harm Californians.
“At the end of the day, in a bankruptcy situation, a bankruptcy judge is not looking out after ratepayers, they’re looking out after creditors,” Dodd said. “In a bankruptcy, victims get hurt and ratepayers get hurt. And so while the mantra is, oh, they’re just bailing them out, yes, that’s certainly a narrative; the other narrative has to be, the real reason we’re considering this is the options for the ratepayers, the options for the victims don’t look good any other way.”
Addressing PG&E’s wildfire liability and organizational structure, Dodd said, “
We have the whole legislative year to do this, and we’re going to have a number of different hearings ... Our president pro tem’ last night, Toni Atkins, indicated we should have a standing committee.”
Dodd also criticized the CPUC, which he said has done a “totally, completely inadequate job” overseeing PG&E.