Edison, PG&E Seek Mercy From Courts Over Doomsday Fire Payouts
- California utilities fear they can’t pass costs to ratepayers
- Lawyer suing PG&E decries panic before cause of fires is known
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) employees work to fix downed power lines burned by wildfires in this aerial photograph taken above Santa Rosa, California, on Oct. 12, 2017.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Edison International and PG&E Corp. are trying to knock a hole in a California law that could put them on the hook for billions of dollars in damages for the worst wildfires in state history even if they did nothing wrong.
The owners of California’s two biggest utilities are going to court to limit their liability for a pair of smaller fires from 2015. Wins in those cases could shield them from massive payouts over the record-setting blazes last year outside Los Angeles and San Francisco.