PG&E Corp. estimates it would cost as much as $150 billion this year alone to comply with a federal judge’s proposal to prevent wildfires.
California’s largest investor-owned utility said U.S. District Judge William Alsup’s plan for it to trim branches and inspect and repair thousands of miles of power lines would cost about five times as much as PG&E’s forecast liabilities for wildfires that scorched the state in 2017 and 2018 and would have to be funded by ratepayers.
