, Columnist
California Utilities Face an Expensive, Wildfire-Filled Future
It’s another way regulators, investors and customers are grappling with the costs of climate change.
Hot, deadly and expensive: A vision of the future.
Photographer: Ringo Chiu/AFP/Getty Images
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If headlines along the lines of “PG&E plunges ...” provoke a sense of deja vu, then it might be a good idea to embrace the feeling. Because the financial markets have.
Shares in PG&E Corp. have fallen by almost half in the past week amid an investigation into whether California’s devastating wildfires are linked to the utility’s equipment. Fellow Californian Edison International has fallen by more than a fifth. And while the magnitude of the drop is steeper this time around, a similar story was unfolding a year or so ago: