The
development comes less than a week after the company said it
reached a $13.5 billion settlement with victims of some of the
most devastating wildfires in California's modern history.
PG&E has settled all major wildfire claims and resolved disputed
release provisions between insurance companies and wildfire
victims, it said on Thursday.
The company also said its plan can be fully funded through its
capital structure, including the $12 billion equity backstop
commitments that PG&E received last week.
The acceptance or rejection of the plan may not be obtained
until the approval of a disclosure statement by the bankruptcy
court, PG&E's attorneys said in a court filing on Thursday.
On Thursday consumer advocate Erin Brockovich voiced support for
the company's reorganization plan. She is known for having
fought PG&E in court over water contamination, a case depicted
in an Academy Award-winning film starring Julia Roberts.
"This approach will also enable the company to continue to help
meet the state's climate and clean energy goals," Brockovich
said, adding that the plan was compensating the victims fairly.
The utility had previously reached a $1 billion settlement with
cities, counties and other public entities and an $11 billion
agreement with insurance carriers related to the wildfires.
It filed for Chapter 11 protection in January, citing potential
liabilities in excess of $30 billion from wildfires in 2017 and
2018 linked to its equipment.
A probe by a state regulator concluded earlier this month that
the company did not properly inspect and replace transmission
lines before a faulty wire sparked a wildfire that killed more
than 80 people in 2018.
PG&E came under renewed criticism this year for precautionary
power outages to guard against the risk of wildfires posed by
extremely dry and windy weather, as regulators and consumer
activists labeled the company's outages as being too broad
without appropriate communication to customers.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Himani
Sarkar, Stephen Coates and David Evans)
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