{"id":177312,"date":"2019-10-24T19:45:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T00:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/10\/24\/bankruptcy-should-have-consequences\/"},"modified":"2019-10-24T19:45:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-25T00:45:00","slug":"bankruptcy-should-have-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/10\/24\/bankruptcy-should-have-consequences\/","title":{"rendered":"Bankruptcy Should Have Consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mayor of San Jose is proposing that PG&E’s bankruptcy should be resolved by turning it into a customer owned utility<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Frustrated by PG&E<\/a> Corp.\u2019s California blackouts and its existing options for exiting bankruptcy, the mayor of the state\u2019s third-biggest city is proposing something radically different: turn the company into the nation\u2019s largest customer-owned utility. <\/p>\n

San Jose hopes to persuade other California cities and counties in coming weeks to line up behind the plan, which would strip PG&E of its status as an investor-owned company and turn it into a nonprofit electric-and-gas cooperative, Mayor Sam Liccardo said in an interview. <\/p>\n

The buyout proposal by San Jose, the largest city served by PG&E with more than a million residents, amounts to a revolt by some of the utility\u2019s roughly 16 million customers as PG&E struggles to keep the lights on<\/a> and provide basic services while preventing its aging electric equipment from sparking wildfires. <\/p>\n

Mr. Liccardo said the time has come for the people dependent on PG&E for essential services to propose a new direction. A cooperative, he said, would create a utility better able to meet customers\u2019 needs because it would be owned by customers\u2014and answerable to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a crisis begging for a better solution than what PG&E customers see being considered today,\u201d Mr. Liccardo said. He said recent power shut-offs initiated by the company were poorly handled, adding, \u201cI\u2019ve seen better organized riots.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

The buyout idea represents a dramatic twist in the debate over how PG&E can emerge from bankruptcy, compensate fire victims and address its many safety problems. It likely will face stiff opposition from PG&E, which in January filed for chapter 11 protection from an estimated $30 billion in wildfire-related liabilities. The company\u2019s bondholders also will likely contest the idea after putting forward a rival reorganization plan that the bankruptcy court agreed to consider<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Instead of taking their proposal to the bankruptcy court weighing PG&E\u2019s fate, proponents say public entities will likely take their case directly to the California Public Utilities Commission, which can veto a reorganization plan emerging from bankruptcy review if in its eyes it doesn\u2019t serve the public interest.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

PG&E has been so awful for so long, I really do not see an alternative to this.<\/p>\n

As an aside, a bankruptcy might very well prevent them from opening their pocket book to bankroll a initiative petition campaign against any public ownership proposals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Mayor of San Jose is proposing that PG&E’s bankruptcy should be resolved by turning it into a customer owned utility: Frustrated by PG&E Corp.\u2019s California blackouts and its existing options for exiting bankruptcy, the mayor of the state\u2019s third-biggest city is proposing something radically different: turn the company into the nation\u2019s largest customer-owned utility. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[365,368,457,456,437],"class_list":["post-177312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-business","tag-corruption","tag-energy","tag-finance","tag-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177312"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}