The settlement costs more than PG&E initially anticipated, so the utility took a pretax charge of $4.9 billion for the current quarter, according to a Monday filing. But it’s still a major victory for PG&E, which has spent months trying to negotiate a viable restructuring plan to emerge from bankruptcy by the middle of next year. PG&E would have until Dec. 17 to make changes if Newsom rejects the settlement. Compensating victims of wildfires had emerged as the largest challenge to restructuring PG&E, which declared bankruptcy in January after its equipment was blamed for starting catastrophic blazes in 2017 and 2018. PG&E said Monday that it will update and file its reorganization plan that resolves all major wildfire claims by Thursday.

Source: Los Angeles Times December 10, 2019 00:00 UTC