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What to Know: Pacific Gas & Electric, which provides electricity to 16 million Californians, is close to declaring bankruptcy.

“PG&E Corp. stock cratered Monday after the company said it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid the financial anguish stemming from its part in helping spark a wave of historic wildfires in California,” CNBC reports. “Shares of the company plunged 52 percent to $8.38 per share Monday, one day after the company said Chief Executive Geisha Williams was stepping down. The stock has lost more than 80 percent of its value over the last three months… PG&E faces at least $30 billion in potential liability costs stemming from wildfires in 2017 and 2018, many allegedly started by the company’s equipment, that have led state officials to doubt the safety of the company’s electric distribution system.”

The TPPF Take: California policies, established by state lawmakers, have made that state a giant tinderbox.

“By focusing the blame for the fires on PG&E, California officials are ducking their own responsibility in the wildfires,” says TPPF’s Chuck DeVore, a former California assemblyman. “We shouldn’t excuse PG&E for failure to maintain its equipment, but bad public policies that discouraged forest fuel load management for decades must be addressed, as well.”

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