PG&E strikes $55 million deal to end criminal probes in six fire-torn counties

The other ends criminal investigations by Butte, Lassen, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama county prosecutors investigating PG&E’s handling of the tree that fell on its power lines as well as the 10 hours it took to find the first flames of the Dixie Fire. .

Instead, the company agreed to donate millions of dollars to local health clinics, educational programs, and nonprofit organizations, and to hire more employees in those counties. PG&E is not entitled to recover costs associated with settlements through rate increases.

The agreement creates a new level of oversight for PG&E through an independent monitoring program designed to ensure the company meets certain wildfire prevention criteria in those six counties — with the threat of financial penalties and legal action if the public service does not.

PG&E has also agreed to create a fast claims process with the aim of compensating victims of losses caused by the Dixie fire within 75 days – a record time compared to previous wildfire payouts that have dragged on for decades. years.

Plumas County District Attorney David Hollister said the judgment will bring desperately needed money to families who have lost businesses and homes in a rural area plagued by fires and high rebuilding costs. . The Dixie Fire burn scar covers about half the county.

“It will quickly and definitely bring in hundreds of millions of dollars to give us a shot at revival,” Hollister said.

Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch said she agreed to drop the criminal charges in order to get more money for the county and create a stronger accountability system than the one allowed by the lawsuit. Criminal Law.

“Being convicted of a crime has limited value when you’re dealing with a multi-billion dollar corporation,” Ravitch said. “What’s more important to us is that there’s some level of accountability going forward…to make sure PG&E is doing everything it can to keep us safe.”

The judgments, negotiated between PG&E and prosecutors, are PG&E’s latest acknowledgment of its pivotal role in California’s wildfire crisis, a pressing issue exacerbated by the utility’s past neglect of its power grid and drought conditions. entrenched making the state’s forest communities vulnerable to any spark. .

The utility has been responsible for some of the deadliest and most destructive fires in recent history. Between 2017 and 2021, PG&E electrical equipment started 31 wildfires that burned nearly 1.5 million acres, destroyed nearly 24,000 structures and killed 113 Californians, according to Cal Fire.

That includes a 2017 firestorm that destroyed more than 5,300 homes in Sonoma County and killed 23 people. Victims of those fires and the historically destructive 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people reached a settlement with PG&E after the company declared bankruptcy, though those payments were slow to arrive, even four years longer. late.

PG&E still faces criminal charges in the 2020 Zogg Fire in Shasta and Tehama counties, which killed four people and destroyed more than 200 structures. In 2020, the utility pleaded guilty to dozens of counts of manslaughter filed in Butte County for the camp fire victims.

In a statement, PG&E CEO Patti Poppe said the company is committed to “doing it right and making it safe.”

“We respect the leadership of local DAs, welcome the new level of transparency and accountability offered by these agreements, and look forward to working with them for the benefit of the communities we collectively serve,” Poppe said.

The deals were met with skepticism by some wildfire victims. Will Abrams, whose family lost their home in the 2017 Tubbs fire and evacuated their new home in the Kincade fire, said additional criminal convictions could force regulators and leaders of the State to strengthen oversight of PG&E. He questioned Ravitch at a press conference after the hearing, criticizing the deals as allowing “PG&E to get out of criminal charges.”

Gerald Singleton, an attorney representing both victims of the Kincade and Dixie fires, said the resolution will help expedite lawsuits from people seeking compensation from PG&E.

While a criminal conviction can help civil lawsuits when the facts are disputed, “here we really don’t need it,” Singleton said. “In these two fires, everyone knows exactly what happened.”

The Dixie Fire began when a nearly 100-foot-tall Douglas fir fell on power lines on a balmy, blue-sky day. The blaze burned 963,309 acres, destroying most of the historic gold rush town of Greenville in Plumas County, reduced 1,329 structures to ashes and became the first documented wildfire to burn since the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada across the ridge to the east.

The Kincade Fire began on October 23, 2019, when an untethered end of a high-voltage transmission line broke during a windstorm at the Geysers geothermal area in north county of Sonoma, according to a Cal Fire investigation.

The 77,758-acre blaze destroyed 374 homes, businesses and other structures, as well as vineyards and ranches, mostly in the Alexander Valley wine region. The impacts of the fire have been widely felt by businesses forced to close temporarily, employees prevented from working and people evicted from their homes.

State regulators had reached a conclusion similar to that of prosecutors that PG&E improperly kept the abandoned transmission line live, fining the company $125 million and forcing PG&E to use most of it. of this money to remove unused transmission lines in high-risk areas.

PG&E admitted no guilt in civil judgments approved Monday by Sonoma and Plumas county judges.

More than $20 million will go to Sonoma County and the remaining $35 million to counties affected by the Dixie Fire.

The company is providing $6 million to Santa Rosa Junior College to expand the fire technology program and support a vegetation management program. The company will also pay unspecified amounts to community colleges in counties affected by the Dixie Fire.

PG&E will pay independent consultants with Filsinger Energy Partners to monitor its wildfire prevention programs in Sonoma County, giving them access to records, operational meetings, field inspections and other data. The Denver-based company also provides a similar watchdog role on PG&E for the California Public Utilities Commission, a requirement imposed on the utility to emerge from bankruptcy due to wildfire liability in 2017 and 2018.

Ravitch said the agreement ensures there is a way to hold the utility accountable if its equipment starts more fires in the area.

“It’s a five-year injunction with a monitor in place who is a specialist in this type of work reporting directly to us to make sure PG&E is doing what it’s supposed to do,” Ravitch said.

Julie Johnson is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected]: @juliejohnson