Posted on 03/23/2020 1:26:08 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Pacific Gas & Electric said Monday it will plead guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2018 fire in Northern California that killed 84 people and decimated three towns.
Pacific Gas & Electric said Monday it will plead guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2018 fire in Northern California that killed 84 people and decimated three towns.
The utility said in a statement it will also admit to a single count of unlawfully starting a fire.
Advertisement Under a plea agreement with the Butte County District Attorney’s office, PG&E will pay the maximum fine of about $4 million.
The company has also agreed to fund efforts to restore access to water for the next five years for residents impacted by the loss of a canal destroyed by the fire.
"Our equipment started the fire. Those are the facts, and with this plea agreement we accept responsibility for our role in the fire," PG&E CEO and President Bill Johnson said.
The blaze that destroyed the towns of Paradise, Magalia and Concow was started by sparks from a PG&E transmission line that failed on November 8, 2018, state investigators concluded.
Butte County officials have said 85 people died in the Camp Fire. It wasn’t immediately clear why PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter instead of 85.
The utility filed for bankruptcy in 2018 as it faced billions of dollars in claims from people who lost family members, homes and businesses in wildfires in 2017 and 2018.
The utility has been struggling to emerge from one of the most complex bankruptcy cases in U.S. history and a deadline has been set for it to do so by June 30.
The Nov. 8, 2018 was fanned quickly by strong winds, forcing thousands of people to quickly flee as they tried to escape in their cars as flames from the narrow canyon communities. Survivors described caravans of vehicles engulfed by flames.
The dead were found in burned-out cars, in the smoldering ruins of their homes and next to their vehicles, apparently overcome by smoke and flames before they could get inside them.
In some cases, all that remained of the dead were charred fragments of bone so small that investigators used a wire basket to sift and sort them.
PG&E is paying the penalty for obeying California State mandates and rules about trimming trees and protecting assets and the system.
LOL!
Yup. No electricity = no fires from power lines.
Easy-peasy.
When will the eco-fascists at Sierra Club and leftist politicians who supported these Nazis be charged with manslaughter?
So do they get sentenced to a halfway house as their headquarters?
“Part of the problem is the state made PG&E divert money from repair and safety to renewables. But PG&E had a lot of equipment that was in terrible condition and very risky.”
Horsecrap.
The problem is enormous forest floor fuel loads created by eco-fascists and leftist politicians. Even a child can understand that.
The State is Great!
That’ll drive up power costs!
The guys watching might not be 1st class linemen, and are learning proper procedures.
Please see my post #24.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
You can put them out of business, pretty easily.
That may be what this is all about, a CA takeover of their business.
I don't care for PG & E, but government intrusion is usually worse.
The WIND started the fire.....
The Enviros never want trees rimmed near power lines.
In South Lake Tahoe in 2007, over 60 homes were burned down. The biggest factor? Tahoe Area Regional Planning (?) refused to let homeowners rake up the dead pine needles that blanketed the valley floor. In some places, the dead needles were actually over a foot deep. “SUCH NEEDLES ARE JUST NATURAL !” Property insurance was also sky high. Couldn’t cut low hanging branches, either.
After that, TARPA changed the rules. I don’t remember if THEY got sued over their refusal to let homeowners clean up their properties.
By the way, they deserve punishment. In 2010, they blew up the entire town of San Bruno through incompetence. “””
When politicians & homeowners insist on GAS LINES being buried in known earthquake country, you should expect a rupture sooner or later.
Wait until a really bad quake hits both SF & LA. How many will die in those subways/mass transit. ?????
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