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Posted on 06/19/2003 7:33:08 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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1 hour, 35 minutes ago
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By JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO - A federal bankruptcy judge unveiled a compromise plan Thursday that would lift Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (news - web sites), a San Francisco-based utility, out of insolvency.
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The plan will allow creditors of PG&E to be paid in full, lower electricity rates starting next year, and end lawsuits between PG&E and state regulators.
Before the plan is adopted, it must go through a public hearing process at the California Public Utilities Commission (news - web sites) and be approved by the commission's board, the PG&E board of directors and the bankruptcy court.
The utility, California's largest with 4.6 million customers, has been tussling with state regulators over how to craft a plan that would let it emerge from the bankruptcy protection it sought in April 2001 amid the state's energy crisis.
PG&E is looking to rid itself of billions in debts owed to thousands of creditors. The company offered one version which would let it transfer billions of dollars worth of transmission lines, pipelines and other assets into new federally regulated companies, then borrow against those assets to pay its debts.
But the state Public Utilities Commission (news - web sites) countered with a competing plan, saying that current rates were high enough to handle paying off tens of billions of dollars worth of bonds, long-term energy contracts and past energy debts.
The state and a committee of creditors hoped to force PG&E, its shareholders and its ratepayers to pay the debts by selling stock and maintaining electricity rates that already are among the most expensive in the nation.
On Thursday, representatives from the two camps stood side by side along with Judge Randall J. Newsome and announced the compromise deal. The plan would keep the utility intact, said Paul Clanon, director of the PUC's energy division.
The plan calls for 140,0000 of acres of land surrounding PG&E's hydroelectric plants be dedicated to the public use forever, Clanon said. The company estimates the land is worth $300 million.
He said if the plan is adopted, PG&E will probably see their rates fall starting Jan. 1, but prices will stay high enough to allow PG&E to repay its debts and recover its fiscal health.
Looks like the environmentalists got what they wanted or close to it!
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| 8:28PM | Settlement deal in PG&E bankruptcy reached (PCG) by Carolyn Pritchard | ||
| SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- A proposed settlement has been reached between Pacific Gas & Electric, its parent corporation, PG&E Corp. (PCG) and the California Public Utilities Commission over the utility's reorganization plan. If approved, the deal would allow the bankrupt utility to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy intact, as an investment grade utility, to pay all valid creditor claims and "to do so without raising our customers' rates," PG&E said in a statement. The CPUC staff projects that rates would come down starting Jan. 1, 2004, by approximately $350 million per year. This means that average retail electric rates are projected to come down by about half a cent (from their current 13.87 cents/kwh) on Jan. 1, 2004, and continue falling to about 12.8 cents by 2008. All of the utility's existing creditors would be paid in cash under the proposed settlement plan, except for certain pollution control bonds, which, along with the utility's preferred stock, would be reinstated. Dividend payments to shareholders would remain suspended until July 1, 2004. It is expected that the utility would emerge from bankruptcy in early 2004. | |||
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| 8:28PM | Settlement deal in PG&E bankruptcy reached (PCG) by Carolyn Pritchard | ||
| SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- A proposed settlement has been reached between Pacific Gas & Electric, its parent corporation, PG&E Corp. (PCG) and the California Public Utilities Commission over the utility's reorganization plan. If approved, the deal would allow the bankrupt utility to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy intact, as an investment grade utility, to pay all valid creditor claims and "to do so without raising our customers' rates," PG&E said in a statement. The CPUC staff projects that rates would come down starting Jan. 1, 2004, by approximately $350 million per year. This means that average retail electric rates are projected to come down by about half a cent (from their current 13.87 cents/kwh) on Jan. 1, 2004, and continue falling to about 12.8 cents by 2008. All of the utility's existing creditors would be paid in cash under the proposed settlement plan, except for certain pollution control bonds, which, along with the utility's preferred stock, would be reinstated. Dividend payments to shareholders would remain suspended until July 1, 2004. It is expected that the utility would emerge from bankruptcy in early 2004. | |||
Yes, but "140,0000 acres" is certainly a strange number! That's worse that gray dimbulb's floating deficit decimal!!!
I can hardly wait till "The Tragedy Of The Commons" hits all that new public land! I still ask everyone to ponder...
Do you prefer privately maintained restrooms to publically maintained restrooms?
Do you prefer government hospitals to private hospitals?
Do you prefer government schools to private schools?
Do you prefer government run services of any kind to privately run services of any kind?
When are we going to stop this Commonistic Power/Land GRABBING?
I know PG&E agreed to this under total duress... to survive, to live and fight again another day. The stockholders won't like it, but they are totally snookered too!
Soon all of you will be snookered, excluded and herded from CA's beautiful countryside into the beastly crime/liberal filled megalopolises from which you have temporarily escaped!
It seems too radical to be possible, but free market capitalism and the system/nation it built are shaking and burning like the twin towers. Not from a terrorist plane crash, but from the incremental action of the EnvironMental termites undermining our nation of unique individuals who love and appreciate free enterprise with personal responsibility.
The commons will be more tragically neglected and paradise will be lost and the ignorant dreamers will take us all down with their hopeless nonscience nonsense! It's happening right in front of everyone's eyes and yet the answer is in a FReepers published solution at www.naturalprocess.net...
Let's do this right. Natural Process.
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Shares of PG&E Corp. (PCG) are up 8 percent at $20.94 in afternoon trading, lifted by Thursday's news that the company, along with its bankrupt utility unit Pacific Gas & Electric and the California Public Utilities Commission have reached a tenative settlement agreement related to the utility's Ch. 11 bankruptcy. If approved, PG&E said the deal would allow the utility to emerge from bankruptcy intact, as an investment grade utility and to pay all valid creditor claims without raising customer rates.
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