Company Takes Steps to Make it Right with Local Communities
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has reached agreements to resolve the wildfire civil claims held by 10 local public entities, including cities and counties, affected by the 2019 Kincade Fire in Sonoma County and 2020 Zogg Fire in Shasta County. Under the agreements, a total of $43.36 million in payments will be made to those entities.
“When I joined PG&E earlier this year, I said that I wanted to make it right and make it safe for our customers and communities. We are pleased to have reached these resolutions, so that we can help our hometowns as they recover,” said PG&E Corporation Chief Executive Officer Patti Poppe. “Local cities and counties are critical to the fabric of our lives, and today’s resolution reflects our commitment to supporting them and all they are doing to rebuild after these two fires. We look forward to continuing to partner with these local entities as we work to strengthen our energy systems and deliver for our customers and communities.”
The agreements with the public entities reflect a mutually agreed upon resolution of their claims against PG&E for damages related to the wildfires following mediations between the parties. The following public entities are among the 2019 Kincade Fire plaintiffs:
- Sonoma County;
- City of Cloverdale;
- City of Healdsburg;
- City of Santa Rosa;
- Town of Windsor;
- Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District;
- Sonoma County Community Development Commission; and
- Sonoma County Water Agency.
The following entities are among the 2020 Zogg Fire plaintiffs:
- Shasta County and
- Tehama County.
Ongoing Wildfire Safety Work
PG&E continues to make its system safer and more resilient for its customers and communities. There is no single solution to wildfire safety, so PG&E continues to evolve and improve all of its wildfire safety efforts and continues that important work this year, including:
- Meeting and exceeding state vegetation standards across 1,800 miles of power lines to manage nearby trees and other vegetation that could cause a wildfire or power outage.
- Continuing to upgrade the electric grid by hardening at least 180 miles of power lines to reduce wildfire risks.
- Installing 250 sectionalizing devices to narrow the scope of Public Safety Power Shutoff events so fewer customers are without power.
- Piloting new technologies that detect threats to the electric grid and rapidly reduce or shut off power thus reducing the need for larger PSPS events.
- Employing new risk modeling to better prioritize our wildfire safety prevention efforts and target work in the areas and communities at the highest risk.
For more information about how PG&E is reducing wildfire risk throughout Northern and Central California, go to pge.com/cwsp.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is a combined natural gas and electric utility serving more than 16 million people across 70,000 square miles in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit pge.com and pge.com/news.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the beliefs, expectations, estimates, future plans and strategies of PG&E Corporation and PG&E, including but not limited to the payment of settlements in connection with public entities’ civil claims arising out of the 2019 Kincade and 2020 Zogg fires, and PG&E Corporation and PG&E’s ongoing wildfire safety work. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions, which management believes are reasonable, and on information currently available to management, but are necessarily subject to various risks and uncertainties. In addition to the risk that these assumptions prove to be inaccurate, factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements include factors disclosed in PG&E Corporation and PG&E’s joint annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, their most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, and other reports filed with the SEC, which are available on PG&E Corporation's website at www.pgecorp.com and on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. PG&E Corporation and PG&E undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether due to new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by law.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210526005948/en/
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