“April Rose Maurath Sommer, executive and legal director of the Wild Tree Foundation, a group involved in the regulatory proceedings, said she thought the commission didn’t go far enough. She had appealed the $2.14 billion penalty decision even before Rechtschaffen sought to change it, and she wanted the commission to preserve its ability to investigate the company’s conduct surrounding 2017 and 2018 fires.
Allowing PG&E to avoid the $200 million fine altogether is “the worst possible message you can send to the utility,” she said.
“It informs them that even when the commission has determined that a utility should be fined, if they are able to use some cunning and clever lawyering, they’re not going to have to pay,” she said. “It’s very disturbing.””
-San Francisco Chronicle, California regulators move closer to approving PG&E’s exit from bankruptcy (April 21, 2020) read more