Sacramento Bee-
PG&E Corp. agreed last fall to pay a record $1.675 billion penalty for causing deadly wildfires that swept through California wine country and destroyed the town of Paradise in 2017 and 2018. Now the state is asking for more.
A Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge proposed Thursday that PG&E be penalized $2.137 billion for its role in the fires, saying last fall’s settlement wasn’t enough. The new figure, like the earlier penalty, would be a record for the PUC.
The original penalty was the result of a negotiated settlement between the bankrupt utility and the PUC’s staff. The administrative law judge, Sophia Park, said more money is justified because of the magnitude of the fires and PG&E’s lax behavior. The Camp Fire killed 85 people, more than any wildfire in California history. The wine country fires in 2017 killed more than 40 people.
The California Right 