PG&E bankruptcy: Central Coast impact
Pacific Gas and Electric, California’s largest utility company, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
This comes as the company is facing upwards of 50 billion dollars in liabilities related to recent devastating and deadly wildfires.
KION spoke with Monterey Bay Community Power who generates PG&E’s energy in Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito counties. They say they’ve been given promises that operations will continue as normal.
“We got assurances there will be no interruption of the bill, all the electricity and gas is flowing through the lines of homes and businesses (and) that will stay on,” said Monterey Bay Community Power spokesman JR Killigrew.
What’s now clear is if or when the public’s utility bills will go up. Right now the average bill in Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito County is between $100 and $120 a month.
Customers like Michelle Neely from Salinas say they haven’t received notice PG&E is filing for bankruptcy and are concerned about what this means.
“What is going to happen to our service, the billing process, is everything going to be accurate?” asked Michelle Neely.
PG&E released a statement to KION addressing the cost question. The statement read in part, “This is a long process that we’re just announcing today and we can’t speculate on what changes, if any, could result.”
JR Killigrew, with Monterey Bay Community Power, said higher rates will eventually be determined when the CPUC approves PG&E’s reorganization plan.
That will determine how much the utility actually owes, but right now it’s unclear when that day will come.
“Kind of everyone’s guess as to what type of effect the wildfires are going to have, so if they do have to go out and spend an exorbitant amount of money to repair infrastructure, they will have to go through the hoops to get rates approved.”
The reorganizing process won’t be quick. In an email, to the Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, PG&E said the bankruptcy process will take about two years.
