A federal judge on Friday canceled a hearing to decide if Pacific Gas and Electric (NYSE:PCG) should face additional probation time after prosecutors said they would not ask for an extension based on state criminal charges.
“In light of the United States’ notice … that it will not seek to prove the allegations [of probation violations] … the hearing scheduled for Jan. 10, 2022, is hereby vacated,” Judge William Alsup wrote in a one-page order.
The utility’s five-year probation term for felonies related to the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion is scheduled to end Jan. 25. Prosecutors in Sonoma and Shasta counties have charged PG&E with starting wildfires in 2019 and 2020, and Alsup said last week he would consider extending PG&E’s probation based on the alleged crimes.
But U.S. Justice Department prosecutors Thursday said that they did not believe the court could extend PG&E’s probation because the sentencing judge gave the utility a maximum five-year term in January 2017. Any extensions would run concurrently with that sentence, meaning PG&E would still exit probation Jan. 25, they contended.
The prosecutors acknowledged that there appeared to be no case law backing their argument, leaving the matter ambiguous. They said in their report to Alsup that the state courts where PG&E faces charges are “the proper forum for development of the evidence.”
“Furthermore, if PG&E is convicted, a broader array of sentencing options will be available in that forum,” the prosecutors wrote.
Alsup, with the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, told federal prosecutors on Jan. 3 that he would give “serious consideration” to a request for additional probation time for PG&E based on charges that it started the 2019 Kincade Fire in Sonoma County and the 2020 Zogg Fire in Shasta County.
PG&E has been on probation since January 2017 for six felony convictions related to the San Bruno gas pipeline explosion in September 2010, which killed eight people and destroyed a suburban San Francisco neighborhood. One of the probation conditions is that PG&E does not commit any more crimes. Alsup found in November that PG&E had likely violated the probation terms by starting the Zogg and Kincade fires. (See PG&E Likely Violated Probation, Judge Finds.)
Sonoma County prosecutors filed 33 criminal charges against PG&E on April 6 in connection with the Kincade Fire, a 78,000-acre blaze that injured six firefighters, destroyed 374 structures and led to mass evacuations. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) found that a broken PG&E transmission line sparked the blaze.
In September, the Shasta County District Attorney’s office charged PG&E with four counts of involuntary manslaughter in the Zogg Fire. The wildfire killed an 8-year-old girl, the girl’s mother and two others. It burned more than 56,388 acres and destroyed 204 structures.
Cal Fire concluded in March that the fire began on Sept. 27, 2020, when a leaning gray pine tree fell onto a PG&E power line in rural Shasta County. (See PG&E Equipment Started Zogg Fire, Investigation Finds.)
PG&E has accepted Cal Fire’s findings in both cases but denied criminal liability. It is fighting the charges in court.
Alsup, often a harsh critic of PG&E, said in last week’s hearing that he hopes the Shasta or Sonoma prosecutors will try to keep the utility on probation because it needs continued supervision to improve its safety practices.
Disasters caused by PG&E equipment have killed 110 people since 2010, a court-appointed monitor reported.
PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter in June 2020 for the Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in state history. A 100-year-old “C” hook on a PG&E transmission line broke, starting the fire that leveled the town of Paradise. (See PG&E Pleads Guilty to 84 Homicides and Arson.)
Prosecutors did not seek additional probation in that case. A plea deal called for PG&E to pay the maximum fine of nearly $4 million.