PG&E liabilities have topped $68 billion, according to new court and regulatory filings released on Monday, an indication that the company’s debts continued to climb after the utility filed for a bankruptcy linked to a string of Northern California wildfires.
By Feb. 28, PG&E estimated that its liabilities totaled $68.56 billion, according to documents on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
As of Jan. 31, PG&E’s liabilities totaled $66.89 billion.
That means the company’s liabilities climbed by $1.67 billion during February, the official filings indicate.
Confronted by a forbidding mountain of liabilities and wildfire-related claims, PG&E filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 29, listing — at the time — $51.69 billion in debts and $71.39 billion in assets.
“The liabilities listed in the monthly operating report account for current liabilities, and separately, total liabilities,” PG&E spokeswoman Kristi Jourdan said. “The total liabilities is a much larger value as it includes the liabilities related to the wildfires as well as all other PG&E liabilities.”
Companies that are attempting to reorganize their finances through a Chapter 11 proceeding are typically obliged by the court to file monthly operating reports that can provide frequent windows into the company’s recent financial performance. PG&E’s bankruptcy case is expected to last two to three years.
PG&E, which is already a convicted felon for crimes it committed before and after a fatal explosion in San Bruno that killed eight people, is also linked to a series of infernos that torched large sections of Northern California in 2017 and 2018.
The company’s equipment was deemed to be the cause of 17 of the wildfires that roared through the North Bay Wine Country and other regions in October 2017.
PG&E also has been linked to a lethal wildfire that scorched Butte County and essentially destroyed the town of Paradise in November 2018.
Although a cause of the November disaster has yet to be officially announced, PG&E in late February disclosed that state fire investigators would probably determine the company’s equipment ignited last year’s blaze in Butte County, also known as the Camp Fire.
“The company believes it is probable that its equipment will be determined to be an ignition point of the 2018 Camp Fire,” PG&E stated in an SEC filing on Feb. 28.
