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2018 Camp Fire. Here, destroyed homes are seen in Paradise, Calif., where the Camp Fire raged last November. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption
PG&E says it will pay $11 billion to resolve insurance companies' claims from the 2017 Northern California wildfires and the 2018 Camp Fire. Here, destroyed homes are seen in Paradise, Calif., where the Camp Fire raged last November.
Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesCalifornia utility giant Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has agreed to a second large settlement over recent devastating wildfires, saying it will pay $11 billion to resolve insurance companies' claims from the 2017 Northern California wildfires and the 2018 Camp Fire.
"These claims are based on payments made by insurance companies to individuals and businesses with insurance coverage for wildfire damages" in those catastrophic blazes, PG&E said in announcing the deal.
While the $11 billion sum is large, it's far smaller than the roughly $20 billion a group of insurance companies had sought, after paying out billions to California wildfire victims.
The settlement will require the approval of a bankruptcy court, as PG&E recently entered into a Chapter 11 reorganization plan, after declaring bankruptcy in January.
In a statement about the outcome, the insurance companies — which banded together as the Ad Hoc Subrogation Group — said that while their initial claim wasn't fulfilled, "we hope that this compromise will pave the way for a plan of reorganization that allows PG&E to fairly compensate all victims and emerge from Chapter 11 by the June 2020 legislative deadline."
PG&E CEO and President Bill Johnson — who joined the company in April — says the settlement is "another step in doing what's right for the communities, businesses, and individuals" that suffered damages from the fires.
PG&E's transmission lines were immediately suspected of playing a role in the Camp Fire — and in May, state fire investigators confirmed that the utility's electrical lines were to blame.
In June, PG&E announced it would pay $1 billion to 18 local governments and agencies affected by three large wildfires; Butte County and the town of Paradise will receive more than $500 million of that amount. That settlement was to cover damages from the 2015 Butte Fire, the 2017 North Bay Fires and the 2018 Camp Fire.
PG&E still faces a third large group of legal claims from individual plaintiffs, whose cases are pending in federal and state courts.
