PG&E creditor group opposes structure of wildfire assistance program

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, May 16 – PG&E Corp.’s official committee of unsecured creditors objected to the company’s motion to establish and fund a program to help wildfire victims with alternative living expenses and other urgent needs, according to a Thursday filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California.

The committee said it is sympathetic to the victims of the 2017 and 2018 wildfires, but its “overarching objective in these cases is to achieve confirmation of a comprehensive plan of reorganization that treats all creditors, including wildfire victims, fairly and equally, and in a manner that is consistent with the Bankruptcy Code.”

“The program does not do this,” the objection said.

Specifically, the committee said the program does not satisfy longstanding legal standards or contain appropriate safeguards to protect the equal-ranking unsecured creditors.

“The committee cannot support the pre-plan distributions or the piecemeal approach to payment of claims proposed in the motion, particularly when the debtors have not yet articulated a legal basis for making such payments or constructed basic safeguards around the mechanics of and accounting for such payments,” the committee said in its objection.

The electric and natural-gas utility is based in San Francisco. The company filed bankruptcy on Jan. 29 under Chapter 11 case number 19-30088.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.