SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
California utility company PG&E Corp is exploring filing some or all of its business for bankruptcy protection as it faces billions of dollars in liabilities related to fatal wildfires in 2018 and 2017, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.
The company is considering the move as a contingency, in part because it could soon take a significant financial charge for the fourth quarter of 2018 related to liabilities from the blazes, the sources said.
A bankruptcy filing is not certain, the sources said. The company could receive financial help through legislation that would let it pass on to customers costs associated with fire liabilities, the sources said. But that is just a possibility, they said, so bankruptcy preparations are being made.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Monday January 07 2019, @08:27PM
As counter-intuitive as it might seem, cigarettes are responsible for relatively few fire starts [accuweather.com]. I was surprised by this myself when I went looking for stats on it. Most wildfires are man-made. Smoking is bad for you. It's just not actually responsible for that many wildfires. I guess maybe the kinds of people that hike miles into the woods are more likely to get careless with a campfire than smoke.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.