PG&E says it will challenge criminal charges
PG&E Corp., facing criminal charges in another fatal Northern California wildfire, told a judge Friday that it plans to challenge the legality of a portion of the indictment.
California’s largest utility, haunted by criminal and monetary claims over a string of major wildfires in recent years, didn’t enter a plea during an arraignment on the charges filed in last year’s Zogg Fire in Shasta County Superior Court.
However, PG&E’s lawyers next month will file a formal legal challenge, called a demurrer, contesting the validity of a portion of the criminal case — specifically, the allegation that it’s responsible for smoke and ash spewed into the air when the Zogg Fire erupted in September 2020.
Four people died in the Zogg Fire, which burned 56,388 acres in a rural area west of Redding. Last month, the Shasta County district attorney filed 31 felony and misdemeanor charges against PG&E, saying the fire started when a tree came into contact with a power line. District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett said the tree had been marked for removal by PG&E two years earlier.
PG&E said it doesn’t dispute that its equipment sparked the fire but insisted it didn’t do anything criminal.
“We’ve previously stated we accept Cal Fire’s finding that a tree falling into our equipment started the fire, but we do not believe there was any criminal activity,” utility spokesman James Noonan said by email. “Today, we informed the court that we will file a motion next month challenging the legal basis of certain charges in the government’s complaint.”
The criminal indictment wouldn’t land anyone at PG&E in prison but would further tar the company’s reputation.
The charges include four felony counts of manslaughter in connection with the Zogg Fire deaths, as well as three felony counts of recklessness over three smaller fires in Shasta County in the past year.
In addition, the district attorney charged PG&E with 10 misdemeanor counts of “negligent emission of air pollution,” referring to the smoke and ash caused by the Zogg Fire.
Bridgett’s office said PG&E tried unsuccessfully to get similar air pollution charges dismissed in a criminal indictment filed in the 2019 Kincade Fire in Sonoma County. That case is pending as well.
Pollution from wildfires is becoming an increasingly significant problem as California tries to curb carbon emissions. The California Air Resources Board found that 2020’s record fire season, in which more than 4 million acres burned, released 120 million tons of greenhouse gases into the air. That was twice as much as the state’s power plants, and undermined the state’s fight against climate change.
The air board also found that smoke from the 2018 Camp Fire in Butte County subjected area residents to unhealthful levels of particulate matter, zinc, lead and other dangerous chemicals. “Some of these metals traveled more than 150 miles, and were detected in the air as far away as San Jose and Modesto,” the agency said.
PG&E, meanwhile, continues to struggle with wildfire issues. Besides the criminal indictment over the Kincade Fire in Sonoma, it’s also under investigation in connection with this year’s Dixie Fire, which was finally contained after burning 963,309 acres over a three-month span. While the investigation continues, Cal Fire believes the Dixie Fire was caused by a tree making contact with PG&E power equipment.
Last year, PG&E paid a $4 million fine after pleading guilty to 85 counts of manslaughter in the Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California history. The judge complained that he couldn’t send anyone to prison, but under California law, company executives couldn’t be punished criminally for conduct about which they lacked direct knowledge.
The Camp Fire, which destroyed much of Paradise, was the latest in a string of fires that landed PG&E in bankruptcy. The company emerged from Chapter 11 last year.