How Climate Broke California’s Biggest Utility
PG&E has had a rough few years. A series of record-breaking wildfires culminating with 2018’s devastating Camp Fire propelled the California utility giant into lawsuits, $30 billion in liabilities and ultimately bankruptcy. Under new state laws, regulated utilities will have a hard time avoiding blame in fires where their equipment is involved—so what’s ahead for PG&E’s peers and their shareholders when a deadly blaze could spell bankruptcy? What happens when the California dream of living near nature is in direct conflict with disruptive tragedies fueled by climate change?
Join us with wildfire and energy experts for a discussion on the future of investor-owned utilities, renewable power, and winners and losers in an energy market hammered by climate disruption.
The Commonwealth Club
110 The Embarcadero
Taube Family Auditorium
San Francisco, 94105
United States
Alex Ghenis
Disability and Climate Change Specialist
Dian Grueneich
Former Commissioner, California Public Utilities Commission
Loretta Lynch
Former Commissioner, California Public Utilities Commission
JD Morris
Energy Reporter, San Francisco Chronicle
Hunter Stern
Business Manager, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245
Mark Toney
Executive Director, The Utility Reform Network
Laura Wisland
Senior Manager of Western States Energy, the Union of Concerned Scientists
Greg Dalton
Founder and Host, Climate One