PG&E gets maximum $3.5M fine on 84 manslaughter counts

"If there was ever a corporation that deserved to go to prison, it's PG&E," a Butte County judge said Thursday before fining Pacific Gas & Electric Co. $3.5 million on 84 counts of manslaughter stemming from a 2018 wildfire.

Judge Michael R. Deems was repeating the words of U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who is overseeing PG&E's criminal probation stemming from a 2010 pipeline rupture in San Bruno and is tasked with forcing the utility to improve safety practices. Alsup accused the utility of being unable to safely deliver power to California.

A grand jury investigation found that worn-down equipment that wasn't inspected and repaired -- the problem that caused the gas line explosion -- also caused the Camp Fire that wiped out the town of Paradise and killed 84 people.

Deems sentenced PG&E to the maximum fine of $3.5 million, capping a two-day hearing in which many of the victims' families tearfully told the judge they wanted someone at PG&E to go to prison.

"If these crimes were attributed to a human person rather than a corporation, this anticipated sentence based on applicable statutes to which the defendant pleaded guilty would be 90 years in state prison," Deems said.

Deems expressed regret that a corporation couldn't be locked up for callous disregard for the safety of Butte County citizens.

PG&E's incoming chief executive officer, Bill Smith, who is replacing outgoing Bill Johnson, extended his apologies to the victims and their next-of-kin, and promised a change in corporate culture.

"We won't ever forget their pain," Smith said. "Overall, we're making comprehensive and meaningful changes to make PG&E the safe and reliable utility that Northern and Central Californians deserve."

District Attorney Mike Ramsey held up the C-hook that gave way in the early morning hours of Nov. 8, 2018 after nearly a century of wear and tear and then dropped a high voltage line onto the transmission tower and sparked dry vegetation below. Corporate greed motivated the utility to put profits over safety that caused the worst wildfire California had ever seen, Ramsey said.

"This is what killed those folks. This is the broken hook," Ramsey said. "It was the hook that took the lives, the hopes, the dreams, the health, the sanity, the wealth and the happiness of a community. But etched into the very soul of this community is a concern: Will this happen again?"

Ramsey, too, said he regretted no executives could be imprisoned, despite impassioned pleas from victims who begged for a custody sentence. The civil concept of 'let the master answer' doesn't apply in criminal cases, Ramsey said.

PG&E is on notice, Ramsey warned. If PG&E operates a dangerous business, like delivering high energy power to the public, it must never be motivated by greed or profit to the detriment of proper maintenance, the same way drivers are prohibited from operating a vehicle under the influence or drugs or alcohol, Ramsey warned. If PG&E fails to maintain its infrastructure and as a result kills someone again, the utility will be charged with murder, Ramsey said. The executives are now an exception to the precedent in Seahorse Ranch v. Superior Court, 24 Cal. App. 4th 446 that ruled a corporate officer can't be held responsible for a crime unless he or she was personally aware of the behavior, Ramsey proposed.

"They need to reform, or they will reap the ill wind of a substantially personal prosecution," Ramsey warned.