Pacific Gas & Electric on Thursday was fined $4 million for the deaths of 84 people killed in a Northern California wildfire ignited by its electrical grid. The sentencing comes as the nation’s largest utility prepares to end a 17-month bankruptcy proceeding triggered by the catastrophe.
The maximum penalty assessed by Butte County Superior Court Judge Micahel Deems was a mere formality, given that PG&E reached a plea agreement three months ago to resolve manslaughter and other charges. They stemmed from a November 2018 inferno that wiped out Paradise, California, a town located 170 miles (275 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco.
