PG&E’s criminal probation to end amid ongoing safety worries

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE
AP Business Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The nation’s largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, is poised to emerge from five years of criminal probation amid worries that it remains too dangerous to be trusted. Over the last five years, the utility became an even more destructive force. More than 100 people have died and more than 23,000 homes and businesses have been incinerated in wildfires sparked by its equipment in that time. The probation period was supposed to rehabilitate PG&E after its 2016 felony conviction for a 2010 explosion that blew up a neighborhood and killed eight people. PG&E says it has made strides in fixing outdated equipment and pledges to do more.