SACRAMENTO, Calif. — PG&E Corp.'s five years of criminal probation are ending, but not before the supervising judge delivered one last blistering lecture about its troubled safety record and suggested that California's largest utility be carved in two.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup, in an extraordinary eight-page "final comments" filed Wednesday, complained that conditions had dramatically worsened despite the company's efforts to reform.
"While on probation, PG&E has set at least 31 wildfires, burned nearly (1.5) million acres, burned 23,956 structures, and killed 113 Californians," he wrote. "PG&E has gone on a crime spree and will emerge from probation as a continuing menace to California."
