Wow, I knew they’d been in trouble for some of the wildfires the past few years but 86 counts of involuntary manslaughter ? and there’s even more…
note there’s a rather extensive list of everything they’ve pled guilty to that’s bigger than the article its self
Are they really being charged with arson? Can arson be accidental?
well fro9m what I gather they’re getting charged for something akin to involuntary arson due to neglect in a few of the fires because in some places they hadn’t done any equipment maintenance for decades and that actually caused the fires
Does it really matter what they are charged with and what they are convicted with? Really?
They will pay a pittance in fines, declare bankruptcy and continue business as they always have.
I can remember my dad telling me that you can’t expect much out of Pigs, Goats and Elephants 50 years ago. He’d probably still say the same today.
Depends on the state. California defines arson as starting fires “willfully and maliciously,” which wouldn’t apply to PG&E. However, there’s a separate charge for “reckless burning” which potentially could. Other states define arson to include negligent fires. I suspect every state has some provision for punishing people who store opens cans of gasoline in tenement basements.
Do you mean the “reckless burning” charge is a separate charge from arson? If so then, yeah–they’re certainly guilty of something other than arson. I didn’t mean to imply I thought they shouldn’t be held responsible for causing the fires. I just wonder whether their misdeeds could be called arson.
And “reckless burning” doesn’t seem right either because nobody was burning anything. It wasn’t like a PG&E lit a bonfire at a party that burned out of control or something.
“Involuntary arson”. Is that a thing? Seems to me there can’t be arson without intent but IANAL.
A person is guilty of arson when he or she willfully and maliciously sets fire to or burns or causes to be burned or who aids, counsels, or procures the burning of, any structure, forest land, or property.
That’s just gruesome. The entire town of Paradise, Ca., or most of it, burned to the ground, and a great many (84) of the residents with it. IIRC, there was only one road out of town, and in the ensuing rush of refugees there was a traffic accident that blocked the road.
ETA: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 killed 146 people. Not exactly arson, but the factory management had locked the doors so employees couldn’t sneak out for unauthorized breaks or theft. Things like that were legal in those days.
The California statute for reckless burning says:
“causes to be burned” applies her, I think. The only question is if what PG&E did was “reckless” or merely negligent:
Too late for that. They filed for bankruptcy in 2019
And the “serial” in the title is correct. In 2010 they blew up part of San Bruno.
That happened because they didn’t maintain gas pipes, using money from rate increases for maintenance for profit instead.
Yeah, I think it is time CA got as socialist as people think we are, and took over all the public utilities.
The gas and electric utilities are among the most highly regulated businesses in the country. If the state of California wanted to make sure these incidents didn’t happen they had the ability to prevent them.
OK, so they can’t declare bankruptcy again yet. What can be done to make the stockholders take responsibility for anything?
Nothing is going to change, PG&E isn’t going to fix their lines, they exist to make money, not to provide a safe source of electricity. They will continue to try to burn the state down and more people will die.
well the nice thing is we get our power from the city of lancaster’s solar farm so all sce does is turn it off and on and collect the fees … and they have to ask the city before they turn theirs off
What can be done to make stockholders take responsibility? Nothing. A lot of their of stock is held by various mutual funds that a boatload of people hold in their retirement accounts, e.g. Vanguard, Fidelity, etc. How are those individuals responsible? Why should they be?
California penal code 452 says, “A person is guilty of unlawfully causing a fire when he recklessly sets fire to or burns or causes to be burned, any structure, forest land or property.” It defines different punishments for different circumstances:
This is separate from the several different types of arson that are defined in the California penal code. Arson in California requires intent and malice.
BTW, the name of the company is Pacific Gas and Electric, not Pacific Gas and Energy.
Absolutely. Every time this happens (Og help us), PG&E just declares bankruptcy and history repeats.
I would think we need to get the executives to take responsibility first.
That could be helpful, but it won’t happen either. It doesn’t matter what happens, nothing will change. PG&E will keep starting fires and killing people. The money won’t stop coming in, nobody will be held accountable and the people left homeless because they have been burned out will be homeless with no hope of getting any sort of compensation for what was taken from them.
Jane isn’t so much a “Glass Half-empty” Gal. More like a “Smash that damn Glass is the fireplace and grind the shards into someone’s eyes!” type person . 
Not sure where to put this, so I’ll just lay it here:
The Arsonist who is charged with igniting the Fawn fire… wait for it…
…started the fire while boiling Bear urine, to drink it.