Activists Ask for a Role in PG&E; Case

Declaring that poor Californians have been shut out of Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’s bankruptcy case, a statewide coalition picketed the court building Wednesday and demanded four seats on a committee that a federal trustee appointed to represent utility ratepayers.

In unusual gestures recognizing the immense public stake in the proceedings, Judge Dennis Montali allowed a protest leader to speak in court, and later U.S. trustee Linda Ekstrom Stanley addressed dozens of others outside the building.

Using a bullhorn, she told the crowd that establishing a ratepayers committee was an attempt to provide a voice in the courtroom for all utility customers who could be affected as PG&E;’s financial affairs are reorganized.

However, she said she would not add more members until the judge rules on PG&E;’s motion to dissolve the committee.

Earlier, John C. Gamboa, executive director of the Greenlining Institute, addressed the judge.

“No one represents the poor, the disabled, minority or seniors in the most important bankruptcy case in American history,” said Gamboa, whose San Francisco-based organization encompasses 60 groups ranging from churches to ethnic associations.

The state, Gamboa said, has not intervened in the bankruptcy, and community groups have been unable to secure counsel to represent them.

Montali expressed sympathy for the concerns but said he did not have the authority to order the state to intervene, to hire an attorney for the poor or to alter the composition of the ratepayers committee. The judge said that he will decide Friday whether to uphold Stanley’s decision to appoint a ratepayer committee, and that if he does, she will have the discretion to add members.

Stanley, an appointee of former U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, named one committee to represent the thousands of PG&E; creditors and another to represent customers. The nine-member ratepayers committee included statewide organizations covering agriculture, school boards, small businesses and manufacturers, as well as two consumer groups that have been highly critical of PG&E.;

PG&E; opposed the ratepayers committee, contending that customers, unlike creditors, cannot legally be part of the bankruptcy proceeding. “The utility does not object to ratepayers having a voice . . . when issues arise where the court determines they have a standing,” the company said in a statement.

On Wednesday, Montali continued to wade through the many motions filed by creditors, vendors and others since PG&E; filed for Chapter 11 protection April 6, saying it had plunged $9 billion into debt.

After a brief hearing, he ordered PG&E; to pay about $41 million in taxes owed to 49 California counties that said they were suffering hardship. The judge left it to the counties and the utility to decide how to resolve the dispute over $8 million in penalties for late payment.

Montali also gave PG&E; permission to spend about $260 million for energy efficiency programs and other public service programs funded through a small surcharge on customers’ bills. The programs are designed to reduce electricity consumption, which is viewed as critical to minimizing blackouts this summer.

The judge sanctioned a recent agreement between PG&E; and Berry Petroleum, one of about 20 alternative energy producers to file motions with the court. Berry contended that it notified PG&E; before the bankruptcy filing that its two contracts for 54 megawatts were terminated, which PG&E; disputed.

The accord states that the contracts were effectively ended the day of PG&E;’s bankruptcy filing and requires Berry to pay PG&E; $175,000 to be applied to any claim for damages caused by the termination.

Berry, a cogeneration facility in Taft, says it is owed more than $12 million by PG&E.;

Attorney Bill Lafferty, who is representing PG&E;, said the agreement sets no precedent for other alternative energy providers who say they want to be freed from unprofitable contracts and want to sell their power on the open market.

The utility says the vast majority of the 300 alternative energy providers of power to PG&E; are up and running.