(Reuters) – PG&E Corp said on Thursday the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the company regarding public disclosures and losses related to wildfires.
PG&E Corp said in a regulatory filing that it learned on March 20 that the SEC was investigating it in relation to its public disclosures and accounting for losses associated with the 2017 and 2018 Northern California wildfires and the 2015 Butte fire.
PG&E, which provides electricity and natural gas to 16 million customers in northern and central California, faces widespread litigation, government investigations and liabilities that could potentially exceed $30 billion because of the fires in 2017 and 2018.
The fire last November killed at least 86 people in the deadliest and most destructive blaze in California history.
PG&E sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January facing the prospect of, potentially, billions of dollars in liabilities linked or suspected to be linked to its equipment.
(Reporting by Aakash Jagadeesh Babu in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)