Columnist hiltzikm writes: California utilities use wildfires as an excuse to wring ratepayers dry
, which took at least 86 lives, destroyed nearly 19,000 structures and turned the town of Paradise into ash.
Yet whether these circumstances necessarily mean the utilities will be toxic unless they can mulct their customers for double-digit rate increases is highly questionable. The threat of fire liability has been looming for at least a couple of years, but investors haven’t been running for the hills. Edison hasn’t exactly suffered over the last year from its exposure; the company’s stock closed at a dividend-adjusted $62.35 one year ago, and $64.20 on Wednesday. Investors receive a dividend of $2.
Pacific Gas & Electric investors haven’t done very well — its shares have lost more than half their value in the past year, closing Wednesday at $22.93. But PG&E is a special case, as it filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 29. In the days prior to the filing, PG&E traded as low as $6.36, but its shares have nearly quadrupled in price since then. In any case, their low value may have as much to do with investors’ perception that the chickens finally are coming home to roost after years of atrocious management at PG&E; this is a company battling not only wildfires, but the consequences of lethal incompetence that killed eight people and leveled an entire community in a 2010 gas pipeline explosion.
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