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California regulators expressed skepticism that Pacific Gas & Electric Corp.’s new leaders have enough professional experience to instill the deep corporate culture of safety they say the company has lacked.
The utility has been blamed for more than a dozen of California’s most destructive wildfires in the past two years.
The five-member California Public Utilities Commission questioned veteran PG&E board member Richard Kelly about the safety qualifications of 10 new board members and incoming chief executive Bill Johnson, who starts May 1.
“It safe to say that there is still anxiety,” CPUC president Michael Picker said at a commission meeting in San Francisco.
Picker and other commissioners said a majority of the board appear to have little experience with building corporate safety programs.
Kelly defended their resumes, saying it was “imperative” that PG&E board members have financial skills to help the company emerge from bankruptcy protection, which it filed for in January.
