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Special Report BW50
Powered Up in California
Just a few years ago, PG&E CORP. (No. 66) was a utility with national ambitions, owning gas pipelines in the Northwest and power plants in New England. Then came the California power crisis. Stuck with soaring debts, the San Francisco company put its core utility serving 14 million Northern Californians into bankruptcy. It later handed its out-of-state assets over to creditors. That process resulted in a huge noncash gain, which explains the company’s 383% earnings increase. Now back to its roots. PG&E plans to invest $2 billion a year in existing plants and transmission lines.
