PG&E Agrees to Nonprofit Corp. Overseeing Rural Lands

Pacific Gas & Electric?s vast land holdings could be governed by a new nonprofit organization whose members include environmental and farm groups, according to a bankruptcy reorganization stipulation. The September 25 tentative agreement must be approved by the California Public Utilities Commission and federal bankruptcy court. The first task of the new nonprofit?PG&E Environmental Enhancement Corporation?will be figuring out just how much land PG&E owns, estimated to be 140,00 acres, and for what purposes it is used. ?We need to get a hold on exactly what we?re talking about?what?s appropriate for what kind of uses,? said Karen Noreen Mills, attorney for the California Farm Bureau. The organization?s governing board will include members from PG&E, the CPUC, the Department of Fish & Game, the State Water Resources Control Board, and the California Farm Bureau?along with three public members. The nonprofit's second goal would be to float plans to preserve and/or enhance the land. This objective could prove to draw controversy over whether such preservation or enhancement would be done in the most environmentally sensitive manner. While other points were agreed upon, just what ?environmentally sensitive? means was not. ?I don?t think this is the appropriate time to try? to define environmental sensitivity, said Mills. She added that the issue will be debated during the next round of briefings at the commission. Dan Richard, PG&E senior vice president, noted that not only will the definition of ?environmentally sensitive? be hashed out in CPUC proceedings, but if the nonprofit agreed to any changes in the properties? use, it would also be subject to CPUC review, specifically under California Public Utilities Code Section 851. The provision reads: ?No public utility...shall sell...any...property necessary or useful in the performance of its duties to the public...without first having secured from the commission an order authorizing it so to do.? That extends to leasing the property out, including activities such as building boat docks, said Mills. The nonprofit will also have the task of disclosing hazardous wastes and other contamination on the lands. It would also monitor the economic and physical impacts of any enhancements to or sales of the properties. ?We look forward to rolling up our sleeves and getting to the business of collaboratively protecting and enhancing these lands,? said Chuck Bonham, attorney for Trout Unlimited.

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PG&E Agrees to Nonprofit Corp. Overseeing Rural Lands

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