Co-host/Correspondent at KQED's The California Report. NYU Stern MBA.
Oct 11, 2021 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
JUST POSTED:
In the year after PG&E left bankruptcy, 20 hedge funds dumped two-thirds of their stock, worth $2 billion. Seven funds sold off their entire PG&E stake.
That's according to a KQED/California Newsroom analysis of hundreds of securities filings. kqed.org/news/11891626/…
What's more: Many of these same hedge funds got an extraordinary amount of PG&E stock without paying a cent for it.
We are first to report this arrangement ultimately netted them $1.5B worth of stock in the largest ever deal of its kind. kqed.org/news/11891626/…
Sep 4, 2021 • 18 tweets • 5 min read
Here's an update on a wildfire lawyer who represented 16,000 PG&E fire victims and is now recruiting Dixie Fire victims. In doing so, Mikal Watts touts the $13.5 billion settlement he helped broker with PG&E. But the settlement has never been worth that much. (1/x)
This week, the Trustee overseeing the Fire Victim Trust said the Trust is currently worth "approximately $2.5 billion less than promised." That's partly because of the decision to fund half of it with PG&E stock, which fluctuates constantly. (2/x)
Aug 20, 2021 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
FIRST ON KQED: To avoid rolling blackouts, California has fast-tracked five temporary power generation facilities. They will be fueled by natural gas — **but also** — diesel. kqed.org/news/11885786/…
When I first started calling around on this story, pretty much no one had heard anything about these projects. Typical response was:
-there’s no way you can build even a temporary power plant in a few weeks
-there’s no way CA would build diesel-fueled facilities in the year 2021
Mar 18, 2021 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
NEW-State epidemiologist @ericapanMD_CDPH joined me on today's Cal Report. She was Alameda Co's top public health official when @ElonMusk defied county orders and restarted operations at Tesla's Fremont plant in May. There have been hundreds of cases since kqed.org/news/11865333/…
We asked about @plainsite's reporting last week that Alameda County used HIPAA as a false pretense to conceal data about the number of Covid-19 cases Tesla reported at the Fremont plant, and why Alameda County wouldn't disclose the data.
New PG&E CEO Patti Poppe says she said no to the job a couple of times.
She says she took it after watching video of the Paradise fire, including @abc10’s #FirePowerMoney stories (by @brandonrittiman).
She is speaking now at the CPUC on regionalization. cpuc.ca.gov/calEvent.aspx?…
My big takeaway from this hearing so far is that along with regionalized units, PG&E will also be moving from monthly to daily check-ins across the organization.
Also surprised by the first leg of the Q&A...
Mar 2, 2021 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
"Gallogly made his mark, and his money, in finance."
Sure did. The firm he co-founded, Centerbridge, has reaped big profits off the largest "climate change bankruptcy": PG&E's.
Last year, we were first to report Centerbridge loaned money to a lawyer for 16,000 PG&E fire victims
Interim CFO Chris Foster said that increase in costs "reflects a final adjustment...
...required to the fair value of the equity backstop fee based on the share price at the beginning of July."
On September's #ZoggFire:
An analyst on the call asked why PG&E hadn't cut power where the fire sparked. Foster: "the wind speeds in those areas didn't meet the general..
