Environmentalists like some provisions of PG&E bankruptcy proposal

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Environmentalists have had a few days to review the details of a surprise proposal to lift Pacific Gas and Electric Co. out of bankruptcy and some like what they see.

The plan, which still faces a contentious hearing and approval process, includes language to protect 140,000 acres of watershed around PG&E hydroelectric plants and create a new nonprofit corporation for research and investment in clean energy technology.

The mostly mountainous watershed land, which the company valued at $300 million, is scattered from Bakersfield to Mount Shasta. Parts would be protected through conservation easements, the balance donated to public agencies or nonprofit conservation groups.

``We think it's very laudable to implement such a systemwide conservation easement approach,'' said Chuck Bonham, who followed the settlement process as head of a consortium of recreation and conservation groups. ``The protection of land means the protection of water'' that runs down from the mountains to California cities.

Details of how much of the land would be publicly accessible haven't been finalized.

Neither has the proposed settlement.

Crafted in confidential negotiations and unveiled by a federal bankruptcy judge Thursday, the proposed reorganization would pay thousands of PG&E creditors the $11.5 billion they are owed, lower electricity rates starting next year and end lawsuits between PG&E and state regulators.

It faces approval by regulators on the Public Utilities Commission, some of whom have said it doesn't lower rates close enough to the levels they stood before the state's 2001 power crisis forced them to be among the nation's highest.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)