THIS WEEK'S RMN
MARKETS · As Trump Pushes Nuclear Buildout for Data Centers, Insurers Ask Where Liability Starts
The AI-driven nuclear buildout has an problem, and the people who insure it just put it on the record.. — Read →
MARKETS · Life Reinsurer Puts Its Mortality Book Against a Cancer Test the FDA Hasn't Approved
A major US life reinsurer has entered the fray over the FDA's review of a multi-cancer blood test, and it is using its mortality book as evidence. — Read →
MARKETS · Kalshi Wants Weather Company to Settle Prediction Markets’ Trust Problem
Kalshi’s Weather Company deal shows prediction markets moving into insurance territory, and the private infrastructure needed to turn public weather data into financial payouts. — Read →
Back to The Wildfire Finance Risk Drawing Board
PG&E’s decision to defer $2 billion of grid investment after California lawmakers abandoned wildfire legislation is turning the state’s unresolved liability fight into an immediate capital-allocation problem.
- On a special investor call Wednesday, analysts repeatedly pressed PG&E executives to explain whether the company’s newly announced strategic review amounts to a genuine alternative to legislative reform, or, as one analyst put it, merely “a plan to a Plan B.”
- The answer from management was effectively both: PG&E is exploring changes to its corporate, financial and legal structure, but Chief Executive Patti Poppe acknowledged that the electric distribution business still cannot reach investment-grade status without changes to California’s wildfire-liability framework.
- In the meantime, the utility will cut its planned 2027 capital spending from $13.4 billion to $11.4 billion, withdraw its five-year capital and rate-base outlook and stop providing earnings-growth guidance beyond 2027.
