PG&E Can’t Escape Judge Whose Wildfire Risk Tolerance Is ‘Zero’

A federal judge who is commanding California utility giant PG&E Corp. not to spark any wildfires in 2019 is either doing his job to rein in a troubled company or he’s assuming the role of a “super regulator.”

That is how experts read the extraordinary measures proposed by U.S. District Judge William Alsup—including his plan to subject the company to criminal sanctions if it fails to trim tree branches too close to thousands of miles of power lines and to force regional grid outages in high-risk weather conditions.

The veteran judge is taking no chances with a utility that already ...