The California Public Utilities Commission on Dec. 21 announced it is considering reforms ranging from splitting Pacific Gas and Electric into separate electric and gas companies to reconstituting into a public entity in the wake of wildfires that caused widespread destruction in Northern and Southern California. The agency said that the utility has had serious safety issues with its gas and electric operations for many years. The regulatory move comes as the commission is investigating the involvement of the utility’s power lines in causing the recent Camp Fire in Butte County, the largest in California’s history.

The commission put forth several proposals including replacing the existing PG&E and PG&E Corp. board with directors having a “stronger background and focus on safety,” reorganizing PG&E’s corporate structure to include regional subsidiaries, conditioning the utility’s return on equity on safety performance, and repealing holding company authorization to establish an exclusively regulated utility.

The commission said the move is” not a punitive exercise,” but a means to determine the best course of action to provide Northern Californians safer gas and electric service at reasonable rates.

The agency set a Jan. 16 deadline for the utility’s background filing. Opening comments and reply comments are due by Jan. 30 and Feb. 13 respectively.