Chapter 665: Scorched!
However, Prager Energy wants to withdraw from the U.S. stock market, and Prager Energy has to pay hundreds of millions of dollars more to these securities dealers and shareholders.
At the same time, Huaxing Group also issued a statement refusing to pay a fine of $12 billion to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Such a tough statement made the domestic media report overwhelmingly as if they had been beaten with chicken blood-
Let's ask which company in China dares to compete with the U.S. Department of Justice!
At this time, the White House spokesman also made a press statement, and also answered the reporter's question about the Department of Justice's suppression of Prager Energy, saying that the United States is still an open and free market, and said that the White House supports the development of hydrogen energy, and also called on the American people to support the United States' fuel cell products.
The Ministry of Justice and these energy giants originally wanted to hunt Prager Energy, but they spent a lot of effort but found that the boiled duck had flew, and they were also angry, so they sued Huayuan Group to threaten national energy security, so they banned American companies from purchasing fuel cells and hydrogen fuel from Huayuan Group, and imposed tariffs of 25 percent on hydrogen fuel.
As soon as this news came out, it caused a frenzy of domestic consumers and companies in the United States to buy Huayuan Group and Prager Energy's fuel cell power supply series products, and in just ten days, these fuel cell products were sold out in various channels in the United States.
There have even been fights among American consumers over home fuel cell power system products, and the news has been widely reported by the media.
Before the U.S. Department of Justice ban was imposed, many companies in the U.S. imported hydrogen fuel from Huaxia to cope with the shortage of hydrogen fuel in the coming period.
Not to mention the expensive products launched by several hydrogen fuel manufacturers in the United States, the performance is also much worse than similar products in Huaxia, and the chemical properties of hydrogen fuel are also unstable, and there are also problems after being marketed.
Including Ford, Warner, AT&T and several Wall Street securities firms are all large and small shareholders of Huayuan Group, and the ban of the Ministry of Justice also made these companies unable to sit still.
In addition, many demonstrators gathered outside the US Department of Justice to protest that the Department of Justice is the voice of the interests of these oil companies, hindering the use and development of clean energy technologies, and making the Department of Justice anxious.
In September, however, there was an unexpected event in California, when a wildfire broke out in northern San Diego County, California, near the junction of highways 15 and 76, and the fire grew rapidly under the help of strong hot winds, which burned more than 80,000 acres in a matter of days, and caused hundreds of houses to burn, hundreds of thousands of people were forced to evacuate, and tens of thousands of homes were without power.
From the news footage, you can see that the wildfires are burning with the help of strong winds, and the winds carry the ashes to more places and ignite them, and the fire is blazing, and the smoke is billowing out, like the end of the world, the scene is shocking.
The most devastating wildfire in history killed at least 85 civilians, left hundreds missing, and destroyed some 18,000 buildings.
For this reason, the White House had to declare a state of emergency in California.
At the end of the month, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention and the state utility regulator found that the San Diego Gas and Electric Company was likely directly responsible for the wildfires.
About 15 minutes before firefighters received the call, San Diego Gas & Electric discovered that the transmission lines in the area of the fire were broken.
During the subsequent investigation, the fire broke out in a bush near a San Diego Gas & Electric Power Line.
San Diego Gas & Electric Company found its own electrical equipment and an aging utility pole in the mass burning zone, as well as a power line hanging from a tree branch.
At this point, the matter is basically clear -
Because the San Diego Gas & Electric Company's power lines were aging and broken, the broken power lines hit the dry branches around them, causing a wildfire, causing this serious wildfire disaster.
Fire investigators found that 18 of the 21 most significant fires in recent years were related to aging San Diego Gas & Electric equipment that did not meet state safety standards and poorly managed vegetation around power lines.
Investigators in the state of California are still determining whether San Diego Gas and Electric is responsible for the fire, which would face at least $30 billion in liability costs if the wildfire allegations are established.
But San Diego Gas & Electric said it had only about $1.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents on hand, and it couldn't pay off the fines, meaning the 50 or 60-year-old power company was on the verge of bankruptcy.
After the last California power crisis, Gastown San Diego was saddled with huge debts, and there was no money to update and maintain old power lines and equipment.
San Diego's chairman resigned, and it was announced that San Diego Gas & Electric had filed for bankruptcy.
Governor Davis also publicly stated that San Diego Gas&Electric's bankruptcy filing will not jeopardize the supply of natural gas and electricity, and that the company will continue to fulfill its commitments to energy suppliers and customers to ensure that Californians have stable access to electricity.
Naturally, the state doesn't want to take on such a heavy debt, and California not only can't afford fines, but it also has to find a way to pass a bill that would allow utilities to pass on the cost of wildfires to their customers in the form of higher electricity bills.
The wildfires caused by old lines and improper maintenance are obviously the fault of the power company itself, but it is still necessary for California users to pay for it and help San Diego Gas and Electric Company to continue its life through various means.
Although California and other states in the United States have adopted a unified government management, and the model of free competition of enterprises can work in most cases, California has a special hot and arid climate, which makes the risk of wildfires greater than that of other states.
The contradictions between the private power company and the local government are already deep, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to divide responsibilities, and the local government must not watch the power company in the southern region collapse.
California is now left with San Diego Gas and Electric and Pioneer Energy Group, which has been heavily developing fuel cell power stations and home fuel cell power systems in recent years, reducing its reliance on aging power grids.
Pioneer Energy Group has had a good time in the past few years, meeting a large part of California's natural gas and electricity needs while making a lot of money, and Yang Jie's previous investment has been fully recovered.
The contrast between the two companies is so strong that the people of southern California have naturally stopped doing anything about overcharging electricity bills, and have also held various anti-demonstrations, and even hope that Pioneer Energy Group will provide gas and electricity supply to San Diego.
When White House officials were inspecting and speaking about the wildfire disaster in San Diego, they were also questioned by local victims because they could not buy home fuel cell power systems and hydrogen fuel, which made these officials very embarrassed.
Yang Jie was also a little surprised when he learned about these things in China, and he didn't expect so many things to be caused by the U.S. Department of Justice's suppression of Prager Energy.
The California government also hopes that Pioneer Energy Group will take over the mess of San Diego Gas and Electric Company, but Yang Jie naturally disagrees.
The wildfire caused a huge compensation of tens of billions of US dollars, and Pioneer Energy Group naturally did not take the blame.
To this end, California and San Diego Gas & Power Company also sent a delegation to visit Huaxing Group, and urgently purchased a batch of hydrogen fuel cell products from Huayuan Group to meet the power shortage in the southern San Diego area.
The U.S. Department of Justice and the White House were ignorant of the matter.
At the end of September, the U.S. Department of Justice dropped charges against Prager Energy and a $12 billion fine.
Now that Prager Energy doesn't exist, it's a fine!
And the Supreme Court has also rescinded the decree imposing tariffs on imported hydrogen fuel.