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EQUITY
 6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2022
Equity [Abstract]  
EQUITY EQUITY
At the Market Equity Distribution Program

On April 30, 2021, PG&E Corporation entered into an Equity Distribution Agreement (“Equity Distribution Agreement”) with Barclays Capital Inc., BofA Securities, Inc., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, as sales agents and as forward sellers (in such capacities as applicable, the “Agents” and the “Forward Sellers,” respectively), and Barclays Bank PLC, Bank of America, N.A., Credit Suisse Capital LLC and Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, as forward purchasers (the “Forward Purchasers”), establishing an at the market equity distribution program, pursuant to which PG&E Corporation, through the Agents, may offer and sell from time to time shares of PG&E Corporation’s common stock having an aggregate gross sales price of up to $400 million. PG&E Corporation has no obligation to offer or sell any of its common stock under the Equity Distribution Agreement and may at any time suspend offers under the Equity Distribution Agreement.

The Equity Distribution Agreement provides that, in addition to the issuance and sale of shares of common stock by PG&E Corporation to or through the Agents, PG&E Corporation may enter into forward sale agreements (collectively, the “Forward Sale Agreements”) pursuant to which the relevant Forward Purchaser will borrow shares from third parties and, through its affiliated Forward Seller, offer a number of shares of common stock equal to the number of shares of common stock underlying the particular Forward Sale Agreement.

During the six months ended June 30, 2022, PG&E Corporation did not sell any shares pursuant to the Equity Distribution Agreement or any Forward Sale Agreement. As of June 30, 2022, there was $400 million available under PG&E Corporation’s at the market equity distribution program for future offerings.

Ownership Restrictions in PG&E Corporation’s Amended Articles

Under Section 382 of the IRC, if a corporation (or a consolidated group) undergoes an “ownership change,” net operating loss carryforwards and other tax attributes may be subject to certain limitations (which could limit PG&E Corporation or the Utility’s ability to use these deferred tax assets to offset taxable income). In general, an ownership change occurs if the aggregate stock ownership of certain shareholders (generally five percent shareholders, applying certain look-through and aggregation rules) increases by more than 50% over such shareholders’ lowest percentage ownership during the testing period (generally three years). The Amended Articles limit Transfers (as defined in the Amended Articles) that increase a person’s or entity’s (including certain groups of persons) ownership of PG&E Corporation’s equity securities to 4.75% or more prior to the Restriction Release Date (as defined in the Amended Articles) without approval by the Board of Directors of PG&E Corporation.

On July 8, 2021, PG&E Corporation, the Utility, ShareCo and the Fire Victim Trust entered into the Share Exchange and Tax Matters Agreement, pursuant to which PG&E Corporation and the Utility made a “grantor trust” election for the Fire Victim Trust effective retroactively to the inception of the Fire Victim Trust. As a result of the grantor trust election, shares of PG&E Corporation common stock owned by the Fire Victim Trust are treated as held by the Utility and, in turn attributed to PG&E Corporation for income tax purposes. Consequently, any shares owned by the Fire Victim Trust, along with any shares owned by the Utility directly, are effectively excluded from the total number of outstanding equity securities when calculating a person’s Percentage Stock Ownership (as defined in the Amended Articles) for purposes of the 4.75% ownership limitation in the Amended Articles. Shares owned by ShareCo are also effectively excluded because ShareCo is a disregarded entity for income tax purposes. For example, although PG&E Corporation had 2,465,411,810 shares outstanding as of July 21, 2022, only 1,609,924,630 shares (that is, the number of outstanding shares of common stock less the number of shares held by the Fire Victim Trust, the Utility and ShareCo) count as outstanding for purposes of the ownership restrictions in the Amended Articles. As such, based on the total number of outstanding equity securities and taking into account the shares of PG&E Corporation common stock known to have been sold by the Fire Victim Trust as of July 21, 2022, a person’s effective Percentage Stock Ownership limitation for purposes of the Amended Articles as of July 21, 2022 was 3.10% of the outstanding shares. On January 31, 2022 and April 14, 2022, the Fire Victim Trust exchanged 40,000,000 and 60,000,000 Plan Shares, respectively, for an equal number of New Shares in the manner contemplated by the Share Exchange and Tax Matters Agreement; in each case, the Fire Victim Trust thereafter reported that it sold the applicable New Shares. The Fire Victim Trust’s sale of PG&E Corporation common stock in the aggregate amount of 100,000,000 shares resulted in an aggregate tax benefit of $337 million recorded in PG&E Corporation’s and the Utility’s Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements in the six months ended June 30, 2022. As of July 21, 2022, to the knowledge of PG&E Corporation, the Fire Victim Trust had sold 100,000,000 shares of PG&E Corporation common stock in the aggregate.
As of the date of this report, it is more likely than not that PG&E Corporation has not undergone an ownership change and consequently, its net operating loss carryforwards and other tax attributes are not limited by Section 382 of the IRC.

Dividends

On December 20, 2017, the Boards of Directors of PG&E Corporation and the Utility suspended quarterly cash dividends on both PG&E Corporation’s and the Utility’s common stock, beginning the fourth quarter of 2017, as well as the Utility’s preferred stock, beginning the three-month period ending January 31, 2018.

On February 8, 2022, the Board of Directors of the Utility authorized the payment of all cumulative and unpaid dividends on the Utility’s preferred stock as of January 31, 2022 totaling $59.1 million, which was paid on May 13, 2022, to holders of record on April 29, 2022 and declared a dividend on the Utility’s preferred stock totaling $3.5 million, which was paid on May 15, 2022, to holders of record on April 29, 2022. On June 15, 2022, the Board of Directors of the Utility declared dividends on its outstanding series of preferred stock, payable on August 15, 2022, to holders of record on July 29, 2022.

On June 15, 2022, the Board of Directors of the Utility also reinstated the dividend on the Utility’s common stock and declared a common stock dividend of $425 million that was paid to PG&E Corporation on June 17, 2022. No dividend is payable until declared by the Board of Directors of the Utility.

Subject to the dividend restrictions as described in Note 6 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of the 2021 Form 10-K, any decision to declare and pay dividends in the future will be made at the discretion of the Board of Directors of PG&E Corporation and will depend on, among other things, results of operations, financial condition, cash requirements, contractual restrictions and other factors that the Board of Directors of PG&E Corporation may deem relevant. Pursuant to the Confirmation Order, PG&E Corporation may not pay dividends on shares of its common stock until it recognizes $6.2 billion in Non-GAAP Core Earnings following the Emergence Date. “Non-GAAP Core Earnings” means GAAP earnings adjusted for certain non-core items. It is indeterminate as to when PG&E Corporation will commence the payment of dividends on its common stock.