PG&E (PCG) to defer USD 2bln of work as California shelves fire bill; reaffirmed FY26 non-GAAP EPS of USD 1.64-1.66; expects to invest USD 11.40bln in California in 2027

Bills addressing utility wildfire cost recovery have historically been shelved and revived across multiple legislative sessions, so a deferral of this kind has tended to be a postponement rather than a death; the precedent is that the mechanics eventually get worked through, though the timing discount applied by the market in the interim has been real. The operational consequence is mechanical: deferred work slows rate base growth, and since utility earnings power is built on allowed returns applied to that base, the FY27 investment commitment and the reaffirmed guidance matter more for the model than the headline cut to near-term spending. Management guidance reaffirmed alongside a negative legislative development is a familiar pattern here, intended to signal that the capital plan is being resequenced rather than abandoned; prior form has been that such reaffirmations hold only as long as the rate case and cost recovery dockets stay on track. The follow-ons are the next session's movement on the bill, the pace of regulatory decisions on cost recovery, and whether deferred work compresses into later years, which is where execution and financing risk have shown up in comparable episodes.