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28 Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP 767 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10153-0119

WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES LLP 

Stephen Karotkin (pro hac vice) 

(stephen.karotkin@weil.com) 

Ray C. Schrock, P.C. (pro hac vice) 

(ray.schrock@weil.com) 

Jessica Liou (pro hac vice) 

(jessica.liou@weil.com) 

Matthew Goren (pro hac vice) 

(matthew.goren@weil.com) 

767 Fifth Avenue 

New York, NY 10153-0119 

Tel: 212 310 8000 

Fax: 212 310 8007 

KELLER & BENVENUTTI LLP 

Tobias S. Keller (#151445) 

(tkeller@kellerbenvenutti.com) 

Jane Kim (#298192) 

(jkim@kellerbenvenutti.com) 

650 California Street, Suite 1900 

San Francisco, CA 94108 

Tel: 415 496 6723 

Fax: 650 636 9251 

Attorneys for Debtors 

and Debtors in Possession 

UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT 

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 

SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION 

In re: 

PG&E CORPORATION,

 - and -

PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC 

COMPANY,

Bankruptcy Case No. 19-30088 (DM) 

Chapter 11 (Lead Case) (Jointly Administered) 

MOTION TO REDACT DOCUMENTS FILED 

IN SUPPORT OF CPSI AGREEMENT 

ASSUMPTION MOTION 

(THE “CPSI REDACTION MOTION”) 

[No Hearing Requested] 

Debtors.

 Affects PG&E Corporation 

 Affects Pacific Gas and Electric Company 

 Affects both Debtors 

* All papers shall be filed in the Lead Case, 

No. 19-30088 (DM). 

Case: 19-30088 Doc# 3178 Filed: 07/24/19 Entered: 07/24/19 16:53:21 Page 1 of

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28 Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP 767 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10153-0119

PG&E Corporation (“PG&E Corp.”) and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (the 

“Utility”), as debtors and debtors in possession (collectively, “PG&E” or the “Debtors”) in the 

above-captioned chapter 11 cases (the “Chapter 11 Cases”), hereby submit this Motion (the 

“Motion”), pursuant to sections 105(a) and 107(c) of title 11 of the United States Code (the 

“Bankruptcy Code”), Rule 1001-2(a) of the Bankruptcy Local Rules for the United States District 

Court for the Northern District of California (the “Bankruptcy Local Rules”) and the New District 

Wide Procedures for Electronically Filing Sealed and Redacted Documents adopted by the United 

States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California (the “Local Procedures”), for entry 

of an order (a) authorizing the Debtors to redact the names of natural persons contained in Exhibit 

B to the Motion and the addresses of those persons (the “Personal Information”) to the Second 

Omnibus Motion of the Debtors Pursuant to 11 U.S.C § 365(a), Fed. R. Bankr. P. 6006, and B.L.R. 

6006-1 (i) Approving the Utility’s Assumption of Contracts in Connection with the Community 

Pipeline Safety Initiative and (ii) Granting Related Relief (the “CPSI Assumption Motion”)1 from 

the CPSI Assumption Motion and any other document filed publicly in connection with the CPSI 

Assumption Motion (collectively, the “Motion Documents”) and (b) directing that the unredacted 

copies of the Motion Documents provided to the Court shall remain under seal and confidential and 

not be made available without the consent of the Debtors or further order from the Court. The 

Debtors propose to share, on request, unredacted copies of the Motion Documents containing 

Personal Information with (i) the U.S. Trustee on a strictly confidential basis and (ii) counsel and 

financial advisors to the Creditors Committee and the Tort Claimants Committee on a strictly 

confidential and “professionals’ eyes only” basis. 

In support of the Motion, the Debtors submit the Declaration of Joe Echols 

(the “Echols Declaration”), filed contemporaneously herewith. A proposed form of order granting 

the relief requested herein is being uploaded concurrently herewith in accordance with the Local 

Procedures (the “Proposed Order”). 

 

1

 Capitalized terms used but not defined in this Motion shall have the meaning used in the CPSI 

Assumption Motion. 

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28 Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP 767 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10153-0119

MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES 

I. JURISDICTION 

The Court has jurisdiction to consider this matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 157 and 1334, 

the Order Referring Bankruptcy Cases and Proceedings to Bankruptcy Judges, General Order 24 (N.D. 

Cal. Feb. 22, 2016), and Bankruptcy Local Rule 5011-1(a). This is a core proceeding pursuant to 28 

U.S.C. § 157(b). Venue is proper before the Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1408 and 1409. 

II. BACKGROUND 

On January 29, 2019 (the “Petition Date”), the Debtors commenced with the Court 

voluntary cases under chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. The Debtors continue to operate their 

businesses and manage their properties as debtors in possession pursuant to sections 1107(a) and 1108 

of the Bankruptcy Code. No trustee or examiner has been appointed in either of the Chapter 11 Cases. 

The Debtors’ Chapter 11 Cases are being jointly administered for procedural purposes only pursuant to 

Bankruptcy Rule 1015(b). 

On February 12, 2019, the United States Trustee (the “U.S. Trustee”) appointed an 

Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (the “Creditors Committee”). On February 15, 2019, the 

U.S. Trustee appointed an Official Committee of Tort Claimants (the “Tort Claimants Committee” 

and, together with the Creditors Committee, the “Committees”). 

Additional information regarding the circumstances leading to the commencement of the 

Chapter 11 Cases and information regarding the Debtors’ businesses and capital structure is set forth in 

the Amended Declaration of Jason P. Wells in Support of First Day Motions and Related Relief [Docket 

No. 263] (the “Wells Declaration”). 

III. THE CPSI AGREEMENTS 

The Debtors have included the complete list of CPSI Agreements to be assumed pursuant 

to the CPSI Assumption Motion as an exhibit thereto. Specifically, Exhibit B to the CPSI Assumption 

Motion and Schedule 1 to the Proposed Order on the CPSI Assumption Motion contain the following 

information: (i) the names of the parties to the CPSI Agreements; (ii) the type of each CPSI Agreement; 

(iii) whether each CPSI Agreement is a Vegetation or Structure Agreement; (iv) the monetary and nonmonetary compensation to be provided under each CPSI Agreement; and (v) the date each CPSI 

Case: 19-30088 Doc# 3178 Filed: 07/24/19 Entered: 07/24/19 16:53:21 Page 3 of

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Agreement was executed. Out of concern for the privacy and safety of participating property owners, 

the Debtors seek to avoid publicly disclosing the names and addresses of the counterparties on Exhibit 

B to the CPSI Assumption Motion or other publicly filed Motion Documents where their names and 

addresses appear, including on the certificates of service filed by PrimeClerk in relation to the Motion 

and any order entered by the Court in respect of the Motion. Although the Personal Information may 

otherwise be publicly available in other contexts and filings, disclosure of the Personal Information in 

the Motion Documents will directly connect their names and addresses to the CPSI program and may 

give rise to the harm discussed below. 

As set forth in the Motion, the Debtors are seeking authority to assume certain agreements 

entered into with landowners in connection with the CPSI program, which agreements provide the Utility 

necessary access to land on which the Utility’s gas transmission pipelines are located to carry out critical 

vegetation removal and other clearing projects. See Echols Declaration ¶ 4. The projects carried out as 

part of the CPSI program occasionally require that trees and other vegetation be cleared or otherwise 

removed to ensure the Utility and emergency services providers can access the Utility’s gas transmission 

pipelines, making the program a potential target of activists in the communities in which the projects 

are carried out. See id. On several occasions in the past, the publicly disclosed information of 

participants in the CPSI program has been used by activists to make unsolicited contact with those 

property owners in an effort to discourage them from participating in the CPSI program. See id. 

IV. BASIS FOR RELIEF REQUESTED 

Section 105(a) of the Bankruptcy Code empowers the Court to “issue any order . . . that 

is necessary or appropriate to carry out the provisions of this title.” 11 U.S.C. § 105(a). Section 107(c) 

of the Bankruptcy Code further provides: 

(1) The bankruptcy court, for cause, may protect an individual, with respect to the 

following types of information to the extent the court finds that disclosure of such 

information would create undue risk of identity theft or other unlawful injury to the 

individual or the individual’s property: 

(A) Any means of identification (as defined in section 1028(d) of title 18) 

contained in a paper filed, or to be filed, in a case under this title. 

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(B) Other information contained in a paper described in subparagraph (A). 

11 U.S.C. § 107(c). 

The Personal Information clearly falls within the definition of “any means of 

identification” in section 107(c)(1)(A). “Means of identification” is defined by section 1028(d)(7) of 

title 18 of the United States Code as “any name or number that may be used, alone or in conjunction 

with any other information, to identify a specific individual...including any name.” Further to this, the 

effect of section 107(c)(1)(B) is to expand the scope of information which may be protected from 

disclosure to any other information in a paper which contains a means of identification. In re Motions 

Seeking Access to 2019 Statements, 585 B.R. 733, 750 (D. Del. 2018). In 2019 Statements, the District 

Court for the District of Delaware upheld a bankruptcy court’s order to restrict access to the 2019 

Exhibits filed in that case containing information regarding asbestos claimants to protect the names, 

addresses, social security numbers, and medical information contained therein, and rejected an 

application for access to the protected information for unspecified lobbying efforts by the applicants. 

The District Court noted that the courts below considered the risk to the privacy of the individuals that 

disclosure would cause: “the privacy issue is an important issue as most of these claimants are, frankly, 

elderly. They don't want to be harassed by third parties. They don't want to be harassed by insurance 

companies who aren't paying. They don't want to be harassed by so-called investment advisers. They 

signed up, not to have their social security numbers and their disease spread around the country or to 

their neighbors or anyone else.” Id (internal quotation marks omitted). The District Court confirmed 

that a risk to privacy interests is an “unlawful injury” for the purposes of section 107(c) of the Bankruptcy 

Code, and even if steps were taken to “reduce[] the risk of identity theft or other injury” through the 

redaction of medical records and all but the last four digits of social security numbers, it did not 

“eliminate these risks.” 2019 Statements, 585 B.R. at 753. Courts have also permitted the use of 

pseudonyms to avoid an individual’s name being associated with their mental illness on the basis that it 

would likely be detrimental to future employment opportunities. In re L.K., No. 1-05-13887-dem, 2009 

WL 1955455, at *2 Bankr. E.D.N.Y. July 6, 2009). 

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Here, the Debtors seek to protect individuals from the risk of unsolicited contact that may 

be perceived as intrusive or harassing as a result of their participation in the CPSI program. In light of 

past events demonstrating the risk of unwanted contact and intrusion into the privacy of the CPSI 

Counterparties, the Debtors believe that they have satisfied their burden under Section 107(c). See 2019 

Statements, 585 B.R. at 751 (noting that Section 107(c) only requires identifying a risk of unlawful 

injury). 

Further, in balancing the risk of harm with transparency, the Debtors are prepared to file 

unredacted copies of the Motion Documents with the Court under seal according to the Local Procedures 

and propose to share, on request, unredacted copies of the Motion Documents with (i) the U.S. Trustee 

on a strictly confidential basis and (ii) counsel and financial advisors to the Creditors Committee and the 

Tort Claimants Committee on a strictly confidential and “professionals’ eyes only” basis. 

V. NOTICE 

Notice of this Motion will be provided to (i) the Office of the United States Trustee for 

Region 17 (Attn: Andrew Vara, Esq. and Timothy Laffredi, Esq.); (ii) counsel to the Creditors 

Committee; (iii) counsel to the Tort Claimants Committee; (iv) the Securities and Exchange 

Commission; (v) the Internal Revenue Service; (vi) the Office of the California Attorney General; (vii) 

the California Public Utilities Commission; (viii) the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; (ix) the Federal 

Energy Regulatory Commission; (x) the Office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District 

of California; (xi) counsel for the agent under the Debtors’ debtor in possession financing facility; (xii) 

each counterparty to the CPSI Agreements; and (xiii) those persons who have formally appeared in these 

Chapter 11 Cases and requested service pursuant to Bankruptcy Rule 2002. The Debtors respectfully 

submit that no further notice is required. 

No previous request for the relief sought herein has been made by the Debtors to this or 

any other court. 

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28 Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP 767 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10153-0119

WHEREFORE the Debtors respectfully request entry of an order granting the relief requested 

herein and such other and further relief as the Court may deem just and appropriate. 

Dated: July 24, 2019 

WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES LLP 

KELLER & BENVENUTTI LLP 

By: /s/ Jessica Liou___________________ 

 Jessica Liou 

Attorneys for Debtors 

and Debtors in Possession 

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