San Francisco — Pacific Gas and Electric Company today filed a request with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to extend until December 6, 2001, the period during which the Company has the exclusive right to file a plan of reorganization in its Chapter 11 case. Under the current timeline, the exclusivity period is set to end on August 6, 120 days after the Company's April 6 Chapter 11 filing.

The Company made the following statement regarding its request: "Developing and filing a sound, comprehensive and feasible plan of reorganization is the most important step we can take toward completing the Chapter 11 process as expeditiously as possible. Our request for an extension is intended to allow us the time necessary to ensure that the plan we present is the appropriate blueprint for meeting our obligations to creditors and emerging from Chapter 11 with our financial strength reaffirmed. The development of this plan is a top priority and our objective is to file it as soon as practicable.

"We are well under way with this effort and are engaged in productive discussions with creditors that are helping to inform our development of the most feasible plan of reorganization.

"In the event further analysis is needed or additional meetings with our creditors are desired in order to ensure that the plan we file has their support, this extension provides extra time for these efforts.

"We look forward to continuing our progress toward this goal and to working with the creditors to reach resolution as soon as possible."