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SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas and Electric, California’s largest utility, voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy protection Friday despite months of efforts by state officials to bail out the cash-starved company. 

The company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corp., says it had run up an $8.9 billion deficit buying electricity as of Feb. 28. Along with other California utilities, it has been pinched by skyrocketing wholesale power costs and the state’s 1996 deregulation law that prevents it from fully passing those costs on to customers. 

As of March 29, the utility – which has 13 million customers – had $2.6 billion in cash and outstanding bills of $4.4 billion. 

Shares of PG&E Corp. were halted on the New York Stock Exchange, where they last traded at $11.36, down 2 cents. 

“The regulatory and political processes have failed us, and now we are turning to the court,” said PG&E Corp. chairman Robert D. Glynn, Jr. “We expect the court will provide the venue needed to reach a solution, which thus far the state and the state’s regulators have been unable to achieve.” 

The bankruptcy came the morning after Gov. Gray Davis, in a statewide address, proposed relieving utilities’ debts by giving them a share of a record rate increase approved last week by state regulators and by continuing to negotiate state acquisition of their transmission lines. 

“It comes as a complete surprise,” Davis spokesman Steve Maviglio said of the bankruptcy filing. 

Davis’ negotiating team met with PG&E on Wednesday and planned to have more talks, Maviglio said. The governor was in San Diego on Friday morning and planned to issue a statement shortly. 

Davis aides were meeting with the attorney general’s office and bankruptcy lawyers retained by the state to discuss the implications of PG&E’s filing, Maviglio said. 

Filing for bankrupcy court protection allows the utility to protect its assets from creditors, but could devastate PG&E Corp.’s already shellshocked shareholders and also could hurt the company’s 20,000 employees. 

The preliminary bankruptcy filing lists debts as of early September, long before wholesale energy prices skyrocketed and the company incurred its biggest debts. 

In the filing, the utility’s top creditor is listed as Bank of New York, which was owed $2.2 billion as of September. The now-defunct California Power Exchange was owed $1.96 billion, and Bankers Trust Co. of New York was owed $1.3 billion. 

Other creditors include banks and energy companies that sold power to PG&E. 

The first meeting of creditors was scheduled for May 8 with a representative of the U.S. Trustee’s office. The case was assigned to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali. 

Consumer activists were quick to pounce on the news as more evidence that the utility is not getting enough help from its parent company, which has profited during California’s energy crisis. 

“It’s obviously a business decision. The parent company has $30 billion, much of which it has siphoned out of the utility coffers. It would have bailed the utility out,” said Harvey Rosenfield of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. 

“PG&E promoted deregulation and reaped the rewards, and its shareholders have to bear the consequences of deregulation. This definitely indicates a lack of confidence in the governor’s nonplan last night and should obviate any need for a bailout.” 

The bankruptcy doesn’t affect another PG&E Corp. subsidiary, National Energy Corp., which has been cashing in on the high wholesale electricity prices even as the utility sank into deeper financial trouble. 

From the start of 1998 through September 2000, PG&E Corp. had reported operating profits of $4.9 billion. Deregulation took effect in March 1998 

PG&E Corp. said its subsidiary was forced into bankruptcy because of “unreimbursed energy costs, which are now increasing by more than $300 million per month,” state regulatory decisions that are hurting the company and “the now unmistakable fact that negotiations with Gov. Gray Davis and his representatives are going nowhere.” 

Southern California Edison, the state’s second-largest utility, would not say whether it would follow PG&E’s lead, but issued a statement suggesting it has no immediate plans to seek bankruptcy protection. 

“We at Southern California Edison continue to believe that working out a comprehensive solution to our current crisis is a preferable course to take,” the statement said. “PG&E’s decision today does not change our position.” 

The stock of parent company Edison International was down $3.44, or 27 percent, to $9.20 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Sempra Energy, the parent company of San Diego Gas & Electric that serves 3 million customers in the San Diego area, also was getting hammered on Wall Street. It was down $1.53, or 6 percent, to $22.62 per share. Sempra is not facing the same financial pressures as PG&E and Edison. 

Word of the bankruptcy sent lawmakers in Sacramento scrambling to figure out how it will impact the state’s efforts to solve California’s power crisis. The state, faced with the prospect of rolling blackouts this summer, already has been buying energy on the utilities’ behalf. 

The governor also has signed contracts and agreements in principle to secure the state’s long-term power needs, committing $53 billion that eventually must be paid back by taxpayers and utility customers.