Audit: Pacific Gas & Electric didn't spend $50M collected for pipeline safety and maintenance

[CreekDog]

Audit: PG&E didn't spend $50M for safety


Associated Press
Updated: 06/04/2013 08:50:24 AM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO -- An audit says Pacific Gas and Electric Co. did not use $50 million intended to improve its gas pipeline network in the decade leading up to a deadly explosion in a San Francisco Bay area suburb.
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According to the Chronicle, PG&E from 1999 to 2010 regularly failed to use all the money it collected from ratepayers to fix and maintain small gas lines that deliver natural gas to homes and businesses.

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The 2010 blast in San Bruno killed eight people.

http://www.mercurynews.com/pge/ci_23384671/audit-pg-e-didnt-spend-50m-safety

Any wonder that an old, defective pipe blew up a neighborhood in San Bruno and killed 8 people?

[Starry Messenger]

1. Love how they keep trying to paint themselves as victims in all this.

Instead of fighting the huge penalty they were levied, they should be begging forgiveness.

[CreekDog]

2. Early on they tried to say that the victims, some dead, had contributory negligence

Disgusting.

In court, PG&E deflects blame for San Bruno blast
Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
Published 7:12 pm, Monday, July 11, 2011

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The company also indicated it would seek to assign some of the blame for the losses from the explosion to residents themselves.

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In its court filing, PG&E also said the blast victims themselves "may have been legally responsible under a doctrine of comparative negligence (or) contributory negligence" - factors that assign a portion of blame to a plaintiff.

PG&E's filing did not specify how residents might have been negligent, or how that negligence contributed to the fireball that consumed their homes.

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PG&E also suggested the payments that the company has already made to some residents meant their lawsuits were invalidated "in whole or in part." The firm made cash payouts of $15,000 to $50,000 after the blast, on a scale that depended on the extent of damage, but said at the time that the payments had no bearing on civil damages.

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San Bruno City Manager Connie Jackson said PG&E's court filing was "completely surprising." She added, "It's unfortunate that they have thrown everything plus the kitchen sink in this, to cover their legal strategy."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/In-court-PG-E-deflects-blame-for-San-Bruno-blast-2355029.php#ixzz2VGesMLQV

[Starry Messenger]

3. I don't honestly think they should still exist in their present form.

They need complete overhauling or state takeover.

[Gormy Cuss]

4. Agreed.

Last edited Tue Jun 4, 2013, 03:22 PM - Edit history (1)

PG & E's obviously not capable of doing the job.

[Starry Messenger]

5. They seem to be really great at fleecing CA.

I forget to what extent they were involved in the whole Enron thing, but with this on top of that--I'm not sure I want to see what they might do next...

[HiPointDem]

6. warren buffett owns a big chunk of pg&e, and lots of other utilities. he also likes to take tax

money.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022888973