State OKs record fine against PG&E for 2008 blast

[alp227]

Source: SF Chronicle

The California Public Utilities Commission approved a record $38 million fine Thursday against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. for a string of safety violations that led up to a Christmas Eve 2008 explosion outside Sacramento that killed a homeowner.

PG&E had already signed off on the sum - the largest ever imposed in California for gas safety violations - after an administrative law judge rejected a $26 million settlement as too low.

The penalty suggests that PG&E could face much costlier fines for any safety violations the state finds in connection with the Sept. 9, 2010, blast in San Bruno that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. The commission opened an investigation into that disaster earlier this year but has not formally charged the company with wrongdoing.

The agency's action Thursday resolved a case that the commission filed two years after the explosion in Rancho Cordova (Sacramento County), well after federal investigators concluded that PG&E missteps were to blame.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/01/BALJ1M726D.DTL

[demosincebirth]

1. I guess us rate payers will foot the bill with rate hikes. Whats new

[Angry Dragon]

3. then I think the customers should file civil suits against the people responsible

[Angry Dragon]

2. Let us start putting these people resonsible in jail

Perhaps if they start going to jail and being fined personally they will finally wake up
and start thinking and doing safety

[pinto]

4. Took a while, but a good ruling...

:hi: