Prosecutors Will Not Seek $562 Million Fine Against PG&E
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Federal prosecutors in the criminal pipeline safety trial of PG&E Co. have told the judge that they are giving up seeking an enhanced fine of up to $562 million if the utility is convicted.
The notice filed with U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer means that instead, if PG&E is convicted, the fine would be the normal amount set by law, which is up to $500,000 per count, or a potential total of $5.5 million for the 11 pipeline safety counts PG&E is facing.
The jury is still deliberating in the case.
PG&E is accused of 11 counts of violating pipeline record-keeping and testing requirements of the U.S. Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act and one count of obstructing a National Transportation Safety Board probe in the fatal pipeline explosion in San Bruno in 2010.
Eight people died in the explosion and fire following the rupture of a high-pressure natural gas transmission pipeline that had a defective weld and was incorrectly listed in PG&E records as seamless.
Prosecutors had originally planned to seek an enhanced fine under the federal Alternative Fines Act.
If PG&E was convicted, that would have allowed a fine of twice the amount of profit the utility gained as a result of avoiding the pipeline safety requirements. Prosecutors claimed the base amount of such profit was $281 million.
The notice came amid ongoing disputes between PG&E and prosecutors about how the amount of an alternative fine would be calculated and whether the fine would be determined by the current jury or by a new, second jury, in the event of a conviction.
The brief notice did not give prosecutors' reasoning for the change in the fine being sought.
In a separate civil proceeding, the California Public Utilities Commission last year fined PG&E $1.6 billion in three cases concerning the San Bruno explosion, record-keeping and maintenance of pipelines in high-population areas.