PG&E May Get Lower Fines In San Bruno Blast
Regulators on Thursday approved levying fines of about $1 million a day against PG&E, but then considered another proposal that could lower the penalty to a total of just $3 million.
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Regulators on Thursday approved levying fines of about $1 million a day against PG&E, but then considered another proposal that could lower the penalty to a total of just $3 million.
PG&E was scheduled to submit opt-out procedures Thursday for customers who don't want to participate in the utility's SmartMeter program.
State lawmakers sought answers at a hearing Monday in Sacramento. They also heard about tsunami damage in California from the March 11 earthquake off Japan's coast.
More than 5,000 people were without power Monday morning from outages that left as many as 33,000 customers in the Bay Area in the dark this weekend, a utility spokesman said.
More than 30,000 people throughout the Bay Area lost power early Sunday morning because of the stormy weather, a utility spokesman said.
As federal investigators continue to uncover a cause for last September's San Bruno pipeline blast, state regulators Thursday took the first step in its investigation of PG&E's recordkeeping.
California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein have asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to inspect two California nuclear plants built near earthquake faults to ensure they can withstand a major quake.
Regulators said Wednesday they plan to fine Pacific Gas & Electric Co. up to $1 million a day to sanction the company for failing to turn over key safety records.
Pacific Gas & Electric said it is missing 8 percent of the records the utility is required to keep to ensure its pipelines are running safely.
Operators at California's two nuclear plants say their facilities can withstand a higher magnitude earthquake than scientists predict could ever strike the plants.
Pacific Gas and Electric has agreed to cover the cost of the investigation by the California Public Utilities Commission into last fall's deadly explosion in San Bruno.
California regulators will ask Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to set up a process so its customers can opt out of smart meters if they have concerns about the devices' potential health effects.
Survivors of the San Bruno pipeline explosion gathered near the blast site Wednesday to mark six months since eight people lost their lives and dozens of homes were damaged or completely destroyed in the inferno.
State regulators have threatened Pacific Gas and Electric with fines and sanctions if the utility does not produce records detailing what it knew about the natural gas pipeline that exploded in San Bruno last September.
A repair project at Pacific Gas and Electric's Milpitas facility went awry just before the San Bruno pipeline explosion last September, according to federal documents.
Records show utility crews replaced five miles of aging gas pipes under a San Bruno neighborhood less than two decades ago but stopped just short of a segment that ruptured and exploded last year.
The nation needs new solutions to improve the safety of natural gas pipelines coursing beneath neighborhoods, federal investigators said Thursday.
New documents released during a federal hearing on the San Bruno pipeline explosion show a PG&E inspector had concerns about a sewer line project located directly below the ruptured line.
The San Bruno Fire Department didn't know about a large gas transmission pipeline before it exploded last September, according to the fire chief.
PG&E officials acknowledged they rejected installing valves that could have automatically shut off the flow of gas for the San Bruno pipeline explosion.
A federal hearing is set to begin on Tuesday regarding last September's deadly pipeline explosion in San Bruno.
California regulators will consider whether Pacific Gas and Electric Co. should face penalties in connection with its record-keeping in the run-up to the San Bruno pipeline explosion.
The pressure increases that occurred on the natural gas pipeline that exploded in San Bruno last fall violated federal regulations, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.
More than 150 feet of power lines came down in San Francisco Saturday night, causing outages and disrupting service on San Francisco Municipal Railway's N-Judah line.
The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that despite revelations that its records did not provide complete details of its natural gas pipeline that exploded in San Bruno last fall, officials at Pacific Gas & Electric Co. say they would not have monitored the pipeline any differently.
