CPUC Says PG&E 'Refusing to Comply,' Could Face Fines as Much as $1 Million a Day

Bay City News—One day after Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to the California Public Utilities Commission, the commission fired back a response claiming that the utility is refusing to comply with the commission’s orders and may be putting public safety in jeopardy.

The commission today demanded additional pipeline records from the utility, after it says the utility failed to produce adequate pipeline records, and said it may likely impose hefty fines—as much as $1 million per day—for violating its January directive to produce detailed records.

In a letter today addressed to PG&E's president, the commission's executive director, Paul Clanon, restated the order for PG&E to produce the records.

Clanon said that the commission could possibly issue an order for PG&E to show cause why the company should not be fined for its failure to comply with its order.

On March 24, when the CPUC holds its next voting meeting, the commission staff will recommend issuing the order, according to a statement issued today.

“PG&E’s willful noncompliance of our direct order may put public safety at risk,” Clanon said in the statement. “We must be certain that PG&E knows the types of pipes it has in the ground in order to know the maximum pressure under which those pipes can operate safety.”

Documents provided 'unacceptable'

The commission has the authority to impose fines of $20,000 per violation per day, and it said that multiple violations could result in fines of $1 million a day or more.

Clanon criticized PG&E for claiming that it submitted pressure information for a majority of its pipelines, saying that the documents provided were unacceptable.

PG&E submitted what it said were records for more than 90 percent of its natural gas pipelines in the region, records that provided either information about pressure tests performed on the segments or historical operating pressures.

Those records, PG&E said, sometimes cited only a historical operating pressure in lieu of pressure test results because federal regulations allow operators to rely on the dated information for segments installed before 1970. This was the case with Line 132, PG&E said in its filing Tuesday.

But when the commission directed the utility to undertake the extensive search—PG&E said it has scoured more than 1.25 million documents thus far—Clanon said the objective was "to find, to the extent possible, a basis for setting maximum allowable operating pressure by means other than the grandfathering method described in PG&E's response."

PG&E vows to continue search for remaining records

Referencing the commission's original directive, Clanon said that PG&E was directed to produce "'traceable, verifiable, and complete records,'" which it failed to do by the Tuesday 5pm deadline.

In January, the commission ordered the company to produce the records for its 1,805 miles of such pipelines as part of a larger probe of potential safety issues after state officials ordered a pressure reduction on transmission lines that were operating over maximum gas pressure limits.

On Tuesday, when PG&E submitted its records, PG&E President Chris John said in a statement that because a fraction of the records had yet to be found that the utility would continue its search and review the remaining test records.

"While we have made good progress on our records validation, we are not satisfied with the results to date," Johns said Tuesday.

Pressure test records for Line 132, the pipeline segment involved in the Sept. 9 explosion in the Crestmoor neighborhood, have not yet been identified, PG&E said.

Of the incomplete submission, Clanon wrote, "This is particularly inexcusable in the wake of the tragedy at San Bruno."