PG&E vows to be ‘safest’ utility in US after getting $1.6B fine for ’10 gas explosion

PG&E Chairman and CEO Tony Earley. WEBSITE PHOTO

SAN FRANCISCO — After the California Public Utilities Commission on April 9 slapped a record $1.6 billion penalty against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. for the 2010 deadly explosion of a natural gas transmission pipeline in San Bruno, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer said PG&E is “intent on becoming the safest and most reliable energy provider in America,” spurred by “the tragic lessons” of the the disaster.

Tony Earley PG&E chairman and CEO followed today’s decision by the commission with an assurance that the lessons of the event won’t be forgotten. “We have worked hard to do the right thing for the victims, their families and the community of San Bruno. We are deeply sorry for this tragic event and we have dedicated ourselves to re-earning the trust of our customers and the communities we serve,” Earley said.

Earley said the company has hired some of the “best experts in the country” to help with safety improvements “supported with billions of dollars in shareholder funded investments in gas safety.”

As a result of the concrete actions the company has taken to make safety the cornerstone of its culture following the San Bruno explosion, PG&E became one of the first utilities ever to earn two of the highest internationally recognized safety certifications—the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 55001 and Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 55-1, Earley’s statement said.

The company said it has instituted the following measures:

• 3,500 leaders at all levels of PG&E were taken through safety training and the lessons of San Bruno were reviewed with every new employee;

• conducted advanced pipeline safety testing, replaced pipe where necessary and installed more than 200 new automated or remotely controlled emergency shut-off valves;

• decommissioned more than 800 miles of remaining cast-iron pipe in our system, replacing with stronger, more efficient and seismically sound pipe;

• built a new gas operations control center, employing the most advanced technology, from which the entire system can be monitored and staff can respond more quickly and effectively to emergencies;

• using new gas leak detection technology that is 1,000 times more sensitivethan before in order to help find and fix leaks before they become a problem; company is now among the fastest in the entire industry in responding to customer calls regarding gas odor;

• closed out nine of 12 recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board and work on the remaining three is on track.

In addition, PG&E said it has settled claims amounting to more than $500 million with the victims and families of the San Bruno accident, established a $50 million trust for the City of San Bruno for costs related to recovery and contributed $70 million to support the city’s and community’s recovery efforts.

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