PG&E responds to safety charges
‘Corrective actions’ include departures of executives
Facing scrutiny from regulators who accuse it of falsifying gas pipeline safety records, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. over the weekend disclosed a vague series of “critical corrective actions,” including the departure of unnamed company officials.
PG&E said in a statement posted Sunday that it acknowledges the “serious concerns” raised by the California Public Utilities Commission and said the company “took and continues to take” several steps to fulfill regulatory requirements.
But it’s not clear when the “corrective actions” referenced by the utility took place, and PG&E did not provide further details to The Chronicle after a request Monday.
The utilities commission announced Friday
that an investigation by staff in its safety and enforcement division found PG&E repeatedly made false claims in its gas safety records from 2012 through 2017.
The investigation determined PG&E would falsify data about its efforts to locate and mark natural gas pipelines in a timely manner for the safety of construction crews and others.
A case against the utility will be heard by an administrative law judge for the commission.
One of the corrective measures PG&E listed Sunday is “making a number of personnel and organizational changes including some leaders no longer being with the company.”
The company did not state how many people left, their names, roles or whether they were fired.
PG&E spokesman Matt Nauman declined to go into specifics about the executive departures. “PG&E’s most important responsibility is public and employee safety,” he said in an email.
“As we noted, one of our corrective actions was personnel and organizational changes including some leaders no longer being with the company.” He said employee privacy laws prevented the company from saying more.
In July, the utility announced that Nick Stavropoulos, its president and chief operating officer, would retire at the end of September.
Stavropoulos, 60, was hired by PG&E in 2011 to lead the reform of the utility’s natural gas operations following the San Bruno gas pipeline explosion in 2010 that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. He was promoted to his most recent role in 2017.
Stavropoulos was one of the PG&E officers examined under oath as part of the commission’s staff investigation, according to Friday’s order opening the case against the utility.
But it’s not clear if Stavropoulos’ retirement had anything to do with the investigation. The Chronicle was not able to reach him for comment Monday.
Snapshots of PG&E’s website captured by the Internet Archive and LinkedIn profiles indicate at least three other PG&E executives with potentially relevant roles left the company in the last six months, including a vice president of safety and health, a senior vice president and chief information officer, and a vice president of marketing and communications.
PG&E’s statement also said it has engaged independent consultants to audit how it marks and locates gas lines. PG&E said it is providing the findings to regulators and the federal monitor overseeing the utility’s gas operations because of the deadly San Bruno explosion.
Additionally, PG&E is increasing the number of workers responsible for locating and marking gas lines and bolstering the training those people receive for the work, the company said in its statement.
In its order opening the case against PG&E on Friday, the commission said failing to comply with safety laws compromises “the safety of the public and the safety of PG&E’s own employees.”
“By their nature and importance, safety laws require rigorous utility compliance at all times and instances,” the order said. “The Commission deems utility falsification of safetyrelated records to be a serious violation of law, again diminishing safety, and a violation of the trust this Commission places in utilities to provide accurate, truthful, and timely information to the Commission.”
The gas pipeline investigation comes at a time of extreme pressure for PG&E, which faces mounting legal challenges over its potential role in sparking last month’s Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history.
PG&E equipment was already found responsible for igniting 17 fires in Northern California last year. The cause of the worst of last year’s fires, the Tubbs Fire, is still under investigation, but the utility may be found responsible for that blaze, too.
Steven Weissman, a former administrative law judge for the utilities commission, said PG&E could face “very significant, substantial fines” if the commission’s investigation verifies a high number of safety violations.
The allegations the commission unveiled Friday are “very serious,” Weissman said.
“The suggestion that a utility might falsely tell its customers that it’s safe to dig in a certain place when it doesn’t know if it’s safe to dig there is just absolutely astounding,” Weissman said.
Weissman said the commission’s investigation announcement should also be of interest to U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who is overseeing PG&E’s probation resulting from its 2016 criminal conviction in the San Bruno case.
Alsup has already asked PG&E and prosecutors a series of questions about the Camp Fire and other blazes, seeking answers by Dec. 31.
“Perhaps, if there are infractions, some of them may have occurred during a period that’s under the sphere of Judge Alsup,” Weissman said. “But beyond that, even if all of the activity occurred before that sentencing, what this does is raise concerns about potential ongoing violations and certainly raises safety culture questions. And those are things I’m sure that he’s going to want to look at.”