Judge’s stunning admission he can’t stop PG&E’s reign of terror
‘In these five years, PG&E has gone on a crime spree and will emerge from probation as a continuing menace to California’
It's been more than 11 years since a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. pipeline ruptured, unleashing a fireball in San Bruno that killed eight people and destroyed 53 homes.
The company's felonious behavior resulted in six criminal convictions and five years' court probation that began in 2017. During that probation, the federal judge in charge of the case admitted Wednesday, he has failed to rehabilitate PG&E.
The death and destruction linked to the utility since 2017 has been staggering: 31 wildfires, burning 23,956 structures and nearly 1.5 million acres — and killing 113 Californians.
“So, in these five years, PG&E has gone on a crime spree and will emerge from probation as a continuing menace to California,” Judge William Alsup wrote. The utility repeatedly prioritized “keeping the meters turning” over public safety while maintaining “a stubborn refusal to take responsibility for its actions.”
In effect, the judge told Californians that they cannot count on the courts to hold PG&E accountable. But the 16 million customers served by PG&E can't keep waiting.
As we have said repeatedly, the state and the California Public Utilities Commission must step up and initiate a takeover of the utility. Now. Before PG&E wreaks further havoc on our lives.
The question now is not whether to take over the failed utility, but how: What is the best way to replace the company? Should it be split up? Run by the state? By a nonprofit? By another utility company? It's past time for state officials to figure that out — and to act.
While on probation in the San Bruno case, PG&E has pleaded guilty to 84 manslaughter charges for its ignition of the 2018 Camp Fire in Butte County. And it is facing five felony and 28 misdemeanor counts arising out of the 2019 Kincade Fire in Sonoma
County; pending involuntary manslaughter charges arising out of the 2020 Zogg Fire in Shasta County; and civil suits by five counties, and possible criminal charges, arising out of the 2021 Dixie Fire.
Alsup's eight-page summation of the San Bruno case as the probation draws to a close was stunning, not for the details of the new destruction, which were well known, but rather for the candor with which he acknowledged the court's inability to rein in PG&E.
Survivors of the wildfires had asked the judge to extend the probation. But Alsup declined to do so, saying the U.S. attorneys had not asked for an extension and he would not do it on his own. For their part, the prosecutors said federal law apparently didn't permit probation extension but acknowledged that there were no court precedents setting clear guidelines on the issue.
Rather, the federal prosecutors opted to defer to district attorney offices in Sonoma and Shasta counties that are actively pursuing felony criminal cases against PG&E. There, the federal prosecutors said, if the company is convicted, a broader array of sentencing options will be available.
What seems to be lost here is that PG&E's destruction has been going on for more than a decade. There is no end in sight. And the legal system has proven powerless in stopping it.
Making matters worse, Alsup noted, “Almost all of the survivors of these fires are still waiting for compensation. Many hundreds who lost their homes endure in travel trailers because they have not yet been compensated. Meanwhile, PG&E management pays itself handsome salaries and bonuses, all paid from revenues collected from customers.”
It's long past time to end this outrage. Once again, we ask, what will it take for the state and the PUC to stop PG&E's reign of terror?