Judge cuts most of PG&E fine

A federal judge has cut nearly all of a potential $562million fine against Pacific Gas & Electric Co. in a criminal case alleging pipeline safety violations before a deadly explosion in the San Francisco Bay Area.

U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson issued the order Tuesday, hours after the U.S. attorney’s office requested it in a court filing. The judge did not explain his reasoning.

PG&E now faces a maximum fine of $6 million if convicted of 11 pipeline safety violations and obstructing investigators in the wake of the 2010 blast in San Bruno, Calif.

The government did not provide an explanation in the filing for its request to lower the potential penalty.

The move came after more than a month of testimony and four days into jury deliberations over whether PG&E is guilty of the charges filed.

The blast of a PG&E natural gas pipeline six years ago sent a giant plume of fire into the air, killing eight people and destroying 38 homes in San Bruno. During the investigation, the San Francisco-based utility misled federal officials about the standard it was using to identify high-risk pipelines, prosecutors have said.

PG&E also was charged with violating pipeline safety laws by ignoring shoddy record-keeping and failing to identify threats to its larger natural gas pipelines. PG&E pleaded not guilty and said its employees did the best they could with ambiguous regulations.