Feds allege PG&E violated terms of its criminal probation
SAN FRANCISCO >> In another blow to embattled PG&E, federal officials say the utility may have violated the terms of its probation imposed after the deadly San Bruno pipeline explosion by failing to reveal that it was being investigated for causing a fire and settling a lawsuit over that and two other blazes.
Judge William Alsup ordered its lawyers to appear in court Jan. 30 to answer to allegations filed by a federal probation officer in U.S. District Court documents Wednesday.
Federal Probation Officer Jennifer Hutchings wrote in the filing that the company did not report to its probation officer that it reached a $1.5 million settlement with Butte County in October for its role in causing three 2017 fires. It also did not report that it was being criminally investigated by the District Attorney in one of those blazes, dubbed the Honey Fire, for failure to properly trim trees near its power lines. The criminal investigation was dropped and no charges were filed.
“At no time did Pacific Gas and Electric Company report this investigation by the Butte County District Attorney’s Office to the probation office,” Hutchings wrote.
Alsup oversees the company’s criminal probation following its conviction on six felonies related to the 2010 San Bruno explosion that killed eight people. In addition to fines and other penalties, in 2017, thenU.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson placed the utility on five years of probation, during which time it was ordered not to “commit another federal, state, or local crime.”
In a separate filing Wednesday, Alsup proposed that he change PG&E’s probation to force changes aimed at reducing “to zero the number of wildfires caused by PG&E in 2019.”
“In light of PG&E’s history of falsification of inspection reports, PG&E shall, between now and the 2019 Wildfire Season, re-inspect all of its electrical grid and remove or trim all trees that could fall onto its power lines, poles or equipment in highwind conditions,” the judge wrote.
He also said the company has to monitor its grid and wind conditions “and may supply electricity only through those parts of its electrical grid it has determined to be safe under the wind conditions then prevailing.”
In a statement issued late Wednesday, a PG&E spokesman, James Noonan, said, “We are aware of Judge Alsup’s orders and are currently reviewing. We are committed to complying with all rules and regulations that apply to our work.”
In recent days, PG&E has said it is considering selling off its gas division and replacing members of its board of directors as it struggles with liabilities from the 2017 North Bay fires and the Camp Fire in November that killed 86 people and devastated the town of Paradise. The price of its stock plummeted this week and the company is pondering a bankruptcy filing.
It has reported in regulatory findings that it is vastly underinsured for the estimated $14 billion in liabilities it is facing over recent wildfires.
A lawyer involved in the San Bruno case said she was surprised but also not surprised that PG&E was found to not report properly.
“It seems irresponsible for PG&E to not report any possible violation of probation,” she said. “You’d think they’d be under high alert. … It would be the first thing a responsible corporation would do,” said attorney Britt Strottman, who represented the city of San Bruno after the deadly explosion.
She said the judge should reopen the utility’s punishment.
“They probably should be re-sentenced,” said Strottman, a former San Mateo prosecutor. “That might be the only way they learn their lesson. A slap on the wrist will not change the culture of PG&E.”