PG&E, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. was charged last Tuesday with 12 federal felony counts involving safety violations linked to the fatal 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion and fire in San Bruno, California in the San Francisco Bay Area. Today, Monday, the energy giant was arraigned in Federal Court. It’s plea was not guilty.
The charge is that PG&E officials knowingly and willfully relied on erroneous and incomplete information when assessing the safety of the pipeline that eventually ruptured, caused an explosion and a fireball and destroyed 38 homes in San Bruno.
“The indictment validates the city’s position that there was gross mismanagement and negligence,” said Connie Jackson, the city manager.
“What San Bruno hopes is that the criminal indictment brings a measure of justice and closure for the citizens and victims.”
California Attorney General Kamala Harris celebrated the criminal indictment of PG&E last Tuesday, saying “Today’s indictment is an important step in providing justice for the individuals, families and community devastated by the 2010 pipeline explosion and fire in San Bruno.”
At this morning’s hearing, NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said in her opening statement that PG&E “exploited weaknesses in a lax system of oversight.” Ms. Hersman also said government agencies had “placed a blind trust in operators to the detriment of public safety. It was not a question of if this pipeline would burst,” Hersman said. “It was a question of when.”
Stay tuned.