Politics & Government

CPUC Halts Audit of Gas Utilities' Safety

The company that was conducting the audit was purchased in September, which means a new company must now be found.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the CPUC has halted an audit of PG&E that was supposed to conducted following the 2010 San Bruno fire.

The California Public Utilities Commission ordered the audit halted because the company, NewPoint Group Inc., was bought out in September. Now the entire process of finding a new company to conduct the audit has to start again, the Chronicle reported.

A blue-ribbon panel appointed by the CPUC completed a report in June 2011, two months before the National Transportation Safety Board released the findings from its investigation into the pipeline explsoin. The panel's report blasted PG&E's technical competence and pipeline integrity management procedures and said the accident was a direct result of multiple shortcomings in PG&E's oversight of the safety of its gas transmission system. 

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The report also called for an audit of the state's oversight of its natural gas utilities.

The Chronicle reported that it could now take another six months to a year to have the audit done.

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