Politics & Government
Lawyer: PG&E Being Made Scapegoat in CPUC Probe
A lawyer for PG&E made opening remarks at a hearing Tuesday before state regulators and made the case that the utility shouldn't be blamed or fined for the 2010 San Bruno fire.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that PG&E, during a hearing Tuesday before state regulators, continued its claim that there wasn't anything the company could have done to prevent the San Bruno fire.
A PG&E lawyer also told the California Public Utilities Commission, which has been conducting a probe to determine whether PG&E should be fined millions of dollars for the fire, the company didn't agree that any its alleged safety violations contributed to the 2010 pipeline explosion.
According to the Chronicle, the lawyer, Joseph Malkin, told an administrative law judge in opening remarks in San Francisco:
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"It's human nature when bad things happen to look for someone to blame—and make no mistake about it, that is what this proceeding is all about."
"While PG&E acknowledges that it is responsible for this terrible accident and its consequences," Malkin said, "it does not agree that once that pipe was put in the ground in 1956 there was anything any operator would reasonably have done that would have prevented this tragedy. Nor does PG&E agree that any of the alleged safety violations contributed in any way."
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