PG&E Could Get Hit With $26 Million Fine in 2008 Fatal Explosion

The California Public Utilities Commission today proposed penalizing PG&E $26 million for the that killed one person and injured five others.

The commission’s consumer protection and safety division announced the proposed fine in a filing, which, if approved by the agency’s five commissioners, would amount to the largest safety-related fine imposed by the CPUC in more than a decade.

“I believe this is an effective and meaningful resolution of all the issues in this penalty case,” Richard Clark, the director of the CPUC’s consumer protection and safety division, said in a statement, “but the Commissioners will make the final decision.”

Although the proposed fine is hefty, there is no indication yet whether the decision will influence how the CPUC is handling the Sept. 9 pipeline explosion in the Crestmoor neighborhood. In that case, the National Transportation Safety Board is still and the CPUC has already threatened to for being out of compliance with a records order that asked Pacific Gas & Electric Co. officials to prove maximum pressure was properly set on the utility’s gas transmission lines.

But no other action related to fines has taken place.

In today’s filing, PG&E admits that it violated several safety laws in connection with the 2008 explosion, which happened on Christmas Eve when a teenage girl lit of cigarette near a previously reported gas leak.

PG&E also said that its slow response to a call earlier that day about a gas leak was “unreasonably delayed and not effective.”

As part of the pending decision, PG&E has agreed to reimburse the costs for the investigation and not seek to recover any portion of the fine in rates passed on to the consumers. 

An administrative law judge will determine the next steps in the case, the CPUC said.