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Politics & Government

Pipeline Safety Bill Clears Hurdle, Officials Go Public on Eve of NTSB Report

State Sen. Yee's bill requiring automatic shutoff valves clears the appropriations committee while PG&E and CPUC officials announce similar safety plans.

On the eve of what’s expected to be the most comprehensive report to date on the cause of the deadly Sept. 9 pipeline blast, a bill promising to make such incidents less likely to occur passed a pivotal legislative hurdle while public officials and PG&E announced what appear to be similar plans.

The flurry of announcements by private and public officials comes ahead of the National Transportation Safety Board’s from the most detailed investigation yet on the cause of the blast on Tuesday.

A bill authored by state senator Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, requiring all privately owned gas companies to equip all pipelines that cross an active seismic earthquake fault or are located within a highly populated area with automatic or remote controlled safety valves passed the senate appropriations committee today.

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The pipeline that exploded in the Crestmoor neighborhood last year was equipped with manual valves that and could only be shutoff on-site, expanding the scope of the disaster exponentially.

Yee’s SB 216 is expected to go to the assembly floor for a vote sometime next week, spokesman Adam Keigwin said. The amended bill would then need to pass a senate vote before going to the governor’s desk.

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“If SB 216 had been in place last year, the devastation in San Bruno would have been limited and lives could have been saved,” Yee said in a statement. “We must continue to be vigilant in holding PG&E and other utility companies accountable. SB 216 is one of the ways we will hold them accountable and help ensure residents are safe.”

Earlier in the day, PG&E announced what the company described as a comprehensive safety plan that includes enhanced electronic monitoring and expanding the use of automated valves. 

PG&E officials said the upgrades will cost about $2.2 billion, with the utility paying $1.4 billion in capital costs and $768.7 million in expenses over a three-year period starting in 2012, according to Bloomberg. Shareholders will contribute $535.2 million over the same period.

Ratepayers will likely foot the bill for some of those costs. Typical residential customers should expect an increase of about $1.93 per month, and small business owners a $14.95 monthly rate hike.

“This plan represents a clear break with the way PG&E and other gas utilities once approached pipeline safety,” Nick Stavropoulos, PG&E's executive vice president of gas operations, said in a statement.

The California Public Utilities Commission also announced today it will get what are known as implementation plans from the state’s investor-owned utilities to test or replace all gas pipelines.

CPUC in June ordered all California natural gas transmission operators, including PG&E, to develop and file implementation plans to test or replace pipelines that have no record of pressure tests. That order followed the agency's previous directive for PG&E to , including the 1950s-era Line 132 that ruptured in the Crestmoor neighborhood, that haven't undergone proper testing. To this day, PG&E still some of those key documents.

“We are working diligently to improve pipeline safety in California and testing and replacing pipelines plays a major part in our efforts.  The Implementation Plans filed by the utilities will undergo a full public vetting before any plans or costs are approved by the CPUC, and more information on that process will be forthcoming,” CPUC Commissioner Mike Florio said.

Keigwin said he spoke with PG&E officials on Thursday about the company’s plan but hadn’t reviewed the specifics of the announcement as of Friday afternoon.

He stressed the importance of public officials taking action to assure that utilities are held accountable.

“Our bill will make sure they follow through on their promises,” Keigwin said.

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