California regulators are looking for a new head of the state’s reorganized Consumer Protection and Safety Division (CPSD) in response to recommendations from an independent review panel that called for the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to change the way it oversees natural gas pipeline safety in the wake of last year’s devastating pipeline rupture in San Bruno, CA. The CPUC is looking nationwide for a new CPSD director.

The current director and 11-year incumbent, Richard Clark, has decided to step down to become an administrative law judge (ALJ) at the CPUC, which is a significant drop in stature, if not salary, at the San Francisco-based regulatory commission. Clark is scheduled to leave the CPSD post Aug. 1, a CPUC spokesperson told NGI.

The state regulatory panel did not mention Clark’s departure in its announcement Friday of the ongoing search, which comes six weeks after the panel issued a report that was highly critical of the roles of CPUC and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) in advance of the Sept. 9, 2010 pipeline incident (see Daily GPI, June 10).

In June the independent San Bruno review panel concluded that the pipeline rupture was “a consequence of multiple weaknesses in PG&E’s management and oversight of the safety of its gas transmission system,” and that the CPUC “did not have the resources to monitor PG&E’s performance in pipeline integrity management adequately or the organizational focus that would have elevated concerns about PG&E’s performance in a meaningful way.”

In announcing that his agency was embarking on a nationwide search for a new safety chief, CPUC Executive Director Paul Clanon noted that the San Bruno explosion and fire was a “game-changer” for utility safety oversight in the state. He called the independent review panel’s report a “playbook” for state regulators, “changing the way the CPUC oversees gas safety, and we’re moving quickly to make that happen.”

Clanon said the CPUC already has doubled its number of gas inspectors, while it is forming a new Risk Assessment Unit to take what he called “a hard look” at the risks that might not be covered by the old rules, and the state is “already far out front of federal regulations in requiring testing or replacing of old, grandfathered pipes.” The CPUC intends to be a “national model for safety regulation,” he said.

CPSD oversees gas/electric utilities; railroads; light rail transit systems; and highway/rail crossings. Clark had headed the operation for the past 11 years, during most of which the CPUC has been headed by its current President Michael Peevey, who has now served under three different governors.

In response to questions about whether Clark was asked to step down, a CPUC spokesperson said “it was [his] decision to take on the challenge of becoming an ALJ and help to formulate forward-looking policies for the industries the CPUC regulates.” The spokesperson did not know whether the new job’s salary was equivalent to that of a CPSD director, which pays up to $10,520 monthly.

California has ordered all of its intrastate pipeline operators to test or replace untested transmission pipelines (see Daily GPI, July 8), Congress is looking at additional pipeline safety rules (see Daily GPI, July 25) and the National Transportation Safety Board reportedly is pushing to finish its ongoing investigation into the causes for San Bruno before Sept. 9, which would be the one-year anniversary of the tragedy.

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