Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) has tapped former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Jim Hall to serve as an outside adviser to help the utility oversee the extensive safety improvement initiatives under way within its natural gas operations.

Hall and his firm, Hall & Associates, are to focus in particular on ensuring that PG&E’s plans are effectively addressing the safety recommendations that have emerged during the past year through various audits and other inquiries into the San Bruno, CA, pipeline accident in September 2010. The recommendations are included in the final reports issued by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Independent Review Panel and the NTSB (see Daily GPI, Sept. 27).

“It’s vital that we assure the public — and ourselves — that PG&E is taking the necessary steps to improve safety and address the issues identified by the Independent Review Panel, the NTSB and others,” said PG&E’s Nick Stavropoulos, executive vice president of gas operations. “Bringing in an outside expert with former NTSB Chairman Hall’s experience and expertise is yet another action we are taking to make certain our improvement plans achieve long-term, positive change in the way we operate our gas system.”

Hall would report to Stavropoulos and would share his advice and observations with PG&E Corp.’s executive management team as well as the CPUC.

Hall led the NTSB under President Clinton from 1994 to January 2001. Among the landmark investigations the NTSB conducted under his watch was the Olympic Pipeline Co. 1999 gasoline pipeline explosion in Bellingham, WA (see Daily GPI, Dec. 13, 2002; Nov. 18, 2002).

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