Bruno

When the payouts and penalties are totaled on the aftermath of the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) transmission pipeline rupture and explosion in San Bruno, CA, almost two years ago, the utility may pay as much as $2 billion, PG&E CEO Tony Earley told news media at a press conference Monday in San Francisco.

Still stung from federal rebukes of its past natural gas pipeline safety oversight in the wake of the San Bruno, CA, pipeline rupture in 2010, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is looking at ways to elevate safety considerations in all of its proceedings, including rate cases.

A year after the fatal Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) San Bruno, CA, pipeline rupture, California’s two other state-regulated pipe operators offer a marked contrast when it comes to safety practices. They vary greatly from each other as well as from PG&E.

In releasing another 3,000 pages of data Monday on the San Bruno, CA, natural gas pipeline rupture and explosion last year, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it would make a report and final decision on the probable cause when the board meets Aug. 30 in Washington, DC.

While natural gas interests in California are wary about several proposed laws aimed at transmission pipeline operations in the wake of the San Bruno explosion last year, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is raising a red flag on another gas issue that is tied to some of the current proposals to begin cutting into a $25 billion state budget deficit.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued another preliminary report Tuesday on the deadly San Bruno, CA, natural gas transmission pipeline rupture last September, eliminating external corrosion, excavation damage or a pre-existing leak as possible causes.

As an aftereffect of the deadly San Bruno natural gas transmission pipeline blast in September, gas curtailments remain a possibility for Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s (PG&E) largest customers in San Francisco and the peninsula region to the south, but a separate electricity milestone in the Bay Area Monday has helped ease that threat.

In the midst of rising complaints from local government officials about the level of its information sharing in the wake of the Sept. 9 San Bruno, CA, transmission pipeline explosion, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) last week announced it was making additional information accessible to customers via the Internet. In the southern half of the state, Sempra Energy’s two gas utilities are taking similar steps.

In the midst of rising complaints from local government officials about the level of its information sharing in the wake of the Sept. 9 San Bruno transmission pipeline explosion, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) Monday announced it was making additional information accessible to customers via the Internet. In the southern half of the state, Sempra Energy’s two gas utilities are taking similar steps.