Pg&E

A federal grand jury for the Northern District of California on Tuesday issued a superseding indictment charging Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) with obstructing a safety investigation and violating the 1968 Pipeline Safety Act (PSA) related to the 2010 rupture of a natural gas transmission pipeline that killed eight people in San Bruno, CA.

Amid a continuing dark cloud of legal and regulatory accusations of wrongdoing in its natural gas operations, San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) on Tuesday celebrated what it touted as an unprecedented amount of technical recognition for a U.S. natural gas utility.

While recording a 1Q2014 $40 million charge after nearly $3 billion in safety-related natural gas pipeline work, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) also reported Thursday that a recent house consultant’s report shows the utility’s use of pipe records needs improvements.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) executives said Thursday there is no early resolution in sight for the regulatory and criminal legal proceedings facing the utility for the 2010 explosion of one of its natural gas pipelines, which killed eight and devastated a San Bruno, CA, neighborhood (see Daily GPI, Sept. 27, 2010).

In a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) said Thursday it expects the federal government to level criminal charges for the 2010 natural gas transmission pipeline rupture and explosion that killed eight people in San Bruno, about 10 miles south of San Francisco (see Daily GPI, Sept. 13, 2010).

California’s state regulatory commission safety unit last Friday refunded to Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) a $375,000 fine paid earlier in the year for decades-long shortcomings in the utility’s natural gas transmission pipeline safety programs.

California regulators on Thursday applied both the carrot and the stick to Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s (PG&E) natural gas pipeline operations.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s (PG&E) natural gas system received some positive feedback from federal and state regulators Monday, including the approval to boost the operating pressure on a controversial 3.8-mile transmission pipeline lateral on the San Francisco Peninsula south of the city.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) senior executives admitted Wednesday that the utility has dropped the ball in keeping state regulators informed of its efforts to upgrade the safety of its natural gas pipeline network. But they argued that at no time has the system’s safety been compromised.