A federal judge lambasted Pacific Gas and Electric’s and the California Public Utilities Commission’s wildfire prevention efforts, and the California supreme court allowed a key wildfire cost sharing decision by the CPUC to stand yesterday. That follows PG&E’s bankruptcy filing on Tuesday.
Judge William Alsup is PG&E’s probation officer. The corporation was convicted of criminal misconduct following a deadly natural gas line explosion in San Bruno in 2010, and it is accountable to Alsup for how well it’s complying with the penalties handed down, which include good behavior requirements. Alsup thinks PG&E is a danger to the public, and he doesn’t have a high opinion of the CPUC’s efforts to rein it in. According to a story in the San Jose Mercury News by Matthias Gafni and John Woolfolk, representatives from both PG&E and the CPUC tried to convince Alsup that his proposal to require PG&E to inspect more than 100,000 miles of electric lines before this summer’s fire season begins is a bad idea. He wasn’t buying any of it…
“Does a judge turn a blind eye and let PG&E continue what you’re doing, let you keep killing people?” U.S. District Judge William Alsup said inside the San Francisco courtroom. “Can’t we have electricity that is delivered safely in this state?”…
The judge also questioned the California Public Utilities Commission, the state agency charged with regulating PG&E and other investor-owned utilities.
“How did it happen so many fires occurred under your regulations?” Alsup asked a representative of the state regulator. “It sounds harsh, but that’s what the people of California deserve to know, how did that happen?”
After three intense hours, Alsup told the parties he would rule later, but the state of California did not have time to waste with another fire season approaching.
Alsup hinted he might require PG&E to use the same, aggressive power cutting tactics that San Diego Gas and Electric uses when wildfire danger is high. SDG&E began proactively de-energising lines after wildfires in 2007 that it and Cox Communications were responsible for starting.
Those fires were costly to SDG&E, and yesterday the California supreme court refused to hear its appeal of a CPUC decision to not allow it to pass on some of its liability costs – $379 million – to customers.