PG&E to Pay $17 Million for Safety Violations

-By Bay City News Service

The California Public Utilities Commission today confirmed that PG&E will be fined nearly $17 million for irregularities in the utility's gas pipeline safety testing in Contra Costa County.

In January, the CPUC issued a $16.76 million citation for the
utility's failure to conduct gas safety tests on more than 13 miles of gas
distribution pipelines in several cities in Contra Costa County, including
Danville, Antioch, Pittsburg and Concord.         

Some stretches of pipeline had not been tested for leaks since
1993, a violation of federal and state pipeline safety regulations, according
to the CPUC.

PG&E, which serves the majority of Hercules residents, appealed the citation in February.

The appeal was denied by a CPUC administrative law judge, and the
CPUC today re-ordered the utility to pay the citation.

PG&E executive vice president for gas operations Nick Stavropoulos
issued a statement saying that the missed leak surveys were self-reported,
and that PG&E did not disagree with the safety violations, just the
"excessive" amount of money the utility was ordered to pay.

"PG&E understands that when we make a mistake, we own up,"
Stavropoulos said. "As we stated in our appeal, we believe the penalty amount
is excessive because we did the right thing by promptly self-reporting the
violation."

Stavropoulos went on to say that PG&E has "dramatically stepped
up" its efforts to make sure that its operations and equipment are tested and
safe, in the Bay Area and throughout PG&E's service area.