ADVERTISEMENT

U.S. Judge Rips PG&E Resistance to Stricter Safety Measures

U.S. Judge Scolds PG&E as Utility Seeks to Undo Probation Order

(Bloomberg) -- A federal judge laced into PG&E Corp. for its resistance to his demands that the California utility adopt stricter wildfire safety measures.

“If ever there was a corporation that deserved to go to prison it is PG&E for the people it killed in California,” U.S. District Judge William Alsup said during a virtual hearing Thursday. “PG&E is a recalcitrant criminal and I’m going to do everything within my power to protect the people of California from further crimes and further destruction by PG&E.”

The San Francisco judge oversees the bankrupt company’s criminal probation stemming from a conviction for safety violations after a fatal gas-pipeline explosion in 2010. At the start of the hearing, he gave PG&E a chance to persuade him to modify or withdraw his recent order directing the company to hire an in-house team to spot-check the work of contractors who trim vegetation at risk of causing wildfires, and to take other rigorous safety measures.

PG&E argues the conditions imposed by Alsup violate the legal principle of federalism under which local governments maintain control over local affairs. The utility’s lawyer, Kevin Orsini, said the judge is required to defer to state regulators, including the California Public Utilities Commission.

“The court is stepping into the role of the regulator to apply specific conditions about how PG&E maintains its system,” Orsini said.

Alsup, who previously said the utility was violating its probation by falling behind on fire safety maintenance, also directed PG&E to maintain a rigorously detailed inventory, and inspection system, for every piece of equipment on every transmission tower and line across its vast grid in Northern California. Videos must be taken of every inspection, Alsup said. Finally, the utility must require all contractors to be insured to cover any wildfire losses that can be traced to inspection oversights.

The judge has recommended adopting harsher penalties for PG&E if it fails to maintain proper vegetation clearance. He’s also proposed tying executive bonuses to safety management, and continuing mandatory power shutoffs on windy days when there’s high fire danger. The company’s probation is set to expire in 2022.

Thursday’s hearing followed what’s become a familiar tug-of-war, with PG&E’s lawyer tactfully picking apart the judge’s demands as unrealistic. Alsup, in turn, said he’d been “flim-flammed” by the utility’s attorneys, and derided as a “courtroom prop” PG&E’s power line inspections, which he said are “designed to conceal what really happened and what was really tested.”

Alsup also heard from lawyers from the utilities commission, the U.S. Justice Department and, in a first, an attorney representing PG&E customers who argued the company is secretly influencing the CPUC and stalling the court until its probation expires in a year and a half.

With California’s wildfire season fast approaching, Alsup ordered lawyers for the parties to file briefs on how PG&E’s vegetation management and power-line inspections can be meaningfully improved.

Clearly still grappling with just how far he can reach to prevent another utility-caused wildfire, Alsup took a parting shot at PG&E’s inability to keep up with California law requiring it to maintain safe distances between tree branches and its power lines.

“You’re very good at making excuses, you’re not good at complying with state law,” he said.

The case is U.S. v. Pacific Gas and Electric Company, 14-cr-00175, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.