California PUC faults PG&E in 2008 Rancho Cordova pipeline blast

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - State investigators have concluded that Pacific Gas & Electric Co. should have discovered a faulty repair job that led to a fatal gas-pipeline explosion near Sacramento two years ago, a finding that could result in fines against the utility.
The explosion on Christmas Eve 2008 outside a home in Rancho Cordova
(Sacramento County) killed a 72-year-old neighborhood resident.
Federal investigators later found that PG&E had installed substandard pipe in a 2006 repair job outside the home, and that it had sent out an untrained worker in response to a reported gas smell shortly before the explosion.
The worker failed to find the leak that later caused the explosion, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
On Nov. 19, the state Public Utilities Commission filed administrative charges against PG&E alleging that the utility discovered in October 2006 that substandard pipe had been used in a nearby repair in Sacramento.

South Dakota PUC sets public hearings on Keystone XL oil pipeline

PIERRE, S.D. - The Public Utilities Commission will hold public hearings in April on the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline that will run through western South Dakota.
TransCanada Keystone Pipeline has applied to the PUC for a permit to build the pipeline to carry syncrude oil from Canada to Texas.
The route through South Dakota would be 313 miles long and cross parts of Harding, Butte, Perkins, Meade, Pennington, Haakon, Jones, Lyman and Tripp counties.
Public input hearings are planned April 27 during the day in Winner and that evening in Philip, and on April 28 in Buffalo.