NTSB calls San Bruno pipeline explosion 'A failure of the entire system'

WASHINGTON - In a scathing critique, federal investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in an Aug. 30 hearing blamed Pacific Gas & Electric Co. for what one official called "baffling" mistakes that led to a gas pipeline explosion in September 2010 that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The NTSB also said PG&E exploited the lack of monitoring by regulators, who mistakenly placed "blind trust" in the utility.

The report made on Aug. 30 concluded that poor pipeline welds went undetected because of a lack of inspections by the company and inadequate monitoring by state and federal regulators. The utility also lacked a workable emergency response plan that board members said could have helped to prevent the devastation in the city of San Bruno.

"This represents a failure of the entire system - a system of checks and balances that should have prevented this disaster," said Robert L. Sumwalt, an NTSB board member. "The seam weld may have been the technical reason, but this was an organizational accident."

PG&E could be vulnerable for $400 million fine in new California PUC probe

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Pacific Gas & Electric on April 18 faced its first key deadline in a punitive state probe examining whether its record-keeping practices contributed to the San Bruno natural gas disaster and other pipeline hazards.

This broader record-keeping inquiry will consider whether the utility's missing or otherwise hard-to-locate records violated the law and hurt the safety of its vast network of gas pipelines.

If PG&E is found guilty, it could potentially be fined $400 million or more, according to a report on April 15 by Bernstein Research, which does detailed financial analysis of utilities.

"The fact that they knew so little about their gas transmission lines strikes many of us as a risk," said Paul Clanon, executive director of the California Public Utilities Commission, which launched the record-keeping investigation in February. Noting that the probe will likely take months to conclude, he added, "it will be a very litigated process. The potential fines could be very significant. PG&E will certainly put up a fight."