Small boost in price of San Bruno explosion

The California Public Utilities Commission on March 13 announced that Pacific Gas & Electric must shell out more money for its role in the 2010 explosion in San Bruno that killed several people and leveled a neighborhood.

The utility would be penalized $1.6 billion — $200 million more than an administrative law judge had recommended. The penalty includes $850 million shareholder penalty toward gas transmission pipeline infrastructure safety, plus a $300 million fine.

These penalties and fines must be paid by shareholders and not by PG&E's ratepayers.

The former head of the CPUC, Michael Peevey, is under investigation of the state attorney general. Emails showed that Peevey and two other high-ranking CPUC officials were trying to get an administrative law judge who would be easy on PG&E; this was the Northern California scandal plaguing CPUC and its former top commissioner, Peevey.

In Southern California, it has become clear that Peevey, in a secret meeting, attempted to engineer a move by which ratepayers of Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric would pick up a large part of the tab for the failure of the San Onofre nuclear plant. However, this was a management error, and shareholders should pick up the entire tab, argue San Diego attorneys Mia Severson and Mike Aguirre, who have gone to court over the matter.

As of this writing, the City of San Bruno has not commented, but it is likely that it will not approve of the small boost in the penalty to Pacific Gas & Electric.