HOLDING PG&E ACCOUNTABLE: Utility and state criticized for not being "aggressive" enough

PARADISE, Calif. — Eight people died after a large gas pipeline ruptured and exploded in a San Bruno neighborhood around dinner time on September 9, 2010. It was the first fire in a series of disastrous incidents that all led back to a common ignition: equipment operated by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E).

Roughly 16 million central and northern Californians are forced to rely on the privately owned corporation for gas and electricity, even after it’s been accused and convicted of starting several fires that hundreds of people have lost their lives to. Following San Bruno in 2010, PG&E equipment has been linked to starting such destructive fires as the 2017 Cascade Fire in Yuba County, the 2018 Camp Fire in Butte County—the deadliest state fire, the 2019 Kincade Fire in Sonoma County, the 2020 Zogg Fire in Shasta County and the 2021 Dixie Fire—the largest single-state fire—in Plumas County.

Altogether, these convictions equate to a whopping 91 felony charges and hundreds of misdemeanors more against the utility. PG&E has been held criminally liable for some of these fires, but to some lawmakers, it doesn’t translate into accountability.

CALLS FOR PG&E ACCOUNTABILITY

Retired Democratic California Senator Jerry Hill has made it his mission to force the utility to answer for the destruction it’s caused.

“To drive down the streets and see the asphalt in the road burn where a car was sitting and someone was inside, I’ll never forget it,” says a teary-eyed Hill during a virtual interview while recounting his visits to the Butte County Ridge after the Camp Fire.

His grievances first began with the San Bruno explosion, the city he was once the mayor of.

“Everybody thought, ‘oh, you know, that happens.’ But then, as you started peeling away the onion, you started seeing that they diverted hundreds of millions of dollars from safety, from inspections, from oversight to profits and bonuses for executives. You saw that the necessary tests that were crucial for that pipe that was 75 years old were never done. They used every excuse, they found every loophole not to do it,” says Hill.

The lack of equipment upkeep was seen less than a decade later in the Camp Fire when investigators determined a neglected and nearly century-old C hook failed and ignited the fire that accounts for 84 of PG&E’s manslaughter felony charges.

Lawmakers like Hill believe the corporation cannot adequately operate due to its large size. He and others have proposed a state-takeover of the utility,

“As long as it’s a for-profit company, they have to watch the bottom line. They have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders,” says Hill. “As long as they have that, it’s going to take the responsible regulatory agencies to do their job and make sure that we’re protected.”

Hill, in an effort to do this, eventually helped get SB-350, or the Golden State Energy Act, through the state Legislature in 2019 as the utility was emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and accumulated $30 billion in liability for its role in starting wildfires. Hill describes the bill as an attempt to rehabilitate the corporation’s safety practices, though if it’s done what it was intended to do remains a question to him.

“They say they’ve done something, but talk sheep,” says Hill.

Under the bill, the state agency that governs PG&E, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), is given the authority to initiate a state takeover of the private company if it continued to put property and lives at danger. Then, four people died and 204 structures were burned in the 2020 Zogg Fire before 1,329 structures were destroyed and 963,309 acres burned in the 2021 Dixie Fire.

“Why are we not seeing what you proposed years ago?" asks KRCR.

“That's a very good question,” responds Hill. “There's a metric that the PUC follows in terms of, as they create certain problems, they advance to the next stages of levels until the day at some point reach the end of the line and they lose their license to do business. The problem is, as I see it, they haven't really held them accountable to that and, really, they could change that metric at any time.”

“So, are they doing their job?” asks KRCR.

“They’re doing the job that they feel they’re responsible for. Whether they’re doing the job that I think will create a safe utility at the end of the day, that, to me, is the question. I think they’re following the rules appropriately, but are they aggressive enough? Can they be more aggressive; should they be more aggressive? I think they should be,” responds Hill.

It’s a metric that the CPUC has left untouched, even after the utility broke its 2017 felony probation. Court documents show that in its five-year run, PG&E set at least 31 wildfires, burned nearly one and a half million acres, destroyed 23,956 structures and killed 113 people.

Regardless, federal prosecutors declined to extend this probation in early 2022 against the desires of the overseeing judge, U.S. District Judge William Alsup. In filed documents, he wrote, “PG&E has gone on a crime spree and will emerge from probation as a continuing menace to California."

"It goes from one failure and disaster to the next,” says Hill. “No one has been held accountable. The corporation can't go to jail or prison, and until you put someone behind bars you really won't see the change that's necessary."

Current law requires proof that utility leaders knew their lack of management was criminal or illegal, rather than referring to it as a business practice. Hill says that proof will likely never come.

PG&E RESPONSE

A "healthy skepticism" is what Joe Wilson, PG&E vice president of North Valley & Sierra Region, says is keeping the corporation in check and is partly leading their efforts to create a “safer system.”

“If you look at PG&E now, we're a different company than we were three years ago,” says Wilson in Paradise.

Wilson met with KRCR inside the Paradise construction hub where 500 employees work out of daily to rebuild the Butte County Ridge. The site is currently home to overhead utility undergrounding operations that PG&E’s CEO, Patricia Poppe, announced nearly a year ago. It’s some of the 10,000 miles of California’s most fire-prone areas that the utility has committed underground in.

This undertaking leads Wilson’s defense in the changes that PG&E is taking to protect its customers from more fires its equipment may cause.

“We have an entirely new leadership team made up of some of the industry’s leading experts who have run very successful utilities. We have a new board. Some of the steps that we have been taking are dramatically different than they were three, four years ago,” says Wilson.

Some of those steps, he says, include doubling the amount of undergrounding that it did in 2021, increasing weather monitoring systems, improving wildfire risk modeling, and ramping up vegetation management around lines.

While even Hill commends some of the changes the utility has implemented, he also acknowledges that it comes at a cost. Customers are footing the bill of undergrounding, for example, through increased monthly rates as California currently faces its most aggressive fire conditions yet.

“The people who say PG&E has not been held accountable, are they wrong?" ask KRCR.

“What I can say is we are focused on really improving our performance,” responds Wilson. “You can look at the way we performed over the course of just the last year where we reduced ignitions by 80%. You can look at some of the changes that we've made; some of the investments that we've made into our system. That is a direct demonstration of how we are a changed company.”

“And you think that's enough to make people gain trust back in you guys?" asks KRCR.

"Again, proof is in our performance,” he responds.

IS IT ENOUGH?

While the corporation states its past doesn’t define its future, the implications of previous fires linger to this day.

On the Butte County Ridge, for example, Camp Fire survivors are being scammed by fraudulent contractors who have taken upwards of a million dollars from them before vanishing and leaving little to no rebuilt homes. Thousands of survivors have yet to be fully compensated by the Fire Victim Trust for the property and lives taken from them in PG&E-ignited fires.

Until someone from the previous PG&E leadership team is put behind bars, Hill believes accountability will never be seen. PG&E promises it has changed from the company it once was in 2010, but it’s a promise some are having difficulty believing, all the while losing faith in the entities that have allowed it to continue operating.

“My heart goes out to everyone in Paradise,” says Hill through tears. “I'm sorry that the state and the regulators in California really let you down, and let us all down."

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