PG&E Pays $300 Million San Bruno Fine
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Aug. 13, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced that it has paid a $300 million fine in association to the 2010 pipeline explosion is San Bruno, California.
The record fine was levied by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) April 9, and PG&E chose to move forward without an appeal. The payment to the state’s General Fund is due Oct. 6. The company recently completed the sale of additional stock necessary to fund the payment.
“We want our customers and their families to know that all of us at PG&E have committed ourselves to a goal of transforming this company into the safest and most reliable energy provider in America. We’ve made tremendous progress, but we have more to do and we are committed to doing it right,” PG&E Corp. chairman and CEO Tony Earley said.
In addition to the $300 million fine to be paid to the state, the CPUC penalty requires that PG&E shareholders refund $400 million to gas customers and pay $850 million for gas system safety improvements.The $400 million refund, which will be based on usage, will be returned to customers in early 2016 per the CPUC’s direction.
In addition to the payment to the General Fund, the company has settled claims amounting to more than $500 million with all of the victims and families of the San Bruno accident, established a $50 million trust for the City of San Bruno for costs related to recovery and contributed $70 million to support the city’s and community’s recovery efforts.
As a result of the concrete actions the company has taken to make safety the cornerstone of its culture following the San Bruno explosion, PG&E became one of the first utilities ever to earn two of the highest internationally recognized safety certifications—the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 55001 and Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 55-1.
Read the September 2014 North American Oil & Gas Pipelines story about PG&E's safety certifications here.Tags: California, California Public Utilities Commission, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., PG&E, San Bruno
