Independent Panel To Probe San Bruno Explosion
SAN BRUNO (CBS/AP/BCN) - California regulators are setting up an independent panel to probe the factors leading up to the gas line explosion that killed seven people and torched a San Bruno neighborhood.
The California Public Utilities Commission said the resolution adopted Thursday also calls for a review of management practices at Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the utility responsible for the gas line. Regulators want see what, if anything, could have been done to prevent the disaster.
The panel will work independently from the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB is the lead federal agency investigating the cause of the Sept. 9 explosion that leveled nearly 40 homes.
Commission members are pressing PG&E to cover the cost of the panel's work with shareholder funds, not with the money coming in from ratepayers' monthly bills.
The explosion occurred when a 30-inch PG&E gas transmission line ruptured in San Bruno's Crestmoor Canyon neighborhood, causing a fire that destroyed 37 homes and damaged many more.
The order to establish the panel of experts was approved unanimously by the five commissioners.
CPUC President Michael Peevey said he expects the full cooperation of PG&E, which was ordered to fund the panel, make all employees available for interviews, and preserve all records related to the safety of the gas line that ruptured.
Peevey will have 60 days from Thursday to choose the members of the panel, who will have to be approved by the full commission.
State Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, spoke at the start of Thursday's commission meeting to encourage the CPUC to look closely at what led to the disaster.
"People's lives are at risk," Hill said. "This is a critical issue for me and my constituents. As regulators, it's crucial we ensure the safety" of the pipelines.
"We rely so heavily on inspection reports and other information from utilities, so we want to make sure there's sufficient PUC inspection" as well, he said.
Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, said he believes "it's very important for the CPUC to really look very critically at PG&E's business practices in addition to what it is that happened around the San Bruno explosion itself."
Commissioner Timothy Simon said, "My expectation is that this independent group will look at everything that happened and see if there's any systemic problems" with PG&E's practices, and that the answers the panel finds "will determine our courses of action."
A PG&E spokesperson was not immediately available for comment on Thursday's order by the commission.
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