PG&E Co. told a federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday that it denies a Wall Street Journal article’s implication that it knowingly delayed repairing the transmission line maintenance problem that caused last year’s deadly Camp Fire.
“PG&E strongly disagrees with the Wall Street Journal article’s suggestion that PG&E knew of the specific maintenance conditions that caused the Camp Fire and nonetheless deferred work that would have addressed those conditions,” the utility said in a court filing.
The filing was an answer to a July 10 order by U.S. District Judge William Alsup requiring PG&E to respond “paragraph by paragraph” to a 46-paragraph journal article in February that was entitled “PG&E Knew for Years Its Lines Could Spark Wildfires, and Didn’t Fix Them.”
PG&E admitted to a number of the article’s allegations, including that it knew parts of its transmission system were aging and that an equipment failure caused the Camp Fire of Nov. 8, 2018. The blaze killed 85 people, burned more than 150,000 acres and destroyed most of the city of Paradise in Butte County.
The cause was the failure of a steel suspension hook on a nearly 100-year-old tower carrying high-voltage transmission wires near Pulga in the Sierra foothills in eastern Butte County, PG&E said.
The utility acknowledged it was delayed in completing a plan to replace 60 towers on that 56-mile transmission line, which was built in 1921 and runs from Caribou in Plumas County to Palermo in Butte County.
But it argued the journal article failed to clarify that the tower near Pulga was not one of those 60 towers and that the reason for the planned replacement was not a known need for repair of broken or worn parts. Rather, the reason was that the older design of the towers made them unsuitable for adding extensions to increase the clearance of the high voltage lines from the ground or from other lines, PG&E said.
In December, the company shut off power on the Caribou-Palermo line until it is verified to be safe or decommissioned.
PG&E in its filing also denied an allegation that it neglected its transmission lines. It said that between 2006 and 2018, it spent about $1.8 billion on preventative replacement of aging lines, poles and towers and another $300 million on emergency repairs.
The San Francisco-based utility said it understands “the responsibility it owes to all Californians” to address increased wildfire risks and that “it must do more than ever before to address this new risk profile.” The company is currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
Alsup issued his order to PG&E in connection with his supervision of the company’s probation in a criminal pipeline safety case that stemmed from a fatal natural gas pipeline in San Bruno in 2010.
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This is taken from Project Sensored: “Chase Palmieri and Mickey Huff recently spoke w freelance journalist Will Carruthers to discuss his latest for The Bohemian, kicking off of The Power Brokers Series (w thanks to Peter Byrne)- Stay tuned for more! This one is epic–
Juiced: PG&E poured $2 million into the Rebuild Northbay Foundation as the utility ramped up its political machine after 2017 wildfires…but wait, there’s more!
Try to follow this one: Darius Anderson, managing member of the Santa Rosa based Press Democrat newspaper’s parent company, Sonoma Media Investments, is also the founder of a North Bay nonprofit (Rebuild Northbay Foundation) that PG&E dumped $2million into first year after major fires. Btw, Anderson is also a registered lobbyist for PG&E, and runs a Sacramento lobby firm Platinum Advisors (that lobbies for PG&E), (and this story even involves powerful State Senator Bill Dodd and CA Dems, including Gov. Gavin Newsom) lining up to help push a bill just before summer break this past month that would effectively bail out PG&E at ratepayer expense. Meanwhile, Darius’ Press Democrat was one of the only Bay Area papers to support the bill (AB1054)…and never noted the conflicts of interest between the paper, their owners, who also started aforementioned nonprofit, and lobbied for PG&E and yucked it up at various fund raising events (including at properties owned by Darius) w CA politicos charged w regulating the power company.
Nope, you can’t make this up folks. Mayor Quimby, Monty Burns, and Kent Brockman would be proud. Lol. Kudos to Carruthers and the Bohemian. This is why we need local, independent, muckraking journalism.
Read it to the end, and stay tuned for the conversation with journalist Will Carruthers.”
https://www.bohemian.com/northbay/juiced/Content?oid=9026523
Thank you for posting this “They Lie” and good job! Project Sensored. The public always need people to research the hidden connections that abound in dirty politics.
From Chico Enterprise Record,
” PG&E permanently de-energizes transmission line that sparked Camp Fire
The utility found hundreds of high-risk problems on its equipment”
https://www.chicoer.com/2019/06/19/pge-permanently-de-energizes-transmission-line-that-sparked-camp-fire/
https://www.chicoer.com/2018/12/12/camp-fire-pge-found-bullet-holes-in-butte-county-power-pole-fallen-hook-other-damage-at-transmission-tower/
Originally built in 1919.
( Good article )
https://www.marinij.com/2018/12/08/it-was-originally-built-in-1919-what-failed-on-pge-tower-at-heart-of-camp-fire-probe-2/
Certainly wouldn’t want me on the jury.
translation: “you’re PG&E bill is going up. Way, way up.”
I heard on a local news station that the average bill will increase about $20 per month. I am not sure if this accurate but one site claims they have 15 million CA customers, so $240 x 15 million.
Rather than raise rates, have PGE sell off all their real estate to pay damages and improvements. Quit sticking it to those who believed they were doing their job.
Of course it disagrees. I would be surprised if it owned up to it.
I spoke with a PG&E employee back in the 1990’s and he actually told met his higher-ups always weighed the cost of a safety repair or improvement with the cost of the lawsuit that might arise. Quentin Kopp, SF supervisor, asked me to testify at a hearing in Sacramento but my higher-ups wouldn’t allow it. God’s honest truth.
And. . . why do PG&E executives get these big fat bonuses? Talk about something that should be forfeited! The worst company on earth. Why isn’t Judge Alsup addressing their bonuses, the fact that they spent money that supposed to be used to put polls underground for other purposes. They suck as human beings and someone made the decision to put the Paradise maintenance off over and over again.
All non-management employees Agree with you about those bonuses. They are Management employees, not Wait staff working for tips!
PGE NEVER FULLY ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR ACTIONS.
Blaming Climate Change is hilarious. They have to make adjustments and did not obviously.
Today, 8/2, there was a notice of PGE request to raise rates. I didn’t bother to read beyond that because we all know the request will be granted no matter how many protests they get.
That notice is included monthly in every PG&E bill.
They include one of those notices every month because they raise the bill every month.
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