Thursday, September 1, 2011

PG&E's Bosses Have Little Shame

You have to hand it to the honchos at PG&E. They have little shame. After an exhaustive study by federal authorities, it has been made clear that the utility company was at fault when one of its natural gas pipelines exploded in the San Bruno hills a year ago. The result was eight fatalities, dozens of injuries and dozens of homes destroyed or severely damaged. The explosion/fire was the worst disaster ever experienced by a San Mateo County community. PG&E's bosses, now fully aware that a lack of proper care and maintence along the pipeline in question caused the historic calamity, want their customers (including those in the shattered San Bruno neighborhood, presumably) to foot much of the bill for a complete repair and retrofit regimen for its natural gas delivery system. The early estimate of the cost for such a comprehensive program (which should have been in place all along) is about $2 billion. If ever there were a case to be made for the state Public Utilities Commission to reject a PG&E rate hike request, this is it. The very idea of having the blast victims, along with everyone else, pay their "share" for PG&E's abject failures is unthinkable.

1 comment:

  1. ...checks should be made out to "Pacific Graft and Extortion Company." Fear the Stampede -mt-

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