Hill, San Bruno Residents to Demand CPUC Re-Open Hearings on PG&E Fines

Assemblyman Jerry Hill and residents of San Bruno, including the mother of a 20-year-old woman who was among eight people killed when a PG&E gas pipeline exploded in their neighborhood, will appear at the monthly meeting of the California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday. 

They will demand that CPUC President Michael Peevey stop meddling in proceedings to determine how much PG&E should be fined for the Sept. 9, 2010,  explosion and how much ratepayers will be charged to fix the pipeline system. 

Hill and the San Bruno residents want the evidentiary hearings reopened and conducted in public. The proceedings were put on hold for at least a week on Monday while an administrative law judge considers the CPUC’s demand that the hearings be suspended so that PG&E can conduct negotiations behind closed doors. 

The Commission’s Consumer Protection and Safety Division (CPSD) filed a motion in the final hour of business on Friday to cut off cross-examination of PG&E witnesses which may have revealed critical liability and safety issues related to the 2010 San Bruno explosion.  None of the parties, including the Division of Ratepayer Advocates (DRA), the Utility Reform Network (TURN), the City and County of San Francisco, and the City of San Bruno, supported suspending the public hearings.  Only PG&E was in support. 

Rene Morales—whose daughter, Jessica, was killed when the PG&E pipeline exploded alongside her boyfriend's home—will be among those who will call on Peevey to re-open the evidentiary hearings to ensure the victims’ families are not victimized again, this time by a back-room deal.

The meeting will start at 9 a.m. at the CPUC headquarters, 505 Van Ness Ave., in San Francisco.

—Office of Assemblyman Jerry Hill