SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN'S PAYMASTERS, THE CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE KNOWN AS PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC - STILL LOOTING CALIFORNIA

PG&E false records penalty grows from $65 million to $110 million

J.D. Morris Jan. 17, 2020 Updated: Jan. 17, 2020 4:58 p.m.

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PG&E workers repair a gas line in San Francisco in 2011. A state regulator has proposed increasing the penalty the utility would pay for record-keeping problems discovered in its gas division.

Photo: Michael Macor / The Chronicle 2011

A state regulatory official decided Friday to raise Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s penalty for maintaining false internal safety records about its underground infrastructure by nearly 70% in part because the utility’s senior executives failed to fix the problem for years.

The decision from Peter Allen, an administrative law judge at the California Public Utilities Commission, would impose a $110 million punishment against PG&E if it is not successfully challenged. PG&E shareholders would have to fund $66 million in system improvements, including additional staff, while the remaining $44 million would be paid to the state’s general fund.

PG&E, a group representing utility employees and safety staff at the commission, had previously agreed to settle the inquiry into the company’s record-keeping practices for $65 million. But Allen wrote that the amount was “oddly low under the circumstances.”

The records at issue involve PG&E’s efforts to locate and mark its underground gas and electric lines before excavators begin digging. State law gives PG&E two working days to respond to excavators’ requests. But staff at the commission found that company employees repeatedly filed incorrect records about how they responded.