PG & E safety investigation: the company may be trying to "tick the boxes", says the judge

A state judge expressed skepticism about the extent of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s security commitment two weeks before the camp's terrible fire, which subjected the company's practices to a thorough review. the public share.

Peter Allen, an administrative law judge at the California Public Utilities Commission, made the following comments in a PG & E corporate culture survey that began in 2015 in response to the deadly pipeline explosion. from San Bruno in 2010. In a proposal for a decision asking the utility to implement the findings of a 2017 audit, Allen asked if PG & E had gone far enough to give priority to security in all of its organization.

"In general, we are encouraged by the responsiveness of PG & E to the audit, but we still do not know if PG & E is actually changing its culture or simply trying to 'check boxes, "writes Allen in the proposed decision released in October. 25.

The draft decision is expected to be considered by the committee at its November 29 meeting in San Francisco.

The security investigation took on increased importance because of the camp's burning fire that burned east of Chico, Butte County.

Fire investigators in the states are still searching for the cause of the camp fire – the most destructive and deadliest forest fire in the history of California – but it is the only one in the world. utility could be questioned. PG & E said that two pieces of his equipment were working badly in the area of ​​the fire, just before the start of the fire and the other shortly thereafter.

The investigation concerns both Pacific Gas and Electric and its parent company, PG & E Corp.

Michael Picker, chairman of the public utilities commission, said he would expand PG & E's ongoing safety investigation to include recent wildfires. And he told The Chronicle that he agreed with Allen's decision.

"The utility has done a lot of things that make us safer, but not at the level we expect," Picker said Wednesday.

In the proposed order, Allen said that PG & E "seems to have overestimated the expertise of many of its directors in security matters" within the company's board of directors during previous investigation procedures.

"This Commission wants PG & E to put in place a real and effective safety culture that permeates the organization, not just a thin veneer or a window dressing that looks superficial, but fails under stress," he said. said Allen.

PG & E informed the Commission that it subscribed to the 61 safety recommendations of the 2017 evaluation for the public service and promised to implement most of them. here the end of the year. Recommendations include adding security to the list of qualifications used by PG & E to select independent directors, the overall reassessment of the company's safety programs, and the acceleration of crew leader training in leadership development. security matter.

"Although the scope of a new phase of the safety culture procedure of the CPUC has not yet been communicated, PG & E welcomes the opportunity to receive information from our regulatory body while we we strive to constantly improve, "said Tamar Sarkissian, spokesman for PG & E." Forest fires are spreading at a pace never before seen and we need to work together in all sectors and disciplines to solve this. problem urgently. "

While the utility is trying to make improvements, some of its most fervent critics remain concerned about security issues.

"I am very concerned that PG & E continues to have difficulty complying with the basic rules of safe operation of their system," said Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, involved in the process. d & # 39; investigation. "Unfortunately, the consequences of this failure can be devastating for everyone."

The PG & E 2017 audit was conducted for the commission by NorthStar Consulting Group. In a report of more than 330 pages, NorthStar claimed that "PG & E's management is committed to safety", as are employees in the field, noting that "no one wants to be safe". But the report also identified crucial flaws in the PG & E approach.

"While PG & E is committed to safety and efforts have been made to reduce incidents and increase the organization's focus on safety, these efforts have been rather reactionary – determined by immediate needs. and an understandable sense of urgency, rather than a holistic approach at the enterprise level. about safety, "says the NorthStar report.

NorthStar concluded that PG & E had promptly taken steps to resolve the gas supply system problems revealed by the San Bruno explosion, which had claimed the lives of eight people and destroyed 38 homes. But the public service has progressed more slowly with respect to the more general safety culture of the organization, says the report.

Although Picker now wants PG & E's response to the forest fires to be considered as part of the safety investigation, he indicated that he was still developing a formal plan to achieve this. .

"Again, these are not fires, nor San Bruno. How do you measure whether the organization really deals with security consciously, day after day, hour by hour? Said Picker. "It's not enough to have slogans. It's not what you think, it's what you do.

Over the course of the investigation, the composition of PG & E's Board of Directors may be subject to scrutiny, according to Picker. He noted that the company still had several directors who were stationed at the time of the pipeline explosion, which, he said, "does not send a real message of responsibility".

But Picker is not sure yet that the commission can force PG & E to change the members of its board. The utility and its publicly traded parent company have separate technical advice, but they share the same 12 members. Various board members serve as the chair of both entities.

"There will be clear arguments as to whether we have the power to do it," he said. "It seems to me that it's a necessary question to discuss."