PG&E charged with obstruction in Bay Area blast

Pacific Gas & Electric was charged Tuesday with lying to regulators in connection with a fatal pipeline explosion that leveled a neighborhood in the Bay Area city of San Bruno n 2010.

The U.S. attorney in San Francisco announced the obstruction of justice charge and 27 related counts, which are in a new indictment charging the utility with felonies. It replaces a previous indictment that contained 12 counts, but not obstruction.

Prosecutors say PG&E hampered the investigation by lying to regulators immediately after the blast. In particular, PG&E officials are accused of telling National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators that the safety procedures being followed were correct and approved.

The other charges accuse the utility of failing to act on threats in its pipeline system even after the problems were identified by its own inspectors.

The new charges expose PG&E to more than $1 billion in fines. It had preciously faced up to a $6 million fine under the old indictment.

The utility announced in June that it was expecting the new indictment. PG&E spokesman Greg Snapper said company officials had not yet seen it.

"However, based on all of the evidence we have seen to date, we do not believe that the charges are warranted and that, even where mistakes were made, employees were acting in good faith to provide customers with safe and reliable energy," he said in a prepared statement.

No employees or executives have been charged in the San Bruno disaster. Prosecutors could still file another indictment charging individuals.

The blast destroyed a neighborhood and killed eight people on Sept. 9, 2010 in San Bruno, a city just south of San Francisco. The NTSB later blamed the utility's lax approach to pipeline safety and weak oversight by state and federal regulators.

The utility has been hit with multiple fines connected to the disaster and paid $70 million to settle related claims in 2012. 

PG&E said in May that it has committed $2.7 billion over the next several years for safety-related work following the incident.

Associated Press