No good answers - Page 5

PG&E sharply questioned at hearing on San Bruno explosion

10.26.10 - 5:04 pm | Rebecca Bowe |

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Kirk Johnson, vice president of gas operations at PG&E, spoke at the hearing

PHOTO BY REBECCA BOWE

Yet whatever regulatory changes come into play will hardly matter for those San Bruno residents whose lives were permanently altered by the loss of family members. James Ruigomez, a resident who testified at the hearing, told legislators that his son's girlfriend, Jessica Morales, had just settled down to watch a football game with his son Joe Ruigomez on the night of the explosion. Morales died in the blaze and Joe is still recovering in the hospital.

The tragedy filled James Ruigomez with guilt and sorrow, he said — but also anger. "Extreme anger," he added, "knowing that this possibly could've been prevented."

Comments

Rate Freeze On PG&E

A very infuriating article. It sounds like PG&E has for years been falsely crying pipes need repair to the CPUC just to scam them into okaying higher consumer fees, and then use the money to pay corporate bonuses and influence politicians.

I'm sure a PG&E troll will vehemently deny that's the case. But you know what? If the utility fetishizes secrecy, I'm entitled to interpret their actions as negatively as I wish.

Personally, I'd love to see the CPUC slap a decade-long rate freeze on PG&E. The current system of trusting them to do the repair jobs they allegedly need money for is clearly not working. That freeze would be a small payback for all the people killed due to PG&E inaction and stonewalling. Either that or conditioning future rate increases on having CPUC inspectors (if any) conduct random inspections of pipes or towers supposedly targeted for repair would be a good alternative.

Posted by Peter on Oct. 27, 2010 @ 12:36 pm