Funds for safety went to utility execs' pay instead, (Calif.) PUC president says

[Newsjock]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Money collected from ratepayers and earmarked for pipeline safety was instead spent on executive pay raises by the state's largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., in the months before a deadly pipeline explosion in 2010, lawmakers were told Wednesday.

“In some cases, the utility did divert dollars we approved for safety purposes for executive compensation,” the new president of the Public Utilities Commission complained to members of the state Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee at an oversight hearing.

After the two-hour hearing, Michael Picker told The Times that he's gathering additional documentation that PG&E put off safety and maintenance work to boost its profits and provide top executives with bonuses.

... Picker's testimony “was the first time that I ever heard a PUC official admit that or state that as a fact,” said state Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo). Hill represents the Bay Area community of San Bruno, where the PG&E pipeline blast killed eight people, injured 66 others and destroyed 38 homes.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-puc-hearing-20150325-story.html

[hobbit709]

1. Time to leave a few execs dangling from lamp posts as object lessons.

[Orrex]

2. If only this had been obvious and easily predictable from the outset.

If only...

[daleanime]

3. ........

[Kelvin Mace]

4. Can anyone explain to me

why the CEO's house doesn't look like Castle Frankenstein when the villagers storm in?

Why are people going to simply accept this with an apathetic shrug?

[gregcrawford]

5. Do you suffer from "Outrage Fatigue?"

Symptoms include dizziness from spinning in circles trying to keep up with the staccato litany of crimes committed by over-priveleged sociopaths for which there is never any accountability.

Ask your doctor if a homicidal rampage is right for you.

[Kelvin Mace]

6. Personally, I'm not a rampage kind of guy

but if it were my family that was dead I would be having a little chat with the people who cashed those checks.

[riversedge]

7. Agree.

[salin]

17. no polite conversation from me (though I am polite)...

State approved rate hike... for stated need per enhancing infrastructure and public safety. All citizens who have PG&E as their public utility - paid additional money for those public safety enhancements.

Company doled out dollars for executive pay rather than for the stated need. That is fraud. Next there were fatalities due to the critical breakdowns per the stated need for the rate hikes (that is - there were serious infrastructure issues that needing addressed per the request for the rate hikes), but those expenditures for addressing enhancing infrastructure were abandoned in favor of executive compensation.

Not only should those who lost family in the disaster should sue - but all rate payers should demand a refund - as their costs went up, in the name of safety - their level of safety was decreased due to lack of investment (despite paying rate increases) decreased.

These companies understand that the sanction by court is so small compared to the revenue garnered, that with little to no regulation (defunded to extreme levels in the past 30 years), and the increasingly pro-business "no fault" decisions by courts, that there is no oversight to prevent these big businesses from behaving this way.

It seems like this is "good practice" for businesses.

It suggests that states that still have public utilities and regulations - need to have state authorities require much more transparency when approving such rate hikes, to prove that investments in infrastructure are occurring - and if not to reverse the rate hike, and require the company to refund the rate hike to the customers.

[Dustlawyer]

20. BP has done it many times, so has DuPont and many others!

They were just keeping up with the Joneses. They don't need regulations but they get caps on damages so they don't worry much when things go wrong. It's still cheaper to cut corners and kill a few workers, most of who's families can only file for Workmanship Compensation.

[allan01]

8. seriosly what do those people do any way. seriously.

[wordpix]

9. how about CT's execs -we just got a 26% rate hike

and the CEO of the newly named "Eversource" ---aka CL&P---made $7.5 million in 2013 with $9 million in stock options.

Would not doubt for a minute the 26% is going into execs' pockets

[Dont call me Shirley]

10. All of the pg&e execs who participated in the pilfering of pipeline safety money should be on trial

[wordpix]

11. I'm with you but in my state (CT)

whenever I bring issues of lawbreaking to the state's attention, I'm told to bring a lawsuit myself.

[Dont call me Shirley]

12. The Feds and States have basically hollowed out their corporate lawbreaking divisions.

Just like everything else the billionaires have hollowed out and eaten the fruit of. Lots of empty hulls, shells and pods.

[AngryDem001]

13. Isn't PG&E pretty hated?

[cstanleytech]

14. IMO if they diverted that money they should charged with murder or atleast manslaughter. nt

[Skittles]

15. this is fraud

will there be criminal charges?

[ArcticFox]

16. count me in favor of prosecutions and claw backs

[Larry Engels]

18. Big business as a whole is following the same model.

The execs fund a raise for themselves and improve the profit picture by cutting safety and maintenance work. That's where most of the profits are coming from these days: cost cutting.

[bayareaboy]

19. Take time to look up Mooney and Billings on the net...

Then you get an idea of the sense that PG&E can do anything they want to do. This was along time ago, but now most of the labor folks are just trying to stay middle class, anyhow.

The only thing that kept Mooney and Billings out of living the rest of there lives in prison, was a big effort by labor for about 20 years to get them out.


As Cyrus Arbuckle said, "You get what you pay for"