Jackie Speier Blasts PG&E for Sloppy Record-Keeping

This is what happens when you are disorganized

​Congresswoman Jackie Speier tells the Chronicle this morning that she is "appalled" by the fact that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. leaders "don't know what's underground." This became transparent after the company admitted it can't find important documents on many of its natural-gas lines.

It's these very documents that would point out other weaknesses in the pipes so that communities could probably avoid another potential blast like the one in San Bruno on Sept. 9, 2010 when a pipeline exploded, killing eight people.

PG&E President Chris Johns told Speier that he couldn't "produce key manufacturing and installation documents for 30 percent of its pipelines" around urban areas in Northern California, according to the Chronicle. 

"Their whole philosophy has to change," Speier said in the Chronicle. "They have to be safety first and accommodating of industry second." The California Public Utilities Commission has given the agency until March 15 to find the right records for their gas transmission lines or else it will have to possibly shut down pipelines and perform costly tests to find weaknesses in the pipes.

Brian Swanson, a spokesman for PG&E, wouldn't say much more about Speier's assessment other than "We continue to review and validate our records."

"We still have more work to do to validate the percentage. We will have a final report on March 15," Swanson told the Chronicle.

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