California’s PG&E Guilty Of Pipeline Violations, But Fines Greatly Reduced

A federal jury found California’s largest utility guilty on Tuesday of misleading investigators about how it was identifying high-risk pipelines after a deadly pipeline explosion in the San Francisco Bay Area. The jury found PG&E not guilty of six of 11 remaining counts that alleged pipeline violations. The blast of a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. natural gas pipeline six years ago sent a giant plume of fire into the air, killing eight people and destroying 38 homes in the city of San Bruno. During the investigation, prosecutors say, the San Francisco-based utility misled federal officials about the standard it was using to identify high-risk pipelines.