The Bay Citizen’s got a good report on how PG&E cobbled together the San Bruno gas pipe out of bits and pieces of whatever was around, and a nice liveblog of the NTSB hearing on the explosion. The message is pretty clear: PG&E is utterly unreliable, can’t keep track of its own records, doesn’t know what’s in its own system, can’t figure out why it doesn’t know what’s where and is still stumbling over the next steps:
11:59 a.m. PG&E’s Fassett: PG&E realizes it must “look further” into the manufacturing processes of “vintage” pipelines, such as the 1940s and 1950s segments of pipeline that ruptured beneath San Bruno
Um, and why hasn’t that process started already?
Look: This is a company that delivers natural gas through pipes that officials there must have known were old, of dubious quality (esp. the ones from the immediate post-War era) and dangerous. Yet nothing’s been done about it. There are more San Bruno’s out there — and even PG&E doesn’t know where.
This isn’t just corporate self-interest and greed. It’s utter, obvious, blatant incompetence.
I remember an old joke that former Sup. Bill Maher — and avid PG&E ally — once told about public power. If the city runs the electrical system, he said, “when I hit the light switch my toilet will flush.” Ho ho ho. How about: Next time you turn on your stove, the entire street will blow up, killing 8 of your neighbors? Because that’s the level of buffoonery we’re talking about here.
It’s worth noting the Palo Alto — a city, a government agency — runs its own gas and electric utility, and not only do the pipes not explode, the system wins awards for safety and replaces its pipes well before the end of their projected lifespan. Palo Alto — a city, a government agency — knows what’s under its streets. The efficient private-sector company called PG&E can’t find its own files.
So you have to wonder why Mayor Ed Lee is still saying that it’s a bad idea to get rid of PG&E. Why, at this point, would anyone trust this bunch of idiots? How could any public power agency possibly be worse run? It’s not even an argument any more; PG&E has demonstrated that the private sector can be both greedy, corrupt AND an operational failure. The sooner they’re out of San Francisco, the better.