PG&E Ordered by Judge to Respond to Newspaper Report About Power Lines Sparking Wildfires
U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who is overseeing the aftermath of PG&E Corp.'s 2016 safety-related felony conviction, on Wednesday ordered the company to respond "paragraph-by-paragraph" to a Wall Street Journal report claiming that the utility company knew that parts of its transmission system were a potential wildfire hazard.
July 10, 2019 at 06:20 PM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on The Recorder
A federal judge has ordered PG&E Corp. to respond to a newspaper report claiming that the company has long known that parts of its system for transmitting electricity across Northern California were dangerously outdated.
The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported based on documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act that the company has for years declined to pay for upgrades to hundreds of miles of its high-voltage power that could fail and spark fires.
PG&E spokesman James Noonan said Wednesday afternoon that the company is aware of the judge's order and is currently reviewing it. “PG&E's most important responsibility is the safety of our customers and the communities we serve,” Noonan said.
Just hours after the report appeared on the Journal's website, U.S. District Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California, who is overseeing the aftermath of PG&E Corp.'s 2016 safety-related felony conviction Wednesday, ordered the company to respond “paragraph-by-paragraph.”
“The offender (PG&E) may not evade response by saying, for example, that it cannot know what documents the Wall Street Journal reviewed. The offender should know the extent to which the story is accurate or not since the report covers what PG&E knows internally,” Alsup wrote. The judge also noted that the company has in the past responded to his requests “by filing thousands of records and leaving it to the judge to find the needles in the haystacks.”
“This time, the offender must provide a fresh, forthright statement owning up to the true extent of the Wall Street Journal report,” Alsup wrote.
Alsup has been overseeing PG&E's probation following the company's August 2016 conviction on six felony counts stemming from the 2010 pipeline explosion in San Bruno. The blast killed eight people and injured dozens more. Alsup inherited the case after Judge Thelton Henderson, who oversaw the trial, retired in 2017.
Alsup on Wednesday also asked the company, which is currently in bankruptcy, to address reports from a local ABC News affiliate that the company has recently made large contributions to political candidates. Alsup asked the company to catalog its political contributions since 2017 and “explain why those campaign contributions were more important than replacing or repairing the aging transmission lines described by the Wall Street Journal article and removing or trimming the backlog of hazard trees, and increasing vegetation management.”
The judge also asked the company to explain why $5 billion in dividends paid out prior to its bankruptcy filing weren't instead used to address safety issues.
A spokesman for PG&E said the company would issue a statement shortly.
Read the judge's request for information:
[falcon-embed src="embed_1"]
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllAn ‘Indiana Jones Moment’: Mayer Brown’s John Nadolenco and Kelly Kramer on the 10-Year Legal Saga of the Bahia Emerald
Travis Lenkner Returns to Burford Capital With an Eye on Future Growth Opportunities
Legal Speak's 'Sidebar With Saul' Part V: Strange Days of Trump Trial Culminate in Historic Verdict
1 minute readTrending Stories
- 1Litigation Leaders: Greenspoon Marder’s Beth-Ann Krimsky on What Makes Her Team ‘Prepared, Compassionate and Wicked Smart’
- 2A Look Back at High-Profile Hires in Big Law From Federal Government
- 3Grabbing Market Share From Rivals, Law Firms Ramped Up Group Lateral Hires
- 4Navigating Twitter's 'Rocky Deal Process' Helped Drive Simpson Thacher's Tech and Telecom Practice
- 5Public Notices/Calendars
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250