The Bell Law Firm, PLLC

We are finishing up our discussion of the National Transportation Safety Board's report on the San Bruno gas pipeline explosion. The investigation took a year -- perhaps because the board identified plenty of system and operational failures that led to the "organizational accident."

The most chilling finding, though, was that an accident like this could happen in any community that relies on older transmission pipelines -- communities throughout West Virginia, say.

According to the report, the explosion occurred when a seam weld in a segment of pipe gave way. The weld was substandard, going just halfway through the pipe wall. Clearly, the board says, it wasn't a question of "if" there would be an explosion, but "when."

In our last post, we discussed the issues at the utility. While Pacific Gas & Electric's multiple failures bore much of the blame, it was not alone. The regulatory agency had also failed.

For the California Public Utilities Commission, the problems lay in general oversight of the utility's regulatory compliance. A more robust program at CPUC would have found -- and forced the correction of -- the lack of an automatic shut-off, for example.

A key criticism related to the rules adopted by CPUC. The agency allows operators to self-regulate, to make their own decisions about safety issues. The practice, the NTSB said, undercut the regulator's authority -- even if someone at CPUC had identified the shut-off problem, the regulator would have no way to force the utility to change.

According to one San Bruno resident, CPUC was more responsible than the utility. The regulator should be "the watchdog and the advocates for the consumer." Without significant changes to the rules, though, CPUC will continue to let consumers down.

Federal regulators are attempting to address their own shortcomings. Their first step would be to put more pressure on utilities to improve testing of the older pipelines as well as to install automatic shut-off valves for old and new lines.

Congress may address the shut-off valve requirement later this term. Proposed legislation would also require more frequent and more rigorous inspections of pipelines.

The explosion destroyed 38 homes. Dozens of people were injured; eight died.

Source: Charleston Post & Courier, "NTSB faults PG&E, regulators in gas explosion," Joan Lowy and Matthew Brown, Aug. 31, 2011