PG&E Faces New Demand to Explain Shortfalls in Dealing With Trees Near Power Lines

The judge overseeing PG&E's criminal probation for violating federal pipeline safety laws is demanding the company account — again — for its admitted failure to fully comply with state laws governing safety clearances between power lines and surrounding vegetation.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup on Thursday issued an order for PG&E to explain why he should not direct the company to hire a new force of tree-trimming crews as a condition of its ongoing probation.

The order comes a day after the utility's lawyers filed a report on two probation conditions Alsup imposed last year, in the wake of the catastrophic PG&E-sparked fires of 2017 and 2018: first, to come into full compliance with the state laws on vegetation clearance around power lines, and second, to meet all of the ambitious targets the company committed to as part of a state-mandated wildfire mitigation plan.

The compliance report repeats an argument PG&E lawyer's made last year when Alsup was considering ordering the company to dramatically expand it vegetation management efforts: that because of constantly changing conditions in PG&E's vast territory, the company simply can't certify it's in "perfect compliance" at all times with the state's vegetation clearance requirements.

"PG&E’s system includes approximately 100,000 miles of overhead transmission and distribution lines across a service territory of approximately 70,000 square miles that contains tens of millions of trees that could come into contact with its lines," the company's Wednesday filing said. "... Perfect compliance would require nothing less than round-the-clock surveillance of all trees within striking distance of PG&E’s equipment to identify and abate any hazard as soon as it arises."

The filing went on to say that PG&E takes its vegetation management responsibilities seriously and that measures undertaken in the last year — including the extensive preemptive power shutoffs during wind storms in October and November — had been effective in heading off deadly wildfires.

PG&E also told Alsup it had met 46 of 53 commitments included in its 2019 wildfire mitigation plan — a safety blueprint required under 2018's Senate Bill 901 and approved by the California Public Utilities Commission.

But among the areas where the company had failed to meet its goals was inspections connected to its "enhanced vegetation management" program. That initiative promised to go beyond state law and regulatory requirements for trimming and removing trees along power lines in areas that Cal Fire and the CPUC have identified as especially prone to wildfires.

PG&E says that its power system includes about 25,000 miles of distribution lines through those high fire danger areas. In its 2019 wildfire mitigation plan, it said it would perform enhanced vegetation work along 2,450 miles of those lines; in its report to Judge Alsup, it said it had gone beyond that figure and worked on trees along 2,500 miles of power lines.

But the company also reported that much of that enhanced vegetation management was substandard, with only 60% of the work meeting quality expectations. That admission is in line with a report from a court-appointed monitor last summer that found the quality of PG&E's completed vegetation management work was "questionable."

In his Thursday order, Alsup signaled more than passing displeasure with PG&E's lack of total compliance with the state's laws and regulations. He also criticized the company for pointing to external factors such as its reported difficulty in finding experienced tree crews to hire for vegetation management.

"PG&E has repeatedly blamed the lack of contract crews for its shortfalls in vegetation compliance," Alsup wrote. He then gave the company until Feb. 12 at the latest to explain "why a further condition of probation should not be imposed requiring PG&E to hire and train, as part of its own workforce, sufficient crews, and equipment to inspect and to trim and remove all vegetation so as to come into compliance with the California Public Resources Code and PG&E’s own wildfire mitigation plan."

Alsup told the company any facts it offers in its response must be made under oath. He concluded by directing the utility to provide details of its past in-house vegetation management work.

The judge's order and PG&E's response will be the subject of a hearing the judge set for Feb. 19.

Alsup is overseeing PG&E's probation for a conviction stemming from the 2010 San Bruno disaster, in which one of the company's natural gas transmission pipelines blew up, killed eight people and devastated a neighborhood in the Peninsula suburb.

In 2016, a federal jury found the company guilty of obstructing the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation into the incident and for a series of violations of federal pipeline safety laws not directly tied to the San Bruno tragedy. Its five-year term of probation is scheduled to end in early 2022.