Hill: CPUC Should Reject PG&E Pipeline Modernization Program

Assemblyman Jerry Hill and The Utility Reform Network today are once again calling on the California Public Utilities Commission to reject PG&E's proposed plan to modernize its pipeline system.

The CPUC is expected to make a ruling soon on the plan, which was and will cost about $2.2 billion—of which PG&E says ratepayers should pick up 90 percent of the tab.

Hill, D-San Mateo, and Mark Toney, the executive director of TURN, are using a press conference in front of the CPUC's San Francisco headquarters to blast PG&E and accuse the utility of unfairly trying to profit off of customers for its mistakes leading up to the San Bruno fire.

Before the news conference, Hill said the CPUC should require PG&E to take the majority of the financial responsibility for modernizing its pipelines.

“Ratepayers shouldn’t have to pay PG&E higher utility bills for a level of service they should have been receiving all along,” Hill said in a statement.

In previous interviews, PG&E said it is only seeking to recover costs for projects carried out between 2012 and 2014.

"We're not seeking any costs from prior projects," PG&E spokeswoman Brittany Chord said. "We're taking a massive effort on taking a closer look at our system.

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