PG&E TARGETED CRITICS AFTER SAN BRUNO, CALIFORNIA NATURAL GAS BLAST, E-MAILS SHOW. IN THE LAND OF THE FREE SPEECH? THAT IS HARD TO FATHOM (SARCASM)
Saturday, January 31, 2015
In
the days after the 2010 San Bruno blast that killed eight people, top Pacific
Gas and Electric Co. executives traded jokes and back-slapped with state
regulators and tried to get them to denounce one of their most vocal critics, a
Chronicle review of 65,000 e-mails shows.
The
e-mails, which PG&E released late Friday, provide a singular insight into
what critics say is an overly cozy relationship between the company and the California Public Utilities Commission, the
agency charged with ensuring that utilities are operating safely.
At
the center of the exchanges were Paul Clanon, the commission’s former executive
director and the man who ran the agency’s day-to-day operations, and Brian Cherry, a since-fired PG&E vice
president whose main job was to persuade state regulators to give the company
what it wanted.
That
effort included sharing “a bottle of good Pinot” with commission President Michael Peevey at the Sea Ranch retreat on the
Sonoma County coast in 2010 and inviting him for “drinks and a catch-up” in
2013, the e-mails show.