The Challenges of 2010

The challenges and setbacks of 2010—most notably, the public safety and operational issues raised in the wake of the San Bruno pipeline explosion—have profoundly informed and impacted our sustainability journey and how we conduct our gas and electric operations. Appropriately, these challenges are leading us to reevaluate how effectively we are striking the balances necessary to be a sustainable company

As a result, we are pursuing major changes. At PG&E, we are focusing on raising the standards for the way PG&E manages and operates its natural gas infrastructure and restoring the trust and confidence of our customers and other stakeholders.

As the investigations into the San Bruno tragedy move forward, we will gain more insights that will inform our efforts in this area. Our commitment is to apply them aggressively and take the appropriate steps to improve our systems and practices and renew our customers’ confidence in our business.

Importantly, we recognize that this must go beyond operational improvements. For example, we continue to pursue ways to make our relationship with customers more sustainable. This includes enhancing how we communicate proactively with customers about safety and the operations of our business.

Important steps in that process in 2011 have included sending letters about natural gas safety to anyone with a home or business located within about 2,000 feet of a gas transmission pipeline, holding open houses across our service area as we perform hydrostatic tests to ensure the safety and integrity of our gas transmission system, creating an interactive online map so customers can learn the proximity of pipelines to their neighborhood and forming closer partnerships with local first responders and community leaders across our service area. We also continue to take significant steps to engage with customers about our ongoing deployment of SmartMeter™ technology.

We take seriously our responsibility to use the lessons we learn to help PG&E reach a new level of performance—and to help others in our industry to do the same.