PG&E and Lessons in Failure to Learn

In mid-June, PG&E was found guilty of 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for the 2018 Camp Fire that took 84 lives and destroyed thousands of buildings.

History Repeats for PG&E

It’s only been a decade since PG&E’s last deadly disaster.  In 2010, a natural gas line in San Bruno, CA cracked, releasing a massive fireball that killed eight residents.  The result was a 2016 federal conviction of six felonies, and in the company is still on probation for this.

The San Bruno incident was triggered by flawed record-keeping and shoddy maintenance practices.  In addition, the company was shown to have consistently used “the cheapest methods” to conduct pipeline inspections according to Butte County’s report. 

Unfortunately, this focus on minimizing costs extends to the company’s electric infrastructure as well, as it pursued a “run to failure” strategy instead of focusing on preventative and proactive inspection and maintenance activities. 

The company’s guilty plea, in essence, boils down to the fact that PG&E was aware that its equipment presented a wildfire risk, yet did nothing about it.  In the case of the 2018 Camp Fire, the cause was a transmission line that fell off a 90-year-old tower, something that could have been avoided if inspection protocols were up to snuff (or, if employees were held accountable).

It’s tough enough to deal with the increasingly severe weather we’ve been seeing in recent decades without having to deal with something akin to self-sabotage.  Emergency preparedness is all about continuous improvement in the form of incorporating lessons learned, and to do the opposite is counter to what being prepared is all about. 

Hopefully, this latest corporate crisis will ensure that PG&E learns how to learn. If not, the company will be doomed to repeat an endless cycle of questions and criticisms. I sincerely hope that does not happen.