PG&E San Bruno Negotiations Back On

PG&E has agreed to meet with San Bruno officials this week to  resume negotiations with the city over millions of dollars in restitution the  city is seeking for the fatal gas pipeline explosion in September 2010.
    PG&E officials contacted city leaders this afternoon to arrange a  meeting to continue compensation talks at the end of this week, San Bruno  spokesman Sam Singer said.
    "We're very pleased with PG&E's response," Singer said. "This is a  step in the right direction to making the city whole."
    Earlier today, San Bruno Mayor Jim Ruane held a news conference to  announce that negotiations with PG&E had stalled.
    Ruane said he was "deeply concerned" that PG&E was dogging its  responsibility to fairly compensate the community for the Sept. 9, 2010  explosion, which killed eight people, destroyed 38 homes and ravaged the  Crestmoor Canyon neighborhood.
    A yearlong federal investigation found that PG&E was primarily  responsible for the disaster, citing a litany of operational failures that  included a faulty seam on the decades-old pipeline that ruptured, inaccurate  records and a lack of proper inspections that might have detected the  imperfect pipe before it exploded.
    PG&E established a $70 million trust fund to pay for "direct  damages" of the explosion, such as destroyed pipelines, sewers, roads, trees,  parks and vegetation.
    Since August, the city has been in negotiations with PG&E to seek  restitution "above and beyond the physical damage," which would help restore  the spirit and fabric of the community that was ripped apart by the  explosion, Ruane said.
    "PG&E has within its power the ability to make this right," he  said.
    A settlement could provide endowment funds for large capital  projects, such as a new community library or a sports facility for kids,  Ruane said.
    PG&E issued a statement this afternoon saying that the utility  remains firmly committed to continuing to negotiate a settlement with the  city.