A federal grand jury in San Francisco has charged Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) with twelve felony violations of the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968 (PSA) in connection with the 2010 San Bruno natural gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people.

The indictment alleges that PG&E knowingly and willfully violated the pipeline safety law and its regulations between 2003 and 2010.

The charges stem from PG&E’s record keeping and pipeline “integrity management” practices.

The indictment alleges that PG&E failed to address recordkeeping deficiencies concerning its larger natural gas pipelines knowing that their records were inaccurate or incomplete.

The indictment also alleges that PG&E failed to identify threats to its larger natural gas pipelines and that PG&E did not take appropriate actions to investigate the seriousness of threats to pipelines when they were identified.

The indictment alleges that PG&E failed to adequately reprioritize and assess threatened pipelines after the pipelines were over pressurized as required by the PSA and its regulations.

“The citizens of Northern California deserve to have their utility providers put the safety of the community first,” said U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag.  “The indictment of PG&E for violating the minimum safety standards established by the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act reflects the company’s failure to follow that very basic principle.”

PG&E is charged with 12 separate felony violations of the PSA.

The maximum statutory penalty for each count for a corporation is $500,000 or a fine based on the gain the corporation made as a result of the violation or the loss caused to victims.