By Ted Goldberg

August 9, 2018

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which recently blamed PG&E for causing a major power outage at Valero's Benicia refinery last year, has decided not to punish the utility for the mistakes that led to one of the worst Bay Area refinery accidents in years.

The commission concluded that PG&E's inadequate training of operations personnel and slow response to the failure of an electrical component led to the May 5, 2017, outage, which triggered a major release of toxic sulfur dioxide and prompted emergency shelter-in-place orders in Benicia.

But the state agency — at this point — does not plan to penalize the company.

The CPUC's decision did not sit well with the area's elected leaders.

On Thursday Dodd sent a letter to CPUC President Michael Picker, expressing outrage over the agency's decision. "I have a difficult time understanding why the CPUC would fail to take any punitive action," Dodd wrote.

State Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), a longtime critic of PG&E, was also surprised to hear that the commission was not penalizing the company. "They clearly violated the law," Hill said in an interview Thursday.

The CPUC said a lack of training and unclear company documents led PG&E workers to misunderstand the importance of a key piece of equipment that went down before the outage.

Valero, when asked to comment on the commission's decision, reiterated that blame was on PG&E for the entire episode.

"We agree with the CPUC report, which found that PG&E violated state regulations and is solely responsible for the May 5, 2017 power outage," company spokeswoman Lillian Riojas said in an emailed statement.

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