Pistol-packing Calif. PUC official: Back me up on no PG&E fine or else

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

The top California Public Utilities Commission official who recommended that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. not be fined for the San Bruno disaster dismissively told agency attorneys who objected that “fairies” were supplying him with the information he needed, and that the lawyers should back him up “or else,” according to confidential e-mails obtained by The Chronicle.

One attorney wrote that the official is known to carry a concealed gun and a knife in the state’s agency’s San Francisco office, and that he felt threatened by the exchange.

The e-mails were sent to the utilities commission’s lead counsel by attorneys who had spent 2½ years building a case that PG&E should be fined for regulatory violations in connection with the 2010 natural-gas pipeline explosion, which killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes in San Bruno’s Crestmoor neighborhood.

Read more: http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2013/06/25/pistol-packing-puc-official-back-me-up-or-else/