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"disqusTitle": "10 Emails That Detail PG&E’s Cozy Relationship With Regulators",
"title": "10 Emails That Detail PG&E’s Cozy Relationship With Regulators",
"headTitle": "News Fix | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">I\u003c/span>n the years since the September 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people in San Bruno, the relationship between pipeline operator Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and high-ranking officials at the California Public Utilities Commission has come under intense scrutiny, undermining public trust in the state agency tasked with ensuring safe pipeline operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State prosecutors and a federal grand jury are currently zeroing in on alleged improper ties between PG&E and top state regulators. \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/01/29/report-former-cpuc-chief-targeted-in-state-probe\" target=\"_blank\">State investigators\u003c/a> acting on a search warrant earlier this year seized iPhones, a laptop and bank statements from the residence of former CPUC President Michael Peevey and took similar items from the home of PG&E's former Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Brian Cherry, all on suspicion of felony activity relating to a judge-shopping scandal brought to light by email records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those exchanges were made public in the wake of civil litigation brought on behalf of San Bruno, when a judge ordered PG&E to release records consisting of some 65,000 emails and 123,000 documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright pullquote\">A PG&E executive and CPUC official were on 2,369 of the same email threads using their official email addresses — that’s an average of 11 times a week.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>KQED has taken a detailed look into this correspondence, which reveals in granular detail the familiar relationships between key decision-makers and PG&E executives that lasted well beyond the San Bruno incident. There are multiple instances of Peevey arranging to meet with Cherry for holiday visits that involved sipping wine — a keyword search of the email records for the words “pinot” or “cabernet,” for example, yielded 16 separate items.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But two of the closest confidants were Cherry and then-CPUC Executive Director Paul Clanon. The collection of documents provided by PG&E shows that between 2010 and 2014, Cherry and Clanon were on 2,369 of the same email threads using their official email addresses -- that's an average of 11 times a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although some of these emails were sent years ago, an attempt to force a cultural change at the CPUC is only now making its way through the California Legislature. In an attempt to reform CPUC operations, the Senate recently approved \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml;jsessionid=ccfbe52d6f35026fdd9d2a7e2414?bill_id=201520160SB660\" target=\"_blank\">SB 660\u003c/a>, a bill that would overhaul decision-making processes and restrict private exchanges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview with KQED, CPUC President Michael Picker said that the agency read every email released, conducted legal reviews and went through the state personnel process when breaches occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency focused on correspondence from about 80 people below the level of commissioner. Some individuals left the CPUC prior to or during the review. The agency determined that action was not warranted against 54 of the people who remained on staff. CPUC spokeswoman Constance Gordon said \"individuals whose emails raised more serious issues\" -- the agency won't say how many -- received \"counseling memos\" or \"letters of correction.\" The agency also held a staff training in appropriate email decorum in April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The challenge is that we are built for a different era, we were built in a time before emails,\" Picker said. \"Emails tend toward much more casual relationships. That’s a problem because when you start to get at a certain level of casualness, then you can slide into other kinds of ethical breaches.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Picker said that communications between PG&E staff and CPUC employees are currently banned for procedural cases. However, he said, the two staffs must be able to talk to each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We can’t do our jobs. We can’t guarantee that the electric system, the gas system work properly, we can’t make sure that people are being protected against unsafe infrastructure unless we are always in communication with the utilities. So if we’re not in contact with PG&E that’s as big of a problem and maybe a larger problem then some of the improper comportment,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E fired Cherry, as well as Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Tom Bottorff and Vice President of Regulatory Proceedings Trina Horner, following the company's internal investigation into the emails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E spokesman Nick Stimmel \u003ca href=\"https://www.scribd.com/doc/269092248/CPUC-and-PG-E-Emails-PG-E-Statement-to-KQED\" target=\"_blank\">wrote in a statement\u003c/a>: \"With respect to the email issue, we have produced tens of thousands of emails voluntarily and in response to regulatory and legal requirements and we continue to cooperate with all investigations. In the meantime, we will let the content of the emails speak for themselves; we are not going to speculate about motivations or the actions of people who are no longer in roles with the CPUC or the company or about events that may or may not have occurred.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Below we highlight 10 email exchanges that demonstrate just how cozy ties between regulators and the regulated have been in day-to-day CPUC operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the emails\u003c/p>\n\u003ctable>\n\u003ctbody>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>1) \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#controlRoom\">“The Control Room Audit”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> Sept. 14, 2011\u003cbr>\n2) \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#angels\">“Charlie’s Angels”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> Oct. 18, 2011\u003cbr>\n3) \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#seaRanch\">“Sea Ranch over Thanksgiving”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> Nov. 24, 2010\u003cbr>\n4) \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#Jellystone\">“How was Jellystone?”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> Sept. 12, 2010\u003cbr>\n5) \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#anyThoughts\">“Any thoughts – non-attributed of course?”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> Oct. 20, 2010\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>6) \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#parallelUniverses\">“We live in parallel universes…”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> January 10, 2011\u003cbr>\n7) \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#investorRelations\">“Investor relations”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> Sept. 26, 2011\u003cbr>\n8)\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#happyBirthday\"> “Happy Birthday!”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> Sept. 16, 2010\u003cbr>\n9) \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#jerryBrown\">“Get this info to [Jerry] Brown”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> January 11, 2011\u003cbr>\n10) \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#prozac\">“Prozac might be a solution!”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> June 4, 2010\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#whatHappened\">Where Are They Now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003c/tbody>\n\u003c/table>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1) \u003ca name=\"controlRoom\">\u003c/a>“The Control Room Audit” -- Sept. 14, 2011\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the aftermath of the pipeline rupture that caused the San Bruno explosion, PG&E’s control room management became a focal point for safety improvement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Natural gas pipelines may traverse thousands of miles. In a control room, pressure and flow across the underground network are monitored remotely. The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration moved to amend federal pipeline safety regulations in the months after San Bruno, imposing tougher regulations on control room operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But according to an email from PG&E’s Brian Cherry to CPUC’s then-Executive Director Paul Clanon, dated Sept. 14, 2011, the company encountered “some pressing problems” relating to a “control room audit.” Accordingly, Cherry wondered whether Clanon would be willing to “focus elsewhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10568616\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/LaHood-Speier-San-Bruno-e1434683321797.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-10568616\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/LaHood-Speier-San-Bruno-800x619.jpg\" alt=\"In this photo from May of 2011, federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood tours the site of the PG&E San Bruno pipeline explosion with Congressional Representative Jackie Speier.\" width=\"800\" height=\"619\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In this photo from May of 2011, federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood tours the site of the PG&E San Bruno pipeline explosion with Congressional Representative Jackie Speier. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Paul – hope you are enjoying yourself in Jellystone but stay away from the wayward bison,” Cherry wrote. “I received a request from Nick [Stavropoulos, PG&E’s executive vice president of gas operations] and Chris [Johns, president of PG&E] … to seek your advice and counsel on the control room audit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nick and Chris know we have problems in this area and would like you to focus elsewhere for the moment so that we can address some pressing problems. … Nick stated that you once offered to help out in any way you could if the Commission was becoming an obstacle to us getting the work done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A formal letter sent to Clanon about two weeks later on PG&E stationary shows the company was preparing for a visit from an independent consultant hired by the CPUC to inspect control-room operations. This audit was conducted to ensure compliance with federal rules. So was PG&E granted a delay? CPUC spokeswoman Constance Gordon said she could not comment on Clanon’s email directly, since he no longer works at the CPUC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Commission President Michael Picker, who replaced Peevey after he stepped down last year, said that he could not comment directly on the contents of the email, either, since he was unfamiliar with the audit. However, he said, \"No one’s ever asked me to focus elsewhere. Chances are that would make me want to focus more.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reached by phone, Clanon declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269089045/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-LCWXLFaD7vmtymd0YBHr&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"0.7586206896551724\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_25733\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>2) \u003ca name=\"angels\">\u003c/a>“Charlie’s Angels” -- Oct. 18, 2011\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Oct. 18, 2011, PG&E’s Brian Cherry forwarded CPUC President Mike Peevey an email attachment with the note “FYI.” It was a letter from Rep. Jackie Speier to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, urging LaHood to require natural gas operators to remove from their networks a kind of plastic pipe, Aldyl-A, which is prone to cracking. PG&E has 1,231 miles of the pipe in its system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roughly six weeks earlier, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Plastic-natural-gas-pipe-failure-data-kept-secret-2308629.php\" target=\"_blank\">a Cupertino condominium had been destroyed\u003c/a>, in an explosion and fire caused by a gas leak due to a cracked fitting in a plastic Aldyl-A pipe. When it investigated the cause of the blast, PG&E found six other plastic pipe failures near the blast site, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10568615\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Bernardus_Site-Photos-from-Everett_Medium-Resolution_04-17-15-17317.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-10568615\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Bernardus_Site-Photos-from-Everett_Medium-Resolution_04-17-15-17317-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"Former California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey and PG&E executive Brian Cherry made dinner plans at the Bernardus Lodge & Spa, shown here, in October of 2011.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Bernardus_Site-Photos-from-Everett_Medium-Resolution_04-17-15-17317-800x532.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Bernardus_Site-Photos-from-Everett_Medium-Resolution_04-17-15-17317-400x266.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Bernardus_Site-Photos-from-Everett_Medium-Resolution_04-17-15-17317-960x639.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Bernardus_Site-Photos-from-Everett_Medium-Resolution_04-17-15-17317.jpg 1100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey and PG&E executive Brian Cherry made dinner plans at the Bernardus Lodge & Spa, shown here, in October of 2011. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Bernardus Lodge & Spa)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In response to Cherry's email, Peevey thanked Cherry for the update. Then the CPUC president moved onto another topic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“See you for dinner Sunday night,” he wrote. “Where and when? Are you bringing Charlie's Angels too?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cherry responded: “7:30 at Marinus in the Bernardus Lodge in the Carmel Valley. About 20 minutes or so from Monterey but well worth the drive. We can make it earlier if you wish.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added, “Some angels may attend.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/angelstext.png\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10568675\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/angelstext.png\" alt=\"angelstext\" width=\"796\" height=\"357\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/angelstext.png 796w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/angelstext-400x179.png 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 796px) 100vw, 796px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Sunday night\" would have marked the start of the annual meeting of the The Conference of California Public Utility Counsel (CCPUC) at the Monterey Plaza Hotel. The nonprofit organization, which describes itself on the web as a “non-profit mutual benefit corporation,” has representatives from PG&E and other utilities on its board of directors. According to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ccpuc.org/Past_Events?action=setup_form&formID=57\" target=\"_blank\">conference agenda\u003c/a>, Peevey was scheduled to speak at the conference on Monday, Oct. 24, 2011.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conference itinerary shows that the evening activity on Sunday, Oct. 23 was a group activity –- attendees would be treated to a “reception and strolling dinner” at the Monterey Bay Aquarium from 7 to 9:30 p.m. But this email thread suggests Peevey and Cherry had other plans. The Bernardus Lodge & Spa is a luxury facility often booked for off-site corporate retreats, according to its website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While it’s unclear who, or what, the men were referring to when they discussed whether “Charlie’s Angels” would attend, at the very least the detail illustrates close enough ties for them to share a mutual understanding about a coded phrase. Attempts to reach Cherry and Peevey by phone were unsuccessful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269090620/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"undefined\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_59557\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>3) \u003ca name=\"seaRanch\">\u003c/a>“Sea Ranch over Thanksgiving” -- Nov. 24, 2010\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Nov. 24, 2010, about six weeks after the San Bruno pipeline explosion, PG&E’s Brian Cherry emailed CPUC President Mike Peevey with some good news -- plus an invitation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10568674\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 796px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/thanksgivingtext.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-10568674\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/thanksgivingtext.png\" alt=\"“Mike – FYI. Fish and Game letter on Manzana. Very positive,” he wrote. “Also – Sara and I will be in Sea Ranch over Thanksgiving. We’d be happy to have you and Carol [Peevey’s wife, Democratic Sen. Carol Liu] over for drinks or dinner if you are free. I’ve got plenty of great wine to drink.”\" width=\"796\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/thanksgivingtext.png 796w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/thanksgivingtext-400x131.png 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 796px) 100vw, 796px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“Mike – FYI. Fish and Game letter on Manzana. Very positive,” he wrote. “Also – Sara and I will be in Sea Ranch over Thanksgiving. We’d be happy to have you and Carol [Peevey’s wife, Democratic Sen. Carol Liu] over for drinks or dinner if you are free. I’ve got plenty of great wine to drink.”\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Less than an hour later, Peevey responded. “Thanks for the offer but all tied up with family. Next time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Records show that while Peevey at that time declined Cherry’s invitation to the Sonoma County vacation spot, he took him up on similar offers on other occasions. The men shared “\u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-puc-scandal-20141009-story.html\" target=\"_blank\">two bottles of good pinot\u003c/a>” over Memorial Day weekend in 2010, for example, while they discussed renewable energy, gas rate increases and a ballot measure campaign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, “Manzana” refers to PG&E’s proposed \u003ca href=\"http://www.pge.com/about/newsroom/newsreleases/20091203/pge_agrees_to_purchase_and_operate_major_california_wind_energy_project.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">Manzana Wind Project\u003c/a> in Kern County’s Tehachapi region, a $911 million, 246-megawatt renewable energy project that PG&E proposed in late 2009 and was then before the commission for approval. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife had reviewed the project’s environmental impacts out of concern that the wind turbines \u003ca href=\"http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddwoody/2012/01/04/revival-of-iconic-california-condor-threatens-states-wind-farm-boom/\" target=\"_blank\">could kill endangered California condors\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier that year, Cherry had emailed Peevey with information from PG&E’s investor relations division, citing a report from a Deutsche Bank financial analyst about the Manzana project. “Analysts are tracking Manzana … closely,” that email noted, with bankers considering it one of “the largest upcoming cases for the rest of the year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the Manzana project never came to fruition. An independent review by the CPUC’s Division of Ratepayer Advocates ultimately found that the wind project would have left customers bearing “significant risk and an unreasonable price tag.” The commission ultimately denied PG&E’s application.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269091741/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"undefined\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_58078\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>4) \u003ca name=\"Jellystone\">\u003c/a>“Can you guys help me with this?” -- Sept. 12, 2010\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only three days had passed since the fatal San Bruno pipeline explosion. With images of the blaze still fresh in the media, the CPUC issued a press release to outline its planned response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State and federal investigations were already underway. In an open memo, then-CPUC President Michael Peevey directed then-Executive Director Paul Clanon to compel PG&E to survey its lines for gas leaks. He demanded an inquiry into PG&E’s spending on pipeline safety and promised, “We are taking immediate action.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that same afternoon, Peevey emailed Clanon with a different request entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“First thing tomorrow,” he wrote, “See if you can schedule Darbee and Johns in my office at 2 PM Thursday.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was referring to PG&E's then-CEO Peter Darbee and then-President Chris Johns. Clanon immediately forwarded the request to two PG&E executives, including Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Brian Cherry, asking, “Can you guys help me with this?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10568681\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/SB-explosion.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-10568681\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/SB-explosion-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Chimneys remain during a massive fire in a residential neighborhood in September 2010 in San Bruno.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/SB-explosion-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/SB-explosion-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/SB-explosion.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/SB-explosion-960x640.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chimneys remain during a massive fire in a residential neighborhood in September 2010 in San Bruno. \u003ccite>(Max Whittaker/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Under many circumstances, a meeting between Peevey, a key decision-maker, and PG&E’s top brass about a matter under investigation would be a violation of state regulations designed to ensure fair dealing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under state law, contact between decision-makers and interested parties held outside the formal public process are known as ex parte communications. Whether they take the form of face-to-face meetings, texts or emails, these communications are subject to detailed regulations. And when a formal investigation is involved -- designated as an “adjudicatory proceeding” since commissioners act in the capacity of a judge -- no ex parte contact is allowed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nevertheless, CPUC spokesperson Constance Gordon told KQED that this particular meeting did not violate ex parte rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The investigation that began immediately following PG&E’s pipeline rupture was a staff investigation,” Gordon said, “not a formal investigation opened by a vote of the Commissioners,” which came later. “As such, ex parte rules would not apply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the meeting arrangements were made, Clanon switched to a lighter topic: “How was Jellystone?” he asked Cherry, a possible reference to Yellowstone National Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Amazing,” Cherry responded. “Saw so much wildlife. But it snowed the other day and I brought shorts!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cherry urged Clanon to plan his own vacation there. Meanwhile not 72 hours had passed since the fatal San Bruno pipeline explosion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Things keep coming up at my work,” Clanon responded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Uh. Yes,” Cherry shot back. “You have a challenging job. Guess that’s why they pay you the big bucks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269090271/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-GgrivqLXfuWWWUDiHNXu&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"0.7586206896551724\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_42402\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>5) \u003ca name=\"anyThoughts\">\u003c/a>“Any thoughts – non-attributed of course?” — Oct. 20, 2010\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four years worth of emails show that former PG&E executive\u003cbr>\nBrian Cherry and former CPUC Executive Director Paul Clanon consulted with each other hundreds of times. While the below emails are not illegal, they are good examples of how Cherry and Clanon often bounced ideas off of each other or problem-solved together. On Oct. 20, 2010, Clanon wrote to Cherry:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What are we going to do about the San Bruno demand that the pipeline be moved? I can certainly understand on the human level why they'd want that, even though it might not make a lot of operational or design sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cherry responded, “We are struggling with that. There are a couple different re-routes ... Between you and me, I think we should repair 132 temporarily while offering up a longer-term solution involving re-routing. … Any thoughts - non-attributed of course ?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clanon did have an idea on how PG&E could “frame” moving the pipeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the way to frame the pipe-replacement issue is not to think of it as Line 132, but to think of it as, what, two or three miles?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next week, then-PG&E President Chris Johns \u003ca href=\"http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/NR/rdonlyres/339C7284-F731-46B1-BB51-8A1D86B3BE0A/0/20101027134941.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">released a statement\u003c/a> pledging to move the pipeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The section of Line 132 that exploded was not repaired in the end. PG&E \u003ca href=\"http://www.rebuildcrestmoor.org/files/managed/Document/221/Line%20132_109%20Alignment.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">rerouted\u003c/a> the transmission line so that the gas now flows through Line 109 at San Andreas Station and returns to Line 132 at Healy Station, both in San Bruno.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright pullquote\">'Any thoughts — non-attributed of course?'\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>Former PG&E executive Brian Cherry\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The CPUC had ordered PG&E to examine shutoff valves. In the same email, Cherry said that the agency had identified more than 200 valves that needed to be replaced. However, he was concerned that there would be a public outcry if he released that number.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we tell you the number of valves that have been identified and don't have these kinds of estimates, everyone will demand immediate replacement - which just can't be done for a variety of reasons.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clanon responded to Cherry: “Yeah, cost and time estimates for the valves are crucial.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E's lack of automatic shutoff valves had come under scrutiny by federal officials at the time. National Transportation Safety Board officials found that it took the utility almost 95 minutes to shut off the gas rushing from the ruptured San Bruno pipeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keith Slibasager, PG&E’s gas system operations manager, testified during the NTSB’s public hearing on the San Bruno explosion that the company could have cut the gas within 20 minutes if the utility had installed automatic valves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/PAR1101.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">2006 PG&E memo\u003c/a> shows that PG&E considered installing automatic safety valves, but did not. A PG&E senior gas-consulting engineer, Chi-hung Lee Sr., wrote in the memo that he found most of the damage from a pipeline explosion occurs within 30 seconds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The engineer later testified at the NTSB hearing that his research was limited. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and other safety groups had reached different conclusions about shutoff valves. Federal safety officials have suggested, but not required, the use of automatic shutoff valves since 1999. PG&E officials acknowledged at the hearing that after Lee's memo they made no effort to further install the valves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the San Bruno explosion, PG&E has installed 208 automated valves that the utility can shut off remotely from a control room and 14 automatic shutoff valves that can shut themselves off in areas where transmission pipelines cross major fault lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269090994/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"undefined\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_43929\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>6) \u003ca name=\"paralellUniverses\">\u003c/a>“We live in parallel universes…” — Jan. 10, 2011\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2008, PG&E purposely boosted pressure on the San Bruno natural gas line to 400 pounds per square inch, the maximum legal limit. Normally, the line ran at 375 psi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next time the pressure on that gas line exceeded 375 psi was on Sept. 9, 2010, when a malfunction spiked the pressure to 386 psi, coinciding with the deadly explosion in San Bruno killing eight people and destroying 28 homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E later said they increased the pressure in 2008 under a mistaken understanding of federal law. The utility believed that to maintain the ability to run gas at 400 psi, the legal limit, they needed to do so once every five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/PG-E-surge-may-have-stressed-San-Bruno-line-in-08-2478734.php\" target=\"_blank\">San Francisco Chronicle investigation\u003c/a> published on Jan. 9, 2011, revealed that the earlier pressure surge could have weakened the pipeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E and CPUC officials referenced the story the next day, Jan. 10. At 9:35 a.m. Paul Clanon, then-executive director of the California Public Utilities Commission, wrote to senior CPUC staff asking about the spike:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Chronicle's story on the 2008 temporary rise in pressure on Line 132 to 400 psi doesn't match what I've heard. What are the facts? Is it standard practice or not to raise pressure up to MAOP [maximum allowable operating pressure] to preserve the maximum? Is 2008 really the only time PG&E has raised pressure on that line above 375 until the explosion?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 30 minutes later he contacted former PG&E executive Brian Cherry: “What are your guys saying about the facts in the Chron story yesterday? Contradicted my understanding of the rules, anyway.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10568621\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Paul-Clanon-e1434683647732.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-10568621\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Paul-Clanon-800x602.jpg\" alt=\"Paul Clanon speaks at a September 28, 2010 Senate committee hearing on gas pipeline safety. \" width=\"800\" height=\"602\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paul Clanon speaks at a September 28, 2010 Senate committee hearing on gas pipeline safety. \u003ccite>(Alex Wong/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Two minutes later Cherry shared his confusion: “Not sure. Let me follow up. I was under the same understanding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clanon wrote back at 10:48: “Our guys are doing the same thing, and you and I can triangulate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is not standard practice for utilities to raise pressure on transmission lines, and federal law requires utilities to conduct a costly inspection on any pipeline when the pressure exceeds the maximum limit. PG&E had not conducted such an inspection, nor did Clanon ask if they had in the emails released.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 4:53 p.m. Cherry and Clanon began to be concerned that neither PG&E nor CPUC staff could come up with an answer about whether such pressure spiking on a gas line was a normal practice. The two sympathized with each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clanon wrote Cherry: “Nothing back yet?” Cherry responded “Nothing yet…” and later “We live in parallel universes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About an hour later, Clanon had received research from CPUC staff and wanted to run it by Cherry:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Here's what I get from my people. You agree? Follows: PG&E raises the pressure in transmission lines to MAOP once every five years based on its conservative interpretation of 192.917(e)(4)…”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next day, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/PG-E-halts-intentional-gas-line-pressure-spikes-2478613.php\" target=\"_blank\">a Chronicle story\u003c/a> included a statement from a PG&E spokesperson that was very similar to what Clanon had written. “PG&E initially said it had conducted the pressure test on the San Bruno line to ‘preserve’ the pipe's legal capacity, saying federal law required it. A spokesman later backtracked and conceded there was no such requirement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CPUC spokesperson Constance Gordon says that Clanon and Cherry were discussing each other's understanding of the rules, so \"if PG&E had a different understanding than that of CPUC staff the issue could be further discussed.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Utility Reform Network is one of PG&E’s sharpest critics. TURN spokesperson Mindy Spatt said such conversations are concerning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Well, it’s a question of whether the commission should be a watchdog or a lapdog. A watchdog would say, wait a minute PG&E what’s going on here? And a lapdog would say, let’s coordinate our message.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269089050/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"undefined\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_86669\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>7) \u003ca name=\"investorRelations\">\u003c/a>“Investor relations” — Sept. 26, 2011\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An email exchange between Commissioner Mark Ferron and PG&E’s Brian Cherry shows Ferron sought advice from PG&E on which Wall Street analysts he should meet with privately on a trip to New York.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mark,” Cherry wrote to Ferron in a Sept. 26, 2011 email, “Commissioner Florio was over at PG&E the other day and mentioned that you might need some help meeting with the buy and sell side analysts in New York. If you are interested, Gabe Togneri, our VP of Investor Relations, would be happy to reach out to some of them and have them sponsor a meeting. Our only role would be to make the contact. The analysts would sponsor the meetings themselves and you would meet with them privately.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferron responded: “[PG&E CEO] Tony Earley … highlighted Dan Ford at Barclays Capital as a thought leader worthwhile meeting if I can find the time. Who else might Gabe recommend?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While there’s no record here of Ferron discussing the proposed San Bruno penalty with Ford, the Barclays analyst was clearly focused on that question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September 2012, Ford authored a report noting that PG&E would have difficulty raising $2.2 billion in equity to cover the expected San Bruno fine amount. (The actual penalty amount, finally determined on April 9 this year, was set at $1.6 billion.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in \u003ca href=\"http://www.ocregister.com/articles/california-530091-puc-state.html\" target=\"_blank\">a report authored by Ferron\u003c/a>, made public in October 2013, the commissioner related investors’ concerns that levying too large a fine against PG&E would cause them to view California as a “capital-unfriendly, ‘banana republic.’” That could lead to an increase in the cost of financing capital for utilities, warned Ferron, who had worked at Deutsche Bank prior to being appointed as a commissioner in March 2011.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferron stepped down as a commissioner in 2014, citing health problems. CPUC spokesperson Constance Gordon said she was unable to offer comment on emails sent by individuals who no longer worked at the commission. Attempts to reach Ferron were unsuccessful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question as to whether commissioners had inappropriate ex parte communications with Wall Street analysts was raised in a brief filed by the CPUC’s Division of Ratepayer Advocates. (Since renamed Office of Ratepayer Advocates).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some, if not all, of the financial industry representatives who reported discussing the San Bruno investigations with Commission offices represent firms or clients with a financial interest in PG&E Corporation,” the CPUC’s consumer advocacy branch pointed out. “The size of the fine and other penalties the Commission may impose in the San Bruno Investigations is a substantive issue in all three [CPUC] investigations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269089048/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-Mn9jh61Mxr2k4WEJWObu&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"0.7586206896551724\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_86425\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>8) \u003ca name=\"happyBirthday\">\u003c/a>“Happy Birthday!” — Sept. 16, 2010\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was 7 a.m. on Sept. 16, 2010, one week after the San Bruno pipeline explosion. CPUC executive director Paul Clanon emailed PG&E’s Brian Cherry with a simple message in the subject line: “Happy Birthday!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Thanks,” Cherry replied. He shared his birthday wish. “I’d love a nice muzzle for Mark Toney.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mark Toney is executive director of The Utility Reform Network (TURN), a leading critic of PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10568624\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Mark-Toney.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-10568624\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Mark-Toney.jpg\" alt=\"Mark Toney, executive director of consumer advocacy group The Utility Reform Network, was the target of an unkind remark in an email from a PG&E executive to the regulatory agency director.\" width=\"600\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Mark-Toney.jpg 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Mark-Toney-400x280.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mark Toney, executive director of consumer advocacy group The Utility Reform Network, was the target of an unkind remark in an email from a PG&E executive to the regulatory agency director. \u003ccite>(Courtesy The Utility Reform Network)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As for why Cherry would have wanted a “muzzle” for Toney, TURN spokesperson Mindy Spatt told KQED that Toney had issued a public statement about customer safety just before this exchange took place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was saying: Demand that PG&E put customer safety first – that is the message that PG&E wanted muzzled, a message that said ‘no more San Brunos,’” Spatt said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Sept. 15, Cherry had emailed Clanon to tell him then-PG&E CEO Peter Darbee believed “TURN’s behavior \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/PG-E-targeted-critics-after-San-Bruno-blast-6054156.php\" target=\"_blank\">has bordered on the irresponsible\u003c/a>.” He wondered whether the CPUC would be willing to make a statement publicly discounting TURN’s claims. While it’s not clear from the emails how Clanon reacted to this request, his email reply to Cherry was: “Call me when you can.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was actually six days after the fatal San Bruno explosion that Brian Cherry referred to TURN’s behavior as irresponsible,” Spatt said when asked about this. “His company has just killed eight people and incinerated an entire neighborhood.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269090899/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"undefined\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_38056\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>9) \u003ca href=\"jerryBrown\">“Get this info to Brown”\u003c/a> -- Jan. 11, 2011\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While it’s obvious why a major utility company would be concerned that its stock had been downgraded, it’s not as clear why a commissioner would care. Upon learning about a financial downgrade, then-CPUC president Michael Peevey recommended that PG&E find a way to indirectly alert Gov. Jerry Brown, who was then in the process of determining new commission appointments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The email thread begins Jan. 11, 2011, when PG&E’s Brian Cherry forwarded Peevey a message from PG&E’s investor relations division about a financial analyst’s report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Citigroup downgraded … PG&E,” the email explained. The note showed that analysts feared “uncertainty and potential shifting dynamics in the regulatory arena.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response, Peevey wrote in an email to Cherry: “You should find a way to get this info to Brown as he makes his decisions on Commissioners ASAP. Probably best coming from a non-utility source, such as investment banker(s).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked why Peevey would provide this advice, CPUC spokesperson Constance Gordon responded, “The questions you’ve asked involve individuals who are no longer with the CPUC, so we cannot ask them your questions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269091157/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"undefined\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_69098\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>10. \u003ca href=\"prozac\">“Prozac might be a solution!”\u003c/a> -- June 4, 2010\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E officials had no idea what they were getting into when the utility began installing smart meters in California in 2006. Smart meters are a critical component of the \"smart grid” -- the devices track energy usage and transmit data back to customers and utilities, with the goal of reducing electricity consumption and distributing power more efficiently across the electric grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smart meters faced an almost \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2010/03/10/the-backlash-against-smartmeters/\" target=\"_blank\">immediate backlash\u003c/a>. Users first complained that the devices gave artificially high readings. Later the \u003ca href=\"https://www.scribd.com/doc/269092309/Smart-Meter-Investigation-Findings-by-CPUC\" target=\"_blank\">CPUC found\u003c/a> that about 1,480 meters inaccurately recorded electricity consumption in ambient temperatures ranging from 100– 115 degrees Fahrenheit due to a defective chip. Nevertheless, \u003ca href=\"http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/EFILE/RULINGS/122935.PDF\" target=\"_blank\">a study\u003c/a> conducted by an independent consultant, The Structure Group, determined that the meters generally functioned as intended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next, consumer advocacy groups, including TURN, \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2010/06/13/dumbfounded-by-smartmeters/\" target=\"_blank\">raised concerns\u003c/a> that the meters would harm people like seniors who sometimes have no choice but to run their air conditioners in the sweltering Central Valley. TURN also noted that with smart meters, PG&E could simply turn off people’s power if they couldn’t keep up with the bills. Privacy advocates expressed concern about utilities gaining access to information about their use of personal home appliances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10568672\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/4-43EMF_300.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-10568672\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/4-43EMF_300.jpg\" alt=\"A sign from a smart meter protest in 2010.\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign from a smart meter protest in 2010. \u003ccite>(Amy Standen/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The biggest battle over smart meters, though, centered on electromagnetic fields (EMFs) emitted by smart meters. The possible health effects of EMFs have been a subject of debate since the \u003ca href=\"http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918076,00.html\" target=\"_blank\">Cold War\u003c/a>, and fear has intensified in the wireless age with the introduction of countless devices that emit EMFs, such as cellphones, laptops and Wi-Fi routers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/radiation/magnetic-fields-fact-sheet\" target=\"_blank\">The National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute\u003c/a> says that “several early epidemiologic studies raised the possibility of an association between certain cancers, especially childhood cancers, and ELF-EMFs. Most subsequent studies have not shown such an association.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike high-energy radiation emitted from devices like X-rays, low-energy emissions from devices like smart meters cannot damage DNA or cells directly, the NIH writes. \u003ca href=\"http://www.who.int/peh-emf/research/en/\" target=\"_blank\">The World Health Organization concluded\u003c/a> that low-energy emissions cause “no substantive health issues.” Smart-meter emissions are 60 times lower than the federal health guidelines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EMF activists remain concerned, however, about the accumulated exposure people face from being surrounded by so many low-emission devices. And they’ve flooded the CPUC and PG&E with complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By June 4, 2010, Carol Brown, then-CPUC President Michael Peevey’s chief-of-staff, wanted an answer for the people contacting her about EMFs. She wrote to then-PG&E executive Brian Cherry: “So far I have done OK just listening to the sad tales of EMF poisoning - and telling them thank you for bringing it to our attention - but then not offering them any solution!!! I just wanted to have a resource in case! Have a nice weekend.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cherry responded: “Prozac might be a solution!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, cities, including San Francisco, began petitioning the CPUC to make smart meters optional.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peevey recommended to Cherry in an email in September 2010 that PG&E consider making the meters optional:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One thought for the company: If it were my decision I would let anyone who wants to keep their old meter keep it, if they claim they suffer from EMF and/or related electronic-related illnesses and they can produce a doctor's letter saying so (or expressing concern about the likelihood of suffering same). I would institute such a policy quietly and solely on an individual basis. There really are people who feel pain, etc., related to EMF, etc., and rather than have them becoming hysterical, etc., I would quietly leave them alone. Kick it around. And, it sounds like the company may already have taken this step, based on a couple of the comments at yesterday's public hearing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cherry said that he would consider it: “I do worry that this policy, no matter how discrete (sic) we try to make it, will surface and town councils and cities in our territory will ask for similar treatment. That said, we will take the matter up and get back to you with our feedback.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March 2011, PG&E proposed allowing smart meter users to opt out. The CPUC approved that plan in February 2012. Customers who opt out of the program must pay an initial fee and monthly charge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269089051/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"undefined\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_26891\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ca name=\"whatHappened\">\u003c/a>Where Are They Now?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brian Cherry\u003c/strong>, PG&E’s vice president of regulatory affairs, was fired from PG&E in September of 2014, after inappropriate email exchanges came to light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Bottorff\u003c/strong>, PG&E’s senior vice president of regulatory affairs and Cherry’s boss, was fired along with Cherry. According to a San Jose Mercury News article he was to receive a severance payment totaling more than $1 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chris Johns\u003c/strong>, president of PG&E, \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/05/27/pge-president-to-retire-as-utility-faces-mounting-scrutiny\" target=\"_blank\">announced several weeks\u003c/a> ago that he would retire by the end of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Peevey\u003c/strong>, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, stepped down from his role after his term came to an end in December of 2014. Peevey came under fire for inappropriate email exchanges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Paul Clanon\u003c/strong>, executive director of the California Public Utilities Commission, announced at the end of December that he would retire to study music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Ferron\u003c/strong>, former commissioner at the California Public Utilities Commission, resigned in December of 2014 due to health problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carol Brown\u003c/strong>, former commission president Peevey’s chief of staff, stepped down in the wake of revelations that she had agreed to intervene on a judge appointment for a case involving PG&E. Despite news reports that she might return to the agency as an administrative law judge, a CPUC spokesperson confirmed to KQED that Brown has retired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Florio\u003c/strong>, who was also entangled in the judge-shopping scandal, remains as a commissioner at the California Public Utilities Commission.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">I\u003c/span>n the years since the September 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people in San Bruno, the relationship between pipeline operator Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and high-ranking officials at the California Public Utilities Commission has come under intense scrutiny, undermining public trust in the state agency tasked with ensuring safe pipeline operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State prosecutors and a federal grand jury are currently zeroing in on alleged improper ties between PG&E and top state regulators. \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/01/29/report-former-cpuc-chief-targeted-in-state-probe\" target=\"_blank\">State investigators\u003c/a> acting on a search warrant earlier this year seized iPhones, a laptop and bank statements from the residence of former CPUC President Michael Peevey and took similar items from the home of PG&E's former Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Brian Cherry, all on suspicion of felony activity relating to a judge-shopping scandal brought to light by email records.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those exchanges were made public in the wake of civil litigation brought on behalf of San Bruno, when a judge ordered PG&E to release records consisting of some 65,000 emails and 123,000 documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright pullquote\">A PG&E executive and CPUC official were on 2,369 of the same email threads using their official email addresses — that’s an average of 11 times a week.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>KQED has taken a detailed look into this correspondence, which reveals in granular detail the familiar relationships between key decision-makers and PG&E executives that lasted well beyond the San Bruno incident. There are multiple instances of Peevey arranging to meet with Cherry for holiday visits that involved sipping wine — a keyword search of the email records for the words “pinot” or “cabernet,” for example, yielded 16 separate items.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But two of the closest confidants were Cherry and then-CPUC Executive Director Paul Clanon. The collection of documents provided by PG&E shows that between 2010 and 2014, Cherry and Clanon were on 2,369 of the same email threads using their official email addresses -- that's an average of 11 times a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although some of these emails were sent years ago, an attempt to force a cultural change at the CPUC is only now making its way through the California Legislature. In an attempt to reform CPUC operations, the Senate recently approved \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml;jsessionid=ccfbe52d6f35026fdd9d2a7e2414?bill_id=201520160SB660\" target=\"_blank\">SB 660\u003c/a>, a bill that would overhaul decision-making processes and restrict private exchanges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview with KQED, CPUC President Michael Picker said that the agency read every email released, conducted legal reviews and went through the state personnel process when breaches occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency focused on correspondence from about 80 people below the level of commissioner. Some individuals left the CPUC prior to or during the review. The agency determined that action was not warranted against 54 of the people who remained on staff. CPUC spokeswoman Constance Gordon said \"individuals whose emails raised more serious issues\" -- the agency won't say how many -- received \"counseling memos\" or \"letters of correction.\" The agency also held a staff training in appropriate email decorum in April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The challenge is that we are built for a different era, we were built in a time before emails,\" Picker said. \"Emails tend toward much more casual relationships. That’s a problem because when you start to get at a certain level of casualness, then you can slide into other kinds of ethical breaches.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Picker said that communications between PG&E staff and CPUC employees are currently banned for procedural cases. However, he said, the two staffs must be able to talk to each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We can’t do our jobs. We can’t guarantee that the electric system, the gas system work properly, we can’t make sure that people are being protected against unsafe infrastructure unless we are always in communication with the utilities. So if we’re not in contact with PG&E that’s as big of a problem and maybe a larger problem then some of the improper comportment,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E fired Cherry, as well as Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Tom Bottorff and Vice President of Regulatory Proceedings Trina Horner, following the company's internal investigation into the emails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E spokesman Nick Stimmel \u003ca href=\"https://www.scribd.com/doc/269092248/CPUC-and-PG-E-Emails-PG-E-Statement-to-KQED\" target=\"_blank\">wrote in a statement\u003c/a>: \"With respect to the email issue, we have produced tens of thousands of emails voluntarily and in response to regulatory and legal requirements and we continue to cooperate with all investigations. In the meantime, we will let the content of the emails speak for themselves; we are not going to speculate about motivations or the actions of people who are no longer in roles with the CPUC or the company or about events that may or may not have occurred.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Below we highlight 10 email exchanges that demonstrate just how cozy ties between regulators and the regulated have been in day-to-day CPUC operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the emails\u003c/p>\n\u003ctable>\n\u003ctbody>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>1) \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#controlRoom\">“The Control Room Audit”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> Sept. 14, 2011\u003cbr>\n2) \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#angels\">“Charlie’s Angels”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> Oct. 18, 2011\u003cbr>\n3) \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#seaRanch\">“Sea Ranch over Thanksgiving”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> Nov. 24, 2010\u003cbr>\n4) \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#Jellystone\">“How was Jellystone?”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> Sept. 12, 2010\u003cbr>\n5) \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#anyThoughts\">“Any thoughts – non-attributed of course?”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> Oct. 20, 2010\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>6) \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#parallelUniverses\">“We live in parallel universes…”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> January 10, 2011\u003cbr>\n7) \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#investorRelations\">“Investor relations”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> Sept. 26, 2011\u003cbr>\n8)\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#happyBirthday\"> “Happy Birthday!”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> Sept. 16, 2010\u003cbr>\n9) \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#jerryBrown\">“Get this info to [Jerry] Brown”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> January 11, 2011\u003cbr>\n10) \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#prozac\">“Prozac might be a solution!”\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> June 4, 2010\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#whatHappened\">Where Are They Now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003c/tbody>\n\u003c/table>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1) \u003ca name=\"controlRoom\">\u003c/a>“The Control Room Audit” -- Sept. 14, 2011\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the aftermath of the pipeline rupture that caused the San Bruno explosion, PG&E’s control room management became a focal point for safety improvement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Natural gas pipelines may traverse thousands of miles. In a control room, pressure and flow across the underground network are monitored remotely. The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration moved to amend federal pipeline safety regulations in the months after San Bruno, imposing tougher regulations on control room operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But according to an email from PG&E’s Brian Cherry to CPUC’s then-Executive Director Paul Clanon, dated Sept. 14, 2011, the company encountered “some pressing problems” relating to a “control room audit.” Accordingly, Cherry wondered whether Clanon would be willing to “focus elsewhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10568616\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/LaHood-Speier-San-Bruno-e1434683321797.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-10568616\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/LaHood-Speier-San-Bruno-800x619.jpg\" alt=\"In this photo from May of 2011, federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood tours the site of the PG&E San Bruno pipeline explosion with Congressional Representative Jackie Speier.\" width=\"800\" height=\"619\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In this photo from May of 2011, federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood tours the site of the PG&E San Bruno pipeline explosion with Congressional Representative Jackie Speier. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Paul – hope you are enjoying yourself in Jellystone but stay away from the wayward bison,” Cherry wrote. “I received a request from Nick [Stavropoulos, PG&E’s executive vice president of gas operations] and Chris [Johns, president of PG&E] … to seek your advice and counsel on the control room audit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Nick and Chris know we have problems in this area and would like you to focus elsewhere for the moment so that we can address some pressing problems. … Nick stated that you once offered to help out in any way you could if the Commission was becoming an obstacle to us getting the work done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A formal letter sent to Clanon about two weeks later on PG&E stationary shows the company was preparing for a visit from an independent consultant hired by the CPUC to inspect control-room operations. This audit was conducted to ensure compliance with federal rules. So was PG&E granted a delay? CPUC spokeswoman Constance Gordon said she could not comment on Clanon’s email directly, since he no longer works at the CPUC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Commission President Michael Picker, who replaced Peevey after he stepped down last year, said that he could not comment directly on the contents of the email, either, since he was unfamiliar with the audit. However, he said, \"No one’s ever asked me to focus elsewhere. Chances are that would make me want to focus more.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reached by phone, Clanon declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269089045/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-LCWXLFaD7vmtymd0YBHr&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"0.7586206896551724\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_25733\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>2) \u003ca name=\"angels\">\u003c/a>“Charlie’s Angels” -- Oct. 18, 2011\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Oct. 18, 2011, PG&E’s Brian Cherry forwarded CPUC President Mike Peevey an email attachment with the note “FYI.” It was a letter from Rep. Jackie Speier to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, urging LaHood to require natural gas operators to remove from their networks a kind of plastic pipe, Aldyl-A, which is prone to cracking. PG&E has 1,231 miles of the pipe in its system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roughly six weeks earlier, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Plastic-natural-gas-pipe-failure-data-kept-secret-2308629.php\" target=\"_blank\">a Cupertino condominium had been destroyed\u003c/a>, in an explosion and fire caused by a gas leak due to a cracked fitting in a plastic Aldyl-A pipe. When it investigated the cause of the blast, PG&E found six other plastic pipe failures near the blast site, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10568615\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Bernardus_Site-Photos-from-Everett_Medium-Resolution_04-17-15-17317.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-10568615\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Bernardus_Site-Photos-from-Everett_Medium-Resolution_04-17-15-17317-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"Former California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey and PG&E executive Brian Cherry made dinner plans at the Bernardus Lodge & Spa, shown here, in October of 2011.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Bernardus_Site-Photos-from-Everett_Medium-Resolution_04-17-15-17317-800x532.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Bernardus_Site-Photos-from-Everett_Medium-Resolution_04-17-15-17317-400x266.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Bernardus_Site-Photos-from-Everett_Medium-Resolution_04-17-15-17317-960x639.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Bernardus_Site-Photos-from-Everett_Medium-Resolution_04-17-15-17317.jpg 1100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey and PG&E executive Brian Cherry made dinner plans at the Bernardus Lodge & Spa, shown here, in October of 2011. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Bernardus Lodge & Spa)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In response to Cherry's email, Peevey thanked Cherry for the update. Then the CPUC president moved onto another topic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“See you for dinner Sunday night,” he wrote. “Where and when? Are you bringing Charlie's Angels too?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cherry responded: “7:30 at Marinus in the Bernardus Lodge in the Carmel Valley. About 20 minutes or so from Monterey but well worth the drive. We can make it earlier if you wish.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added, “Some angels may attend.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/angelstext.png\">\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10568675\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/angelstext.png\" alt=\"angelstext\" width=\"796\" height=\"357\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/angelstext.png 796w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/angelstext-400x179.png 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 796px) 100vw, 796px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Sunday night\" would have marked the start of the annual meeting of the The Conference of California Public Utility Counsel (CCPUC) at the Monterey Plaza Hotel. The nonprofit organization, which describes itself on the web as a “non-profit mutual benefit corporation,” has representatives from PG&E and other utilities on its board of directors. According to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ccpuc.org/Past_Events?action=setup_form&formID=57\" target=\"_blank\">conference agenda\u003c/a>, Peevey was scheduled to speak at the conference on Monday, Oct. 24, 2011.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conference itinerary shows that the evening activity on Sunday, Oct. 23 was a group activity –- attendees would be treated to a “reception and strolling dinner” at the Monterey Bay Aquarium from 7 to 9:30 p.m. But this email thread suggests Peevey and Cherry had other plans. The Bernardus Lodge & Spa is a luxury facility often booked for off-site corporate retreats, according to its website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While it’s unclear who, or what, the men were referring to when they discussed whether “Charlie’s Angels” would attend, at the very least the detail illustrates close enough ties for them to share a mutual understanding about a coded phrase. Attempts to reach Cherry and Peevey by phone were unsuccessful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269090620/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"undefined\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_59557\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>3) \u003ca name=\"seaRanch\">\u003c/a>“Sea Ranch over Thanksgiving” -- Nov. 24, 2010\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Nov. 24, 2010, about six weeks after the San Bruno pipeline explosion, PG&E’s Brian Cherry emailed CPUC President Mike Peevey with some good news -- plus an invitation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10568674\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 796px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/thanksgivingtext.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-10568674\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/thanksgivingtext.png\" alt=\"“Mike – FYI. Fish and Game letter on Manzana. Very positive,” he wrote. “Also – Sara and I will be in Sea Ranch over Thanksgiving. We’d be happy to have you and Carol [Peevey’s wife, Democratic Sen. Carol Liu] over for drinks or dinner if you are free. I’ve got plenty of great wine to drink.”\" width=\"796\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/thanksgivingtext.png 796w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/thanksgivingtext-400x131.png 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 796px) 100vw, 796px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">“Mike – FYI. Fish and Game letter on Manzana. Very positive,” he wrote. “Also – Sara and I will be in Sea Ranch over Thanksgiving. We’d be happy to have you and Carol [Peevey’s wife, Democratic Sen. Carol Liu] over for drinks or dinner if you are free. I’ve got plenty of great wine to drink.”\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Less than an hour later, Peevey responded. “Thanks for the offer but all tied up with family. Next time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Records show that while Peevey at that time declined Cherry’s invitation to the Sonoma County vacation spot, he took him up on similar offers on other occasions. The men shared “\u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-puc-scandal-20141009-story.html\" target=\"_blank\">two bottles of good pinot\u003c/a>” over Memorial Day weekend in 2010, for example, while they discussed renewable energy, gas rate increases and a ballot measure campaign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, “Manzana” refers to PG&E’s proposed \u003ca href=\"http://www.pge.com/about/newsroom/newsreleases/20091203/pge_agrees_to_purchase_and_operate_major_california_wind_energy_project.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">Manzana Wind Project\u003c/a> in Kern County’s Tehachapi region, a $911 million, 246-megawatt renewable energy project that PG&E proposed in late 2009 and was then before the commission for approval. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife had reviewed the project’s environmental impacts out of concern that the wind turbines \u003ca href=\"http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddwoody/2012/01/04/revival-of-iconic-california-condor-threatens-states-wind-farm-boom/\" target=\"_blank\">could kill endangered California condors\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier that year, Cherry had emailed Peevey with information from PG&E’s investor relations division, citing a report from a Deutsche Bank financial analyst about the Manzana project. “Analysts are tracking Manzana … closely,” that email noted, with bankers considering it one of “the largest upcoming cases for the rest of the year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the Manzana project never came to fruition. An independent review by the CPUC’s Division of Ratepayer Advocates ultimately found that the wind project would have left customers bearing “significant risk and an unreasonable price tag.” The commission ultimately denied PG&E’s application.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269091741/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"undefined\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_58078\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>4) \u003ca name=\"Jellystone\">\u003c/a>“Can you guys help me with this?” -- Sept. 12, 2010\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only three days had passed since the fatal San Bruno pipeline explosion. With images of the blaze still fresh in the media, the CPUC issued a press release to outline its planned response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State and federal investigations were already underway. In an open memo, then-CPUC President Michael Peevey directed then-Executive Director Paul Clanon to compel PG&E to survey its lines for gas leaks. He demanded an inquiry into PG&E’s spending on pipeline safety and promised, “We are taking immediate action.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that same afternoon, Peevey emailed Clanon with a different request entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“First thing tomorrow,” he wrote, “See if you can schedule Darbee and Johns in my office at 2 PM Thursday.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was referring to PG&E's then-CEO Peter Darbee and then-President Chris Johns. Clanon immediately forwarded the request to two PG&E executives, including Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Brian Cherry, asking, “Can you guys help me with this?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10568681\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/SB-explosion.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-10568681\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/SB-explosion-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Chimneys remain during a massive fire in a residential neighborhood in September 2010 in San Bruno.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/SB-explosion-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/SB-explosion-400x267.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/SB-explosion.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/SB-explosion-960x640.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chimneys remain during a massive fire in a residential neighborhood in September 2010 in San Bruno. \u003ccite>(Max Whittaker/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Under many circumstances, a meeting between Peevey, a key decision-maker, and PG&E’s top brass about a matter under investigation would be a violation of state regulations designed to ensure fair dealing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under state law, contact between decision-makers and interested parties held outside the formal public process are known as ex parte communications. Whether they take the form of face-to-face meetings, texts or emails, these communications are subject to detailed regulations. And when a formal investigation is involved -- designated as an “adjudicatory proceeding” since commissioners act in the capacity of a judge -- no ex parte contact is allowed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nevertheless, CPUC spokesperson Constance Gordon told KQED that this particular meeting did not violate ex parte rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The investigation that began immediately following PG&E’s pipeline rupture was a staff investigation,” Gordon said, “not a formal investigation opened by a vote of the Commissioners,” which came later. “As such, ex parte rules would not apply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the meeting arrangements were made, Clanon switched to a lighter topic: “How was Jellystone?” he asked Cherry, a possible reference to Yellowstone National Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Amazing,” Cherry responded. “Saw so much wildlife. But it snowed the other day and I brought shorts!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cherry urged Clanon to plan his own vacation there. Meanwhile not 72 hours had passed since the fatal San Bruno pipeline explosion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Things keep coming up at my work,” Clanon responded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Uh. Yes,” Cherry shot back. “You have a challenging job. Guess that’s why they pay you the big bucks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269090271/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-GgrivqLXfuWWWUDiHNXu&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"0.7586206896551724\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_42402\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>5) \u003ca name=\"anyThoughts\">\u003c/a>“Any thoughts – non-attributed of course?” — Oct. 20, 2010\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four years worth of emails show that former PG&E executive\u003cbr>\nBrian Cherry and former CPUC Executive Director Paul Clanon consulted with each other hundreds of times. While the below emails are not illegal, they are good examples of how Cherry and Clanon often bounced ideas off of each other or problem-solved together. On Oct. 20, 2010, Clanon wrote to Cherry:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What are we going to do about the San Bruno demand that the pipeline be moved? I can certainly understand on the human level why they'd want that, even though it might not make a lot of operational or design sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cherry responded, “We are struggling with that. There are a couple different re-routes ... Between you and me, I think we should repair 132 temporarily while offering up a longer-term solution involving re-routing. … Any thoughts - non-attributed of course ?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clanon did have an idea on how PG&E could “frame” moving the pipeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the way to frame the pipe-replacement issue is not to think of it as Line 132, but to think of it as, what, two or three miles?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next week, then-PG&E President Chris Johns \u003ca href=\"http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/NR/rdonlyres/339C7284-F731-46B1-BB51-8A1D86B3BE0A/0/20101027134941.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">released a statement\u003c/a> pledging to move the pipeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The section of Line 132 that exploded was not repaired in the end. PG&E \u003ca href=\"http://www.rebuildcrestmoor.org/files/managed/Document/221/Line%20132_109%20Alignment.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">rerouted\u003c/a> the transmission line so that the gas now flows through Line 109 at San Andreas Station and returns to Line 132 at Healy Station, both in San Bruno.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright pullquote\">'Any thoughts — non-attributed of course?'\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>Former PG&E executive Brian Cherry\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The CPUC had ordered PG&E to examine shutoff valves. In the same email, Cherry said that the agency had identified more than 200 valves that needed to be replaced. However, he was concerned that there would be a public outcry if he released that number.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we tell you the number of valves that have been identified and don't have these kinds of estimates, everyone will demand immediate replacement - which just can't be done for a variety of reasons.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clanon responded to Cherry: “Yeah, cost and time estimates for the valves are crucial.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E's lack of automatic shutoff valves had come under scrutiny by federal officials at the time. National Transportation Safety Board officials found that it took the utility almost 95 minutes to shut off the gas rushing from the ruptured San Bruno pipeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keith Slibasager, PG&E’s gas system operations manager, testified during the NTSB’s public hearing on the San Bruno explosion that the company could have cut the gas within 20 minutes if the utility had installed automatic valves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/PAR1101.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">2006 PG&E memo\u003c/a> shows that PG&E considered installing automatic safety valves, but did not. A PG&E senior gas-consulting engineer, Chi-hung Lee Sr., wrote in the memo that he found most of the damage from a pipeline explosion occurs within 30 seconds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The engineer later testified at the NTSB hearing that his research was limited. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and other safety groups had reached different conclusions about shutoff valves. Federal safety officials have suggested, but not required, the use of automatic shutoff valves since 1999. PG&E officials acknowledged at the hearing that after Lee's memo they made no effort to further install the valves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the San Bruno explosion, PG&E has installed 208 automated valves that the utility can shut off remotely from a control room and 14 automatic shutoff valves that can shut themselves off in areas where transmission pipelines cross major fault lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269090994/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"undefined\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_43929\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>6) \u003ca name=\"paralellUniverses\">\u003c/a>“We live in parallel universes…” — Jan. 10, 2011\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2008, PG&E purposely boosted pressure on the San Bruno natural gas line to 400 pounds per square inch, the maximum legal limit. Normally, the line ran at 375 psi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next time the pressure on that gas line exceeded 375 psi was on Sept. 9, 2010, when a malfunction spiked the pressure to 386 psi, coinciding with the deadly explosion in San Bruno killing eight people and destroying 28 homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E later said they increased the pressure in 2008 under a mistaken understanding of federal law. The utility believed that to maintain the ability to run gas at 400 psi, the legal limit, they needed to do so once every five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/PG-E-surge-may-have-stressed-San-Bruno-line-in-08-2478734.php\" target=\"_blank\">San Francisco Chronicle investigation\u003c/a> published on Jan. 9, 2011, revealed that the earlier pressure surge could have weakened the pipeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E and CPUC officials referenced the story the next day, Jan. 10. At 9:35 a.m. Paul Clanon, then-executive director of the California Public Utilities Commission, wrote to senior CPUC staff asking about the spike:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Chronicle's story on the 2008 temporary rise in pressure on Line 132 to 400 psi doesn't match what I've heard. What are the facts? Is it standard practice or not to raise pressure up to MAOP [maximum allowable operating pressure] to preserve the maximum? Is 2008 really the only time PG&E has raised pressure on that line above 375 until the explosion?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 30 minutes later he contacted former PG&E executive Brian Cherry: “What are your guys saying about the facts in the Chron story yesterday? Contradicted my understanding of the rules, anyway.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10568621\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Paul-Clanon-e1434683647732.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-10568621\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Paul-Clanon-800x602.jpg\" alt=\"Paul Clanon speaks at a September 28, 2010 Senate committee hearing on gas pipeline safety. \" width=\"800\" height=\"602\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paul Clanon speaks at a September 28, 2010 Senate committee hearing on gas pipeline safety. \u003ccite>(Alex Wong/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Two minutes later Cherry shared his confusion: “Not sure. Let me follow up. I was under the same understanding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clanon wrote back at 10:48: “Our guys are doing the same thing, and you and I can triangulate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is not standard practice for utilities to raise pressure on transmission lines, and federal law requires utilities to conduct a costly inspection on any pipeline when the pressure exceeds the maximum limit. PG&E had not conducted such an inspection, nor did Clanon ask if they had in the emails released.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 4:53 p.m. Cherry and Clanon began to be concerned that neither PG&E nor CPUC staff could come up with an answer about whether such pressure spiking on a gas line was a normal practice. The two sympathized with each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clanon wrote Cherry: “Nothing back yet?” Cherry responded “Nothing yet…” and later “We live in parallel universes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About an hour later, Clanon had received research from CPUC staff and wanted to run it by Cherry:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Here's what I get from my people. You agree? Follows: PG&E raises the pressure in transmission lines to MAOP once every five years based on its conservative interpretation of 192.917(e)(4)…”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next day, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/PG-E-halts-intentional-gas-line-pressure-spikes-2478613.php\" target=\"_blank\">a Chronicle story\u003c/a> included a statement from a PG&E spokesperson that was very similar to what Clanon had written. “PG&E initially said it had conducted the pressure test on the San Bruno line to ‘preserve’ the pipe's legal capacity, saying federal law required it. A spokesman later backtracked and conceded there was no such requirement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CPUC spokesperson Constance Gordon says that Clanon and Cherry were discussing each other's understanding of the rules, so \"if PG&E had a different understanding than that of CPUC staff the issue could be further discussed.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Utility Reform Network is one of PG&E’s sharpest critics. TURN spokesperson Mindy Spatt said such conversations are concerning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Well, it’s a question of whether the commission should be a watchdog or a lapdog. A watchdog would say, wait a minute PG&E what’s going on here? And a lapdog would say, let’s coordinate our message.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269089050/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"undefined\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_86669\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>7) \u003ca name=\"investorRelations\">\u003c/a>“Investor relations” — Sept. 26, 2011\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An email exchange between Commissioner Mark Ferron and PG&E’s Brian Cherry shows Ferron sought advice from PG&E on which Wall Street analysts he should meet with privately on a trip to New York.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mark,” Cherry wrote to Ferron in a Sept. 26, 2011 email, “Commissioner Florio was over at PG&E the other day and mentioned that you might need some help meeting with the buy and sell side analysts in New York. If you are interested, Gabe Togneri, our VP of Investor Relations, would be happy to reach out to some of them and have them sponsor a meeting. Our only role would be to make the contact. The analysts would sponsor the meetings themselves and you would meet with them privately.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferron responded: “[PG&E CEO] Tony Earley … highlighted Dan Ford at Barclays Capital as a thought leader worthwhile meeting if I can find the time. Who else might Gabe recommend?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While there’s no record here of Ferron discussing the proposed San Bruno penalty with Ford, the Barclays analyst was clearly focused on that question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September 2012, Ford authored a report noting that PG&E would have difficulty raising $2.2 billion in equity to cover the expected San Bruno fine amount. (The actual penalty amount, finally determined on April 9 this year, was set at $1.6 billion.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in \u003ca href=\"http://www.ocregister.com/articles/california-530091-puc-state.html\" target=\"_blank\">a report authored by Ferron\u003c/a>, made public in October 2013, the commissioner related investors’ concerns that levying too large a fine against PG&E would cause them to view California as a “capital-unfriendly, ‘banana republic.’” That could lead to an increase in the cost of financing capital for utilities, warned Ferron, who had worked at Deutsche Bank prior to being appointed as a commissioner in March 2011.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferron stepped down as a commissioner in 2014, citing health problems. CPUC spokesperson Constance Gordon said she was unable to offer comment on emails sent by individuals who no longer worked at the commission. Attempts to reach Ferron were unsuccessful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question as to whether commissioners had inappropriate ex parte communications with Wall Street analysts was raised in a brief filed by the CPUC’s Division of Ratepayer Advocates. (Since renamed Office of Ratepayer Advocates).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some, if not all, of the financial industry representatives who reported discussing the San Bruno investigations with Commission offices represent firms or clients with a financial interest in PG&E Corporation,” the CPUC’s consumer advocacy branch pointed out. “The size of the fine and other penalties the Commission may impose in the San Bruno Investigations is a substantive issue in all three [CPUC] investigations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269089048/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-Mn9jh61Mxr2k4WEJWObu&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"0.7586206896551724\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_86425\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>8) \u003ca name=\"happyBirthday\">\u003c/a>“Happy Birthday!” — Sept. 16, 2010\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was 7 a.m. on Sept. 16, 2010, one week after the San Bruno pipeline explosion. CPUC executive director Paul Clanon emailed PG&E’s Brian Cherry with a simple message in the subject line: “Happy Birthday!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Thanks,” Cherry replied. He shared his birthday wish. “I’d love a nice muzzle for Mark Toney.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mark Toney is executive director of The Utility Reform Network (TURN), a leading critic of PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10568624\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Mark-Toney.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-10568624\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Mark-Toney.jpg\" alt=\"Mark Toney, executive director of consumer advocacy group The Utility Reform Network, was the target of an unkind remark in an email from a PG&E executive to the regulatory agency director.\" width=\"600\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Mark-Toney.jpg 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Mark-Toney-400x280.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mark Toney, executive director of consumer advocacy group The Utility Reform Network, was the target of an unkind remark in an email from a PG&E executive to the regulatory agency director. \u003ccite>(Courtesy The Utility Reform Network)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As for why Cherry would have wanted a “muzzle” for Toney, TURN spokesperson Mindy Spatt told KQED that Toney had issued a public statement about customer safety just before this exchange took place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was saying: Demand that PG&E put customer safety first – that is the message that PG&E wanted muzzled, a message that said ‘no more San Brunos,’” Spatt said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Sept. 15, Cherry had emailed Clanon to tell him then-PG&E CEO Peter Darbee believed “TURN’s behavior \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/PG-E-targeted-critics-after-San-Bruno-blast-6054156.php\" target=\"_blank\">has bordered on the irresponsible\u003c/a>.” He wondered whether the CPUC would be willing to make a statement publicly discounting TURN’s claims. While it’s not clear from the emails how Clanon reacted to this request, his email reply to Cherry was: “Call me when you can.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was actually six days after the fatal San Bruno explosion that Brian Cherry referred to TURN’s behavior as irresponsible,” Spatt said when asked about this. “His company has just killed eight people and incinerated an entire neighborhood.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269090899/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"undefined\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_38056\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>9) \u003ca href=\"jerryBrown\">“Get this info to Brown”\u003c/a> -- Jan. 11, 2011\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While it’s obvious why a major utility company would be concerned that its stock had been downgraded, it’s not as clear why a commissioner would care. Upon learning about a financial downgrade, then-CPUC president Michael Peevey recommended that PG&E find a way to indirectly alert Gov. Jerry Brown, who was then in the process of determining new commission appointments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The email thread begins Jan. 11, 2011, when PG&E’s Brian Cherry forwarded Peevey a message from PG&E’s investor relations division about a financial analyst’s report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Citigroup downgraded … PG&E,” the email explained. The note showed that analysts feared “uncertainty and potential shifting dynamics in the regulatory arena.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response, Peevey wrote in an email to Cherry: “You should find a way to get this info to Brown as he makes his decisions on Commissioners ASAP. Probably best coming from a non-utility source, such as investment banker(s).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked why Peevey would provide this advice, CPUC spokesperson Constance Gordon responded, “The questions you’ve asked involve individuals who are no longer with the CPUC, so we cannot ask them your questions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269091157/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"undefined\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_69098\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>10. \u003ca href=\"prozac\">“Prozac might be a solution!”\u003c/a> -- June 4, 2010\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E officials had no idea what they were getting into when the utility began installing smart meters in California in 2006. Smart meters are a critical component of the \"smart grid” -- the devices track energy usage and transmit data back to customers and utilities, with the goal of reducing electricity consumption and distributing power more efficiently across the electric grid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smart meters faced an almost \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2010/03/10/the-backlash-against-smartmeters/\" target=\"_blank\">immediate backlash\u003c/a>. Users first complained that the devices gave artificially high readings. Later the \u003ca href=\"https://www.scribd.com/doc/269092309/Smart-Meter-Investigation-Findings-by-CPUC\" target=\"_blank\">CPUC found\u003c/a> that about 1,480 meters inaccurately recorded electricity consumption in ambient temperatures ranging from 100– 115 degrees Fahrenheit due to a defective chip. Nevertheless, \u003ca href=\"http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/EFILE/RULINGS/122935.PDF\" target=\"_blank\">a study\u003c/a> conducted by an independent consultant, The Structure Group, determined that the meters generally functioned as intended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next, consumer advocacy groups, including TURN, \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2010/06/13/dumbfounded-by-smartmeters/\" target=\"_blank\">raised concerns\u003c/a> that the meters would harm people like seniors who sometimes have no choice but to run their air conditioners in the sweltering Central Valley. TURN also noted that with smart meters, PG&E could simply turn off people’s power if they couldn’t keep up with the bills. Privacy advocates expressed concern about utilities gaining access to information about their use of personal home appliances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10568672\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/4-43EMF_300.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-10568672\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/4-43EMF_300.jpg\" alt=\"A sign from a smart meter protest in 2010.\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign from a smart meter protest in 2010. \u003ccite>(Amy Standen/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The biggest battle over smart meters, though, centered on electromagnetic fields (EMFs) emitted by smart meters. The possible health effects of EMFs have been a subject of debate since the \u003ca href=\"http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918076,00.html\" target=\"_blank\">Cold War\u003c/a>, and fear has intensified in the wireless age with the introduction of countless devices that emit EMFs, such as cellphones, laptops and Wi-Fi routers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/radiation/magnetic-fields-fact-sheet\" target=\"_blank\">The National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute\u003c/a> says that “several early epidemiologic studies raised the possibility of an association between certain cancers, especially childhood cancers, and ELF-EMFs. Most subsequent studies have not shown such an association.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike high-energy radiation emitted from devices like X-rays, low-energy emissions from devices like smart meters cannot damage DNA or cells directly, the NIH writes. \u003ca href=\"http://www.who.int/peh-emf/research/en/\" target=\"_blank\">The World Health Organization concluded\u003c/a> that low-energy emissions cause “no substantive health issues.” Smart-meter emissions are 60 times lower than the federal health guidelines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EMF activists remain concerned, however, about the accumulated exposure people face from being surrounded by so many low-emission devices. And they’ve flooded the CPUC and PG&E with complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By June 4, 2010, Carol Brown, then-CPUC President Michael Peevey’s chief-of-staff, wanted an answer for the people contacting her about EMFs. She wrote to then-PG&E executive Brian Cherry: “So far I have done OK just listening to the sad tales of EMF poisoning - and telling them thank you for bringing it to our attention - but then not offering them any solution!!! I just wanted to have a resource in case! Have a nice weekend.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cherry responded: “Prozac might be a solution!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, cities, including San Francisco, began petitioning the CPUC to make smart meters optional.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Peevey recommended to Cherry in an email in September 2010 that PG&E consider making the meters optional:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One thought for the company: If it were my decision I would let anyone who wants to keep their old meter keep it, if they claim they suffer from EMF and/or related electronic-related illnesses and they can produce a doctor's letter saying so (or expressing concern about the likelihood of suffering same). I would institute such a policy quietly and solely on an individual basis. There really are people who feel pain, etc., related to EMF, etc., and rather than have them becoming hysterical, etc., I would quietly leave them alone. Kick it around. And, it sounds like the company may already have taken this step, based on a couple of the comments at yesterday's public hearing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cherry said that he would consider it: “I do worry that this policy, no matter how discrete (sic) we try to make it, will surface and town councils and cities in our territory will ask for similar treatment. That said, we will take the matter up and get back to you with our feedback.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March 2011, PG&E proposed allowing smart meter users to opt out. The CPUC approved that plan in February 2012. Customers who opt out of the program must pay an initial fee and monthly charge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/269089051/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"undefined\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_26891\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003ca name=\"whatHappened\">\u003c/a>Where Are They Now?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brian Cherry\u003c/strong>, PG&E’s vice president of regulatory affairs, was fired from PG&E in September of 2014, after inappropriate email exchanges came to light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Thomas Bottorff\u003c/strong>, PG&E’s senior vice president of regulatory affairs and Cherry’s boss, was fired along with Cherry. According to a San Jose Mercury News article he was to receive a severance payment totaling more than $1 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chris Johns\u003c/strong>, president of PG&E, \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/05/27/pge-president-to-retire-as-utility-faces-mounting-scrutiny\" target=\"_blank\">announced several weeks\u003c/a> ago that he would retire by the end of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Peevey\u003c/strong>, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, stepped down from his role after his term came to an end in December of 2014. Peevey came under fire for inappropriate email exchanges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Paul Clanon\u003c/strong>, executive director of the California Public Utilities Commission, announced at the end of December that he would retire to study music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mark Ferron\u003c/strong>, former commissioner at the California Public Utilities Commission, resigned in December of 2014 due to health problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carol Brown\u003c/strong>, former commission president Peevey’s chief of staff, stepped down in the wake of revelations that she had agreed to intervene on a judge appointment for a case involving PG&E. Despite news reports that she might return to the agency as an administrative law judge, a CPUC spokesperson confirmed to KQED that Brown has retired.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Michael Florio\u003c/strong>, who was also entangled in the judge-shopping scandal, remains as a commissioner at the California Public Utilities Commission.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Warmer Winter Nights Mean Small Cherry Crop",
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"headTitle": "California Foodways | The California Report | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>There’s just something about cherries. They’re small, sweet and crunchy, with an early harvest that tells us summer’s coming. Right now, though, this beloved fruit is a bit of a canary in a coal mine. The last couple of cherry harvests could be a warning about climate change and its impact on future tree crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find out more, I went to the south end of the Santa Clara Valley to meet Nicole Rajkovich. She started working with her family at Fairhaven Orchards when she was a little kid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was my fun summer vacation,” she says. “I didn’t go to the beach. I didn’t go on family vacation. We were working in the fruit stand every summer, and it was just so much fun.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=\"https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/210100639\" params=\"color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" iframe=\"true\" /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10559890\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_7324.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10559890 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_7324-400x266.jpg\" alt=\"Nicole Rajkovich standing in her family’s Bing cherry orchard in Hollister, Calif. (Cynthia E. Wood/KQED)\" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_7324-400x266.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_7324-800x532.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_7324-1440x958.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_7324-1180x785.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_7324-960x639.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_7324.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nicole Rajkovich standing in her family’s Bing cherry orchard in Hollister, Calif. (Cynthia E. Wood/KQED) \u003ccite>(Cynthia E. Wood/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So when the weather got weird this winter, she was nervous. Up near Yreka, people got flooded out. At Huntington Beach, it hailed. In San Francisco, where I was walking around in a sundress, meteorologists announced it was the driest January ever. Rajkovich distinctly remembers the 90-degree heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s great for sunbathing, but it’s not optimal weather for our crops,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I meet up with her at one plot a couple of hours south of San Francisco, in the shadow of big box stores in Gilroy. The four men on the crew use ladders to reach all the deep-red Royal Hazel cherries, dropping them into buckets slung around their necks then loading them into bins on a truck. Rajkovitch says this is one of only a handful of orchards they can harvest this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It seems like the past couple years the warmer winters made us have huge failures in our crops,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s not talking about the drought, though that certainly doesn’t help. They’re not getting any water from their former source, the Central Valley Water Project, but their wells are holding up okay. What really hurts the cherry trees is that winter temperatures here weren’t cold enough for long enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10559941\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_71431.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10559941 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_71431-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"Though the drought has taken its toll, warm winters are to blame for a shrinking cherry crop. (Cynthia E. Wood/KQED)\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_71431-800x532.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_71431-400x266.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_71431-1440x958.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_71431-1180x785.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_71431-960x639.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_71431.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Though the drought has taken its toll, warm winters are to blame for the smaller cherry crop. (Cynthia E. Wood/KQED) \u003ccite>(Cynthia E. Wood/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“If they don’t get enough chill hours they don’t produce the fruit,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Put simply: Chill hours are crucial blocks of time when temperatures drop below 45 degrees. To produce a robust crop, fruit and nut trees need a certain amount of chilling for a healthy dormancy period. Cherries are really sensitive, needing more chill hours than most tree crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Case in point: the cherries in the Rajkovich home orchard in nearby Hollister. Here, the classic Bing cherry trees look confused about what season it is, what they’re supposed to be doing. I meet up with Bill Coates, a longtime farm adviser here in San Benito County, to learn more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have some ripe cherries, you have some blossoms, some branches that are almost devoid of leaves, and you have some buds that are still dormant,” he explains. “And this is all a result of lack of chilling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[gallery size=\"large\" type=\"rectangular\" ids=\"10559948,10559947\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bing cherries need about 1,000 hours, but San Benito County got just over \u003ca href=\"http://fruitsandnuts.ucdavis.edu/Weather_Services/chilling_accumulation_models/Chill_Calculators/index.cfm\">500\u003c/a>. Chill hours are down all over the state. In California, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/1679168/fts-357.pdf\">USDA reports\u003c/a> last year’s cherry production down 60 percent. And scientists at \u003ca href=\"http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0006166\">UC Davis predict\u003c/a> that if greenhouse gas emissions aren’t curbed, chill hours will continue to shrink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People may disagree on the cause of the change,” Coates says, “but there definitely has been a change in the climate, and it’s going to impact tree crops greatly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"JQ0dflQvnFxaDQnRImRZgo4RTAgWu8cK\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He would love to see more effort put into breeding varieties that can withstand less chilling. Cherries won’t make or break California’s agricultural economy on their own, but the way they’re hit by fewer chill hours may serve as a warning for more lucrative commodities that are slightly less sensitive, tree crops like apples, pears and walnuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few feet away from the orchard, Nicole’s father, George Rajkovich, maneuvers a forklift, loading pallets of cherries onto a customer’s truck. This fruit all comes from those few orchards in production in Gilroy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This year, there’s nothing out there in our Hollister orchards ... nothing,” Rajkovich says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the few cherries that did grow, many were damaged by rain in May. He thinks they’ll get 5 percent of a normal harvest in Hollister.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In my lifetime, I’ve never seen one so bad,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10559957\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_9931.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-10559957\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_9931-800x536.jpg\" alt=\"Workers sort cherries at the Rajkovich’s farm stand and sorting facility in Hollister, Calif.\" width=\"800\" height=\"536\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_9931-800x536.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_9931-400x268.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_9931-1440x964.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_9931-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_9931-960x643.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_9931.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers sort cherries at the Rajkovich’s farm stand and sorting facility. \u003ccite>(Cyntha E. Wood/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And Rajkovich has seen a lot of cherry harvests. His father planted in San Jose after he emigrated from a region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before it became Yugoslavia, before it became Croatia. He and his brother would go running through the orchards, chasing their father and uncle, waiting for their mother to bring them lunch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I knew nothing else,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He and his brother farmed all over this region, and they started planting cherries in Hollister in the late '50s, and started a fruit stand in the '70s. Rajkovich remembers decades ago when they’d have to put smudge pots in the orchards in the middle of the night and turn on fans to keep frost from killing a crop. He says he hasn’t had to do that in 20 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When his brother died eight years ago, Rajkovich had a talk with his kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10560453\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_0071.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-10560453\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_0071-400x268.jpg\" alt=\"George and Lucille Rajkovich, along with their children, have started to plant other crops on their land.\" width=\"400\" height=\"268\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_0071-400x268.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_0071-800x536.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_0071-1440x964.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_0071-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_0071-960x643.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_0071.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">George and Lucille Rajkovich, along with their children, have started to plant other crops on their land. \u003ccite>(Cynthia E. Wood/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s up to you now,” he recalls, choking up. ‘We’ll sell it, or take it over.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They did. The kids joined their parents and continue to look for ways to lessen climate change’s negative impact: planting sod between rows of trees to keep moisture in the ground, experimenting with different cherry varieties, and using technology to figure out exactly when to apply chemicals that can help trees produce despite reduced chilling. Why all the effort? Because unlike lettuce or strawberries, for instance, trees have to be planned sometimes decades ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a whole lifetime actually of work and expense in planting and nurturing these orchards,” Rajkovich says. “If we don’t get chilling and don’t get production we have to start changing crops.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re already doing that. On new land they’ve bought, and orchards they’ve had to pull, the Rajkovich’s planted walnut trees, not cherries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This piece is part of the series \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiafoodways.com/\">California Foodways\u003c/a>. Stories in the series about food and climate change are funded by a grant from \u003ca href=\"http://invokingthepause.org/\">Invoking the Pause\u003c/a>. Lisa Morehouse produced this story while at a residency at the Mesa Refuge.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>There’s just something about cherries. They’re small, sweet and crunchy, with an early harvest that tells us summer’s coming. Right now, though, this beloved fruit is a bit of a canary in a coal mine. The last couple of cherry harvests could be a warning about climate change and its impact on future tree crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find out more, I went to the south end of the Santa Clara Valley to meet Nicole Rajkovich. She started working with her family at Fairhaven Orchards when she was a little kid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was my fun summer vacation,” she says. “I didn’t go to the beach. I didn’t go on family vacation. We were working in the fruit stand every summer, and it was just so much fun.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='100%' height='166'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/210100639&visual=true&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false'\n title='https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/210100639'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10559890\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_7324.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10559890 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_7324-400x266.jpg\" alt=\"Nicole Rajkovich standing in her family’s Bing cherry orchard in Hollister, Calif. (Cynthia E. Wood/KQED)\" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_7324-400x266.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_7324-800x532.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_7324-1440x958.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_7324-1180x785.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_7324-960x639.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_7324.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nicole Rajkovich standing in her family’s Bing cherry orchard in Hollister, Calif. (Cynthia E. Wood/KQED) \u003ccite>(Cynthia E. Wood/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So when the weather got weird this winter, she was nervous. Up near Yreka, people got flooded out. At Huntington Beach, it hailed. In San Francisco, where I was walking around in a sundress, meteorologists announced it was the driest January ever. Rajkovich distinctly remembers the 90-degree heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s great for sunbathing, but it’s not optimal weather for our crops,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I meet up with her at one plot a couple of hours south of San Francisco, in the shadow of big box stores in Gilroy. The four men on the crew use ladders to reach all the deep-red Royal Hazel cherries, dropping them into buckets slung around their necks then loading them into bins on a truck. Rajkovitch says this is one of only a handful of orchards they can harvest this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It seems like the past couple years the warmer winters made us have huge failures in our crops,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s not talking about the drought, though that certainly doesn’t help. They’re not getting any water from their former source, the Central Valley Water Project, but their wells are holding up okay. What really hurts the cherry trees is that winter temperatures here weren’t cold enough for long enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10559941\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_71431.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10559941 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_71431-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"Though the drought has taken its toll, warm winters are to blame for a shrinking cherry crop. (Cynthia E. Wood/KQED)\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_71431-800x532.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_71431-400x266.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_71431-1440x958.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_71431-1180x785.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_71431-960x639.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_71431.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Though the drought has taken its toll, warm winters are to blame for the smaller cherry crop. (Cynthia E. Wood/KQED) \u003ccite>(Cynthia E. Wood/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“If they don’t get enough chill hours they don’t produce the fruit,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Put simply: Chill hours are crucial blocks of time when temperatures drop below 45 degrees. To produce a robust crop, fruit and nut trees need a certain amount of chilling for a healthy dormancy period. Cherries are really sensitive, needing more chill hours than most tree crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Case in point: the cherries in the Rajkovich home orchard in nearby Hollister. Here, the classic Bing cherry trees look confused about what season it is, what they’re supposed to be doing. I meet up with Bill Coates, a longtime farm adviser here in San Benito County, to learn more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have some ripe cherries, you have some blossoms, some branches that are almost devoid of leaves, and you have some buds that are still dormant,” he explains. “And this is all a result of lack of chilling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bing cherries need about 1,000 hours, but San Benito County got just over \u003ca href=\"http://fruitsandnuts.ucdavis.edu/Weather_Services/chilling_accumulation_models/Chill_Calculators/index.cfm\">500\u003c/a>. Chill hours are down all over the state. In California, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/1679168/fts-357.pdf\">USDA reports\u003c/a> last year’s cherry production down 60 percent. And scientists at \u003ca href=\"http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0006166\">UC Davis predict\u003c/a> that if greenhouse gas emissions aren’t curbed, chill hours will continue to shrink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People may disagree on the cause of the change,” Coates says, “but there definitely has been a change in the climate, and it’s going to impact tree crops greatly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He would love to see more effort put into breeding varieties that can withstand less chilling. Cherries won’t make or break California’s agricultural economy on their own, but the way they’re hit by fewer chill hours may serve as a warning for more lucrative commodities that are slightly less sensitive, tree crops like apples, pears and walnuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few feet away from the orchard, Nicole’s father, George Rajkovich, maneuvers a forklift, loading pallets of cherries onto a customer’s truck. This fruit all comes from those few orchards in production in Gilroy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This year, there’s nothing out there in our Hollister orchards ... nothing,” Rajkovich says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the few cherries that did grow, many were damaged by rain in May. He thinks they’ll get 5 percent of a normal harvest in Hollister.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In my lifetime, I’ve never seen one so bad,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10559957\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_9931.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-10559957\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_9931-800x536.jpg\" alt=\"Workers sort cherries at the Rajkovich’s farm stand and sorting facility in Hollister, Calif.\" width=\"800\" height=\"536\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_9931-800x536.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_9931-400x268.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_9931-1440x964.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_9931-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_9931-960x643.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_9931.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers sort cherries at the Rajkovich’s farm stand and sorting facility. \u003ccite>(Cyntha E. Wood/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And Rajkovich has seen a lot of cherry harvests. His father planted in San Jose after he emigrated from a region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before it became Yugoslavia, before it became Croatia. He and his brother would go running through the orchards, chasing their father and uncle, waiting for their mother to bring them lunch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I knew nothing else,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He and his brother farmed all over this region, and they started planting cherries in Hollister in the late '50s, and started a fruit stand in the '70s. Rajkovich remembers decades ago when they’d have to put smudge pots in the orchards in the middle of the night and turn on fans to keep frost from killing a crop. He says he hasn’t had to do that in 20 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When his brother died eight years ago, Rajkovich had a talk with his kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10560453\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_0071.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-10560453\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_0071-400x268.jpg\" alt=\"George and Lucille Rajkovich, along with their children, have started to plant other crops on their land.\" width=\"400\" height=\"268\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_0071-400x268.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_0071-800x536.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_0071-1440x964.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_0071-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_0071-960x643.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/20150522-CynthiaWoodPhoto-DSC_0071.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">George and Lucille Rajkovich, along with their children, have started to plant other crops on their land. \u003ccite>(Cynthia E. Wood/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s up to you now,” he recalls, choking up. ‘We’ll sell it, or take it over.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They did. The kids joined their parents and continue to look for ways to lessen climate change’s negative impact: planting sod between rows of trees to keep moisture in the ground, experimenting with different cherry varieties, and using technology to figure out exactly when to apply chemicals that can help trees produce despite reduced chilling. Why all the effort? Because unlike lettuce or strawberries, for instance, trees have to be planned sometimes decades ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a whole lifetime actually of work and expense in planting and nurturing these orchards,” Rajkovich says. “If we don’t get chilling and don’t get production we have to start changing crops.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re already doing that. On new land they’ve bought, and orchards they’ve had to pull, the Rajkovich’s planted walnut trees, not cherries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This piece is part of the series \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiafoodways.com/\">California Foodways\u003c/a>. Stories in the series about food and climate change are funded by a grant from \u003ca href=\"http://invokingthepause.org/\">Invoking the Pause\u003c/a>. Lisa Morehouse produced this story while at a residency at the Mesa Refuge.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Rain in June? No Drought-Buster, But We'll Take It",
"title": "Rain in June? No Drought-Buster, But We'll Take It",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, Thursday, June 11: \u003c/strong>From the National Weather Service, here are some of the precipitations records (and other rain totals) recorded during Wednesdays mostly light but very welcome showers:\u003c/p>\n\u003ctable width=\"100%\" align=\"left\">\n\u003ctbody>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Place\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Rain (inches)\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Record/Year\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Castro Valley\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.47\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Las Trampas Ridge\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.36\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Livermore\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.33\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.16/1976\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Oakland Hills (South)\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.30\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>San Francisco Int'l. Airport\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.26\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.03/2009\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Petaluma Airport\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.21\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Oakland Airport\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.18\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.05/1976\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>San Rafael\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.17\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.01/1950\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Point Reyes\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.17\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.10/1937\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Napa\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.13\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.25/1958\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>San Francisco (Downtown)\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.11\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.20/1937\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>San Jose\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.10\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.07/1976\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003c/tbody>\n\u003c/table>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original post:\u003c/strong> When \u003ca href=\"http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres32.html\" target=\"_blank\">Abraham Lincoln said\u003c/a>, \"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge ... may speedily pass away,\" he was actually talking about \u003ca href=\"http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/war/\" target=\"_blank\">something more serious\u003c/a> than California's drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But yeah, the sentiment fits the way most of us feel about our seemingly endless siege of much, much drier-than-normal conditions, now in its fourth year. So when we wake up to a rainy morning -- in \u003cem>June\u003c/em>, for heaven's sake -- we grasp at the spectacle of gentle showers for whatever hope it offers that this mighty scourge may end ... someday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And to stop the quasi-poetic waxings on meteorology for a minute, Wednesday's storm has produced some decent rainfall (for June) around the Bay Area and other parts of California. Most locations in the Bay Area had gotten less than a tenth of an inch of rain as of 11 a.m. Wednesday. But there were some exceptions, with the highest totals recorded in the hills of the East Bay:\u003c/p>\n\u003ctable width=\"100%\" align=\"left\">\n\u003ctbody>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Place\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Rain (inches)\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Record/Year\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Castro Valley\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.43\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>SFO Int'l. Airport\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.24\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.03/2009\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Las Trampas Ridge\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.23\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Oakland Hills (South)\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.21\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Petaluma Airport\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.18\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Oakland Airport\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.18\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.05/1976\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Livermore Airport\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.18\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.16/1976\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Point Reyes\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.16\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.10/1937\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Napa\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.13\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.25/1958\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Olema\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.13\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Mount Tamalpais\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.13\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003c/tbody>\n\u003c/table>\n\u003cp>Much heavier rain has fallen in parts of the Sierra Nevada, the mountains of Northern California and the highlands of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. NOAA reports show .79 of an inch fell at Shasta Dam, in the Sacramento River watershed north of Redding; many locations in the mountains around Lake Tahoe show a similar amount; as much as an inch of rain fell in the mountains north of Santa Barbara.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And just to be clear: June rain in the Bay Area is nice to see, but it's not a rarity. Although June is sometimes rainless in San Francisco, the one-day precipitation record for the month is 1.34 inches, on June 2, 1967; and just five years ago, California's last decent rain year, 2.02 inches fell in San Francisco during the month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forecasters say Wednesday's rain will move slowly south during the day, with a chance of thunderstorms. It ought to be dry Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While recent cool, moist weather has reduced the state's immediate wildfire threat, the thunderstorms that brought rain to the far northern sections of California brought more than 1,400 lightning strikes that triggered dozens of small fires. Managers of Six Rivers, Shasta-Trinity, Klamath and Modoc national forests reported Wednesday that the largest of the fires is 10 acres; virtually all have been contained. Separately, Cal Fire reported a 30-acre fire burning in remote terrain near the Redwood National and State Parks in Humboldt County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blazes in the north state last year consumed more than a quarter-million acres.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Precipitation -- mostly light, but we'll take it -- falls across most of Northern California.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, Thursday, June 11: \u003c/strong>From the National Weather Service, here are some of the precipitations records (and other rain totals) recorded during Wednesdays mostly light but very welcome showers:\u003c/p>\n\u003ctable width=\"100%\" align=\"left\">\n\u003ctbody>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Place\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Rain (inches)\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Record/Year\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Castro Valley\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.47\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Las Trampas Ridge\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.36\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Livermore\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.33\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.16/1976\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Oakland Hills (South)\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.30\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>San Francisco Int'l. Airport\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.26\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.03/2009\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Petaluma Airport\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.21\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Oakland Airport\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.18\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.05/1976\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>San Rafael\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.17\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.01/1950\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Point Reyes\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.17\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.10/1937\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Napa\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.13\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.25/1958\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>San Francisco (Downtown)\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.11\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.20/1937\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>San Jose\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.10\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.07/1976\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003c/tbody>\n\u003c/table>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original post:\u003c/strong> When \u003ca href=\"http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres32.html\" target=\"_blank\">Abraham Lincoln said\u003c/a>, \"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge ... may speedily pass away,\" he was actually talking about \u003ca href=\"http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/war/\" target=\"_blank\">something more serious\u003c/a> than California's drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But yeah, the sentiment fits the way most of us feel about our seemingly endless siege of much, much drier-than-normal conditions, now in its fourth year. So when we wake up to a rainy morning -- in \u003cem>June\u003c/em>, for heaven's sake -- we grasp at the spectacle of gentle showers for whatever hope it offers that this mighty scourge may end ... someday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And to stop the quasi-poetic waxings on meteorology for a minute, Wednesday's storm has produced some decent rainfall (for June) around the Bay Area and other parts of California. Most locations in the Bay Area had gotten less than a tenth of an inch of rain as of 11 a.m. Wednesday. But there were some exceptions, with the highest totals recorded in the hills of the East Bay:\u003c/p>\n\u003ctable width=\"100%\" align=\"left\">\n\u003ctbody>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Place\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Rain (inches)\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Record/Year\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Castro Valley\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.43\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>SFO Int'l. Airport\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.24\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.03/2009\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Las Trampas Ridge\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.23\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Oakland Hills (South)\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.21\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Petaluma Airport\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.18\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Oakland Airport\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.18\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.05/1976\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Livermore Airport\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.18\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.16/1976\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Point Reyes\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.16\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.10/1937\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Napa\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.13\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.25/1958\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Olema\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.13\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>Mount Tamalpais\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>.13\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>--\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003c/tbody>\n\u003c/table>\n\u003cp>Much heavier rain has fallen in parts of the Sierra Nevada, the mountains of Northern California and the highlands of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. NOAA reports show .79 of an inch fell at Shasta Dam, in the Sacramento River watershed north of Redding; many locations in the mountains around Lake Tahoe show a similar amount; as much as an inch of rain fell in the mountains north of Santa Barbara.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And just to be clear: June rain in the Bay Area is nice to see, but it's not a rarity. Although June is sometimes rainless in San Francisco, the one-day precipitation record for the month is 1.34 inches, on June 2, 1967; and just five years ago, California's last decent rain year, 2.02 inches fell in San Francisco during the month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forecasters say Wednesday's rain will move slowly south during the day, with a chance of thunderstorms. It ought to be dry Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While recent cool, moist weather has reduced the state's immediate wildfire threat, the thunderstorms that brought rain to the far northern sections of California brought more than 1,400 lightning strikes that triggered dozens of small fires. Managers of Six Rivers, Shasta-Trinity, Klamath and Modoc national forests reported Wednesday that the largest of the fires is 10 acres; virtually all have been contained. Separately, Cal Fire reported a 30-acre fire burning in remote terrain near the Redwood National and State Parks in Humboldt County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blazes in the north state last year consumed more than a quarter-million acres.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>California is sinking – and fast. While the state’s drought-induced sinking is well known, new details highlight just how severe it has become and how little the government has done to monitor it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last summer, scientists recorded the worst sinking in at least 50 years. This summer, all-time records are expected across the state as thousands of miles of land in the Central Valley and elsewhere sink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=\"https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/208939130\" params=\"color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" iframe=\"true\" /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the extent of the problem and how much it will cost taxpayers to fix are part of the mystery of the state’s unfolding drought. No agency is tracking the sinking statewide, little public money has been put toward studying it and California allows agriculture businesses to keep crucial parts of their operations secret.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cause is known. People are pulling unsustainable amounts of water out of underground aquifers, primarily for food production. With the water sucked out to irrigate crops, a practice that has accelerated during the drought, tens of thousands of square miles are deflating like a leaky air mattress, inch by inch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.revealnews.org/article/california-is-sinking-and-its-getting-worse/\">Read the full story via The Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California is sinking – and fast. While the state’s drought-induced sinking is well known, new details highlight just how severe it has become and how little the government has done to monitor it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last summer, scientists recorded the worst sinking in at least 50 years. This summer, all-time records are expected across the state as thousands of miles of land in the Central Valley and elsewhere sink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='100%' height='166'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/208939130&visual=true&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false'\n title='https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/208939130'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the extent of the problem and how much it will cost taxpayers to fix are part of the mystery of the state’s unfolding drought. No agency is tracking the sinking statewide, little public money has been put toward studying it and California allows agriculture businesses to keep crucial parts of their operations secret.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cause is known. People are pulling unsustainable amounts of water out of underground aquifers, primarily for food production. With the water sucked out to irrigate crops, a practice that has accelerated during the drought, tens of thousands of square miles are deflating like a leaky air mattress, inch by inch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Santa Barbara Oil Spill Update: Test Missed Major Pipeline Corrosion",
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"content": "\u003cp>LOS ANGELES — Two weeks before an oil pipeline rupture spilled over 100,000 gallons of crude oil on the Santa Barbara coast, a test was run that would reveal serious wear in that stretch of corroded pipe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The preliminary results showed the pipe had lost nearly half the metal near the section that eventually broke. But federal regulators said this week that corrosion had worn the line down more than 80 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new finding does not pinpoint the cause of the May 19 rupture, but it exposes possible shortcomings with the technology used to gauge pipe reliability and with those who analyze the results.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=\"https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/208963755\" params=\"color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" iframe=\"true\" /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether a more accurate test could have prevented the spill seems unlikely because Plains All American Pipeline, which operates the pipe, said it had not received the results at the time of the spill. It typically takes several weeks to analyze data from high-tech instruments that can gauge the thickness of pipe walls, detect cracks and measure internal and external corrosion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The instrument known as a smart pig, however, has limits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The smart pig term is an oxymoron,\" said Robert Bea, civil engineering professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, who has worked three decades with the pipeline industry. \"As you may guess, the primary weaknesses show up in the human interpretation. They're only as smart as the people who are interpreting the signals.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between the analysis of the smart pig data and decision-making based on those results, such as whether a company should repair or replace compromised sections of pipe, human error accounts for 80 percent of breakdowns, Bea said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one study Bea conducted, a man interpreting test results missed a defect and the pipe later failed under pressure. The day before he analyzed the results, the man's wife had told him she was leaving him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"His mind was elsewhere,\" Bea said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration offered no explanation for the vast differences between the preliminary finding from May 5 that the pipe wall lost 45 percent of its metal and what inspectors learned when they looked at the pipe and found it was worn down to 1/16 of an inch in the area of the 6-inch-long break on the bottom of the pipe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That discrepancy surprised Bea and other experts, and Plains officials noted it in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company said it was committed to working with federal investigators \"to understand the differences between these preliminary findings, to determine why the corrosion developed and to determine the cause of the incident.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal, state and local prosecutors are investigating the spill. California Attorney General Kamala Harris said Thursday during a tour of the site that she was troubled by the latest report and criminal charges were possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plains has no timetable for restarting the line and has not provided an estimate for cleanup costs to date. It has apologized for the spill that has soiled 60 miles of scenic coastline and said it would bear all costs. A commercial fisherman has filed a federal lawsuit seeking class-action certification for affected businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[The Los Angeles Times \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-0605-me-oil-trucks-20150605-story.html\" target=\"_blank\">reported Friday\u003c/a> that Exxon, which uses the pipeline to move crude oil along the coast from offshore platforms, is seeking permission to use tanker trucks to transport petroleum to refineries.]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nearly 11-mile pipeline runs through a coastal area with conditions known to cause accelerated corrosion. The villains are salt and moisture from the nearby Pacific Ocean, which can mix with soil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rate of corrosion is also influenced by temperature — the hotter the conditions, generally the greater likelihood of corrosion. The insulated pipeline operated at up to 120 degrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Temperatures in that range can also cause challenges for a key strategy to ward off corrosion, known as cathodic protection, a low-level electric current that is run through the pipeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A stronger level would be needed to offset the increased risk of corrosion at the higher temperatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kevin Garrity, executive vice president for the Mears Group, corrosion engineering experts who work with the oil industry, said the level of metal loss at the site of the pipeline break was roughly 10 times greater than what would be expected with cathodic protection in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal regulators said Wednesday that the current levels for the system \"appeared to be adequate.\" However, the agency also said corrosion \"would not be expected\" with the system running at that level, posing another riddle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report noted that the area that failed was close to three repairs made because of corrosion found in 2012 inspections. It also said the smart pig tests revealed that three other sections of pipe had extensive corrosion, with metal loss ranging from 54 percent to 74 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Those devices are not 100 percent,\" said Don Deaver, a former Exxon pipeline engineer who now works as a consultant and expert witness, primarily for plaintiffs. \"When you have an area where you have a lot of corrosion, the error in those smart pigs goes up dramatically.\"\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>LOS ANGELES — Two weeks before an oil pipeline rupture spilled over 100,000 gallons of crude oil on the Santa Barbara coast, a test was run that would reveal serious wear in that stretch of corroded pipe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The preliminary results showed the pipe had lost nearly half the metal near the section that eventually broke. But federal regulators said this week that corrosion had worn the line down more than 80 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new finding does not pinpoint the cause of the May 19 rupture, but it exposes possible shortcomings with the technology used to gauge pipe reliability and with those who analyze the results.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='100%' height='166'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/208963755&visual=true&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false'\n title='https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/208963755'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether a more accurate test could have prevented the spill seems unlikely because Plains All American Pipeline, which operates the pipe, said it had not received the results at the time of the spill. It typically takes several weeks to analyze data from high-tech instruments that can gauge the thickness of pipe walls, detect cracks and measure internal and external corrosion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The instrument known as a smart pig, however, has limits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The smart pig term is an oxymoron,\" said Robert Bea, civil engineering professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, who has worked three decades with the pipeline industry. \"As you may guess, the primary weaknesses show up in the human interpretation. They're only as smart as the people who are interpreting the signals.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between the analysis of the smart pig data and decision-making based on those results, such as whether a company should repair or replace compromised sections of pipe, human error accounts for 80 percent of breakdowns, Bea said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one study Bea conducted, a man interpreting test results missed a defect and the pipe later failed under pressure. The day before he analyzed the results, the man's wife had told him she was leaving him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"His mind was elsewhere,\" Bea said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration offered no explanation for the vast differences between the preliminary finding from May 5 that the pipe wall lost 45 percent of its metal and what inspectors learned when they looked at the pipe and found it was worn down to 1/16 of an inch in the area of the 6-inch-long break on the bottom of the pipe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That discrepancy surprised Bea and other experts, and Plains officials noted it in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company said it was committed to working with federal investigators \"to understand the differences between these preliminary findings, to determine why the corrosion developed and to determine the cause of the incident.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal, state and local prosecutors are investigating the spill. California Attorney General Kamala Harris said Thursday during a tour of the site that she was troubled by the latest report and criminal charges were possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plains has no timetable for restarting the line and has not provided an estimate for cleanup costs to date. It has apologized for the spill that has soiled 60 miles of scenic coastline and said it would bear all costs. A commercial fisherman has filed a federal lawsuit seeking class-action certification for affected businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[The Los Angeles Times \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-0605-me-oil-trucks-20150605-story.html\" target=\"_blank\">reported Friday\u003c/a> that Exxon, which uses the pipeline to move crude oil along the coast from offshore platforms, is seeking permission to use tanker trucks to transport petroleum to refineries.]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nearly 11-mile pipeline runs through a coastal area with conditions known to cause accelerated corrosion. The villains are salt and moisture from the nearby Pacific Ocean, which can mix with soil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rate of corrosion is also influenced by temperature — the hotter the conditions, generally the greater likelihood of corrosion. The insulated pipeline operated at up to 120 degrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Temperatures in that range can also cause challenges for a key strategy to ward off corrosion, known as cathodic protection, a low-level electric current that is run through the pipeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A stronger level would be needed to offset the increased risk of corrosion at the higher temperatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kevin Garrity, executive vice president for the Mears Group, corrosion engineering experts who work with the oil industry, said the level of metal loss at the site of the pipeline break was roughly 10 times greater than what would be expected with cathodic protection in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal regulators said Wednesday that the current levels for the system \"appeared to be adequate.\" However, the agency also said corrosion \"would not be expected\" with the system running at that level, posing another riddle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report noted that the area that failed was close to three repairs made because of corrosion found in 2012 inspections. It also said the smart pig tests revealed that three other sections of pipe had extensive corrosion, with metal loss ranging from 54 percent to 74 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Those devices are not 100 percent,\" said Don Deaver, a former Exxon pipeline engineer who now works as a consultant and expert witness, primarily for plaintiffs. \"When you have an area where you have a lot of corrosion, the error in those smart pigs goes up dramatically.\"\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/208856544&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED's morning news anchor Joshua Johnson, \u003cem>The California Report\u003c/em> host Queena Kim and blog guy Dan Brekke talk about a proposal to freeze new market-rate housing development in San Francisco's Mission District, the latest news on water conservation efforts amid the drought and an initiative to cut down lots of eucalyptus trees in the East Bay hills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Note: This story has been updated to include details of the damage to the Alameda County Water District dam.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched an investigation into what authorities believe was an act of vandalism against a dam on Alameda Creek in Fremont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The incident damaged an inflatable dam, leading to the loss of more than 150 acre-feet of water -- about 49 million gallons. That's enough to supply about 500 households for a year, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.acwd.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Alameda County Water District\u003c/a> says. The agency serves about 340,000 people in Fremont, Newark and Union City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Fremont Police Department says it's investigating the \u003ca href=\"http://www.acwd.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=113\" target=\"_blank\">May 21 incident\u003c/a> and has increased patrols near the dam. The water district says it has beefed up security around its equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several large holes were found in the deflated dam, according to Fremont police spokeswoman Geneva Bosques. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"A sharp object -- we don't know what specifically -- was used to slice or cut the thick rubber, which released the air,\" she said. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bosques added that at this point, the investigation has gone \"totally stale.\" \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The episode has prompted the EPA to look into whether the federal Safe Drinking Water Act was violated, EPA spokeswoman Suzanne Skadowski said. That law makes it a crime \u003ca href=\"http://www2.epa.gov/enforcement/criminal-provisions-safe-drinking-water-act-sdwa\" target=\"_blank\">to tamper with a public water system\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Shaver, the water district's general manager, said the agency is also reviewing its security practices. He said security has \"worked fine for over 30 years. We've never experienced anything like this before.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the water loss was substantial, especially with utility agencies throughout California under orders to cut consumption during the drought, the agency has said it will not affect its long-term operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, the district's board of directors \u003ca href=\"http://www.acwd.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/340?html=true\" target=\"_blank\">awarded a $2.4 million contract\u003c/a> to replace the dam. Shaver says the agency hopes to have the new dam in place by this fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The inflatable dam is made of rubber and is one of two such dams the district maintains on Alameda Creek. They're raised to impound water, which the district transfers to underground storage. The dams are lowered during storms to allow the creek to flow into San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Note: This story has been updated to include details of the damage to the Alameda County Water District dam.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched an investigation into what authorities believe was an act of vandalism against a dam on Alameda Creek in Fremont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The incident damaged an inflatable dam, leading to the loss of more than 150 acre-feet of water -- about 49 million gallons. That's enough to supply about 500 households for a year, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.acwd.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Alameda County Water District\u003c/a> says. The agency serves about 340,000 people in Fremont, Newark and Union City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Fremont Police Department says it's investigating the \u003ca href=\"http://www.acwd.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=113\" target=\"_blank\">May 21 incident\u003c/a> and has increased patrols near the dam. The water district says it has beefed up security around its equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several large holes were found in the deflated dam, according to Fremont police spokeswoman Geneva Bosques. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"A sharp object -- we don't know what specifically -- was used to slice or cut the thick rubber, which released the air,\" she said. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bosques added that at this point, the investigation has gone \"totally stale.\" \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The episode has prompted the EPA to look into whether the federal Safe Drinking Water Act was violated, EPA spokeswoman Suzanne Skadowski said. That law makes it a crime \u003ca href=\"http://www2.epa.gov/enforcement/criminal-provisions-safe-drinking-water-act-sdwa\" target=\"_blank\">to tamper with a public water system\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Shaver, the water district's general manager, said the agency is also reviewing its security practices. He said security has \"worked fine for over 30 years. We've never experienced anything like this before.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the water loss was substantial, especially with utility agencies throughout California under orders to cut consumption during the drought, the agency has said it will not affect its long-term operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, the district's board of directors \u003ca href=\"http://www.acwd.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/340?html=true\" target=\"_blank\">awarded a $2.4 million contract\u003c/a> to replace the dam. Shaver says the agency hopes to have the new dam in place by this fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The inflatable dam is made of rubber and is one of two such dams the district maintains on Alameda Creek. They're raised to impound water, which the district transfers to underground storage. The dams are lowered during storms to allow the creek to flow into San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Isaac Orduño reaches into a birdcage and grabs a parakeet. It goes still in his hand, its tiny neck caught between two of his fingers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“See this color right here,” he tells a customer, who is buying the parakeet as a pet for her granddaughter. “This color will fade away. See how it’s dark pink right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Birds are a big seller at Orduño's Cattle Ranch and Feed Store, one of only a few businesses in the tiny Tulare County farming town of Sultana, population 750.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Quails, chickens, a lot of chickens,” Orduño says. Some people buy them for the meat. Some people just want to have them as pets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His hundreds of birds need lots of drinking water, but Orduño says he doles out the water gingerly and doesn’t just let the hose run. And he conserves in other ways. He no longer sprays off his storefront porch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=\"https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/208451680\" params=\"color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" iframe=\"true\" /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Before, I will not lie, I would have the guys water, you know, outside,” he says. “It gets real sticky, gets real stinky. There’s a bar next door, you know, some people come and urinate here, so I mean we really had to, you know, water upfront.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now he uses recycled water to get rid of the grime. But he could get away with not conserving. He pays a flat water rate each month and there’s no water meter on his business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For resident Kari Gonzales Quintana, not having a water meter is kind of like not having a gas gauge on your car.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So you’re like, 'OK, I remember I put gas in on Tuesday. I’ve gone here and here and here. So I should have this much.' But how much do you really have?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10548412\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10548412 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Isaac-800x617.jpg\" alt=\"Isaac Orduño runs a feed store in Sultana and gives his birds and rabbits water from a 55-gallon drum. That way, he doesn’t have to keep the hose running.\" width=\"800\" height=\"617\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Isaac-800x617.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Isaac-400x309.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Isaac-1440x1111.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Isaac-1180x910.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Isaac-960x741.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Isaac.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Isaac Orduño runs a feed store in Sultana and gives his birds and rabbits water from a 55-gallon drum. That way, he doesn’t have to keep the hose running. \u003ccite>(Alice Daniel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Quintana is also conserving, even though she, too, could get away with being frivolous. She says she no longer waters her lawn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This used to look like a park at one time,” she says, staring at the brittle and abandoned grass. “We have a little more than an acre. As much as we want a green lawn, we want water more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She lived briefly in the neighboring town of Dinuba, which has water meters. She thinks people will conserve more once they see just how much water costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you get your first bill, you are going to make a change,” she says. “You’re going to make a difference in the way you do things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s worried that Sultana’s one safe well will go dry during this drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, I don’t want to find out like some of these other people did when you start getting sand in your water that we’re out,” she says. “This is my family home. I don’t want to move. We’re doing our part. I hope everyone else is, too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sultana has a backup well but it’s contaminated with the fumigant \u003ca href=\"http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/1-2-dibromo-3-chloropropane.cfm\">DBCP\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Should our well go dry, we don’t have any backup well with potable drinking water,” says Michael Prado, board president for the town’s water services district. He says not everyone here understands that well levels drop in a drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people have commented and said, ‘Well, I pay my bill and as long as I pay my bill, I should be able to use as much water as I want to use,’ ” Prado says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really need water meters to keep up with the governor’s request,” he adds. Under new state rules, small towns like Sultana are expected to cut back on water use by 20 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10548455\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10548455 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Quintana-800x726.jpg\" alt=\"Even though Kari Gonzales Quintana has no meter to dictate her use, she's letting her one-acre lawn go brown to save water.\" width=\"800\" height=\"726\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Quintana-800x726.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Quintana-400x363.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Quintana-1440x1307.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Quintana-1180x1071.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Quintana-960x871.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Quintana.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Even though Kari Gonzales Quintana has no meter to dictate her use, she's letting her one-acre lawn go brown to save water. \u003ccite>(Alice Daniel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At community meetings, Prado reminds folks: No more hosing down the dry, scorched streets in the summer, even if it does keep the dust in check. And as hard as it may be, no more water sharing. He says some residents send water to relatives in nearby towns where their private wells have gone dry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he understands why they do it. “When you have a family member in need of water, if you can help them out, usually that’s what people try to do,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sultana can’t afford to put in water meters on its own. Tulare County is assisting the water district with an application to get a state grant. But there’s no guarantee: The district has already applied twice for grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Denise England, a water resources analyst with Tulare County, says the current grant application will include other nearby towns that need water meters. She hopes the consolidation will boost Sultana’s chances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you can spread your fixed costs, the per user price goes down,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenny Rempel, communications and development coordinator for the\u003ca href=\"http://www.communitywatercenter.org/\"> Community Water Center, \u003c/a>says it’s important that low-income households and disadvantaged users get some of the funding and rebates going along with the state restrictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many small water systems don’t have the metering systems to help put conservation in place,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>England agrees. She says Tulare County alone has more than 300 tiny water systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A majority have meters, she says, but “a smaller portion have meters that actually function.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, says England, just to put in meters for a small town like Sultana costs around $500,000.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Sultana is just one of many small towns in the Central Valley without water meters. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Isaac Orduño reaches into a birdcage and grabs a parakeet. It goes still in his hand, its tiny neck caught between two of his fingers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“See this color right here,” he tells a customer, who is buying the parakeet as a pet for her granddaughter. “This color will fade away. See how it’s dark pink right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Birds are a big seller at Orduño's Cattle Ranch and Feed Store, one of only a few businesses in the tiny Tulare County farming town of Sultana, population 750.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Quails, chickens, a lot of chickens,” Orduño says. Some people buy them for the meat. Some people just want to have them as pets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His hundreds of birds need lots of drinking water, but Orduño says he doles out the water gingerly and doesn’t just let the hose run. And he conserves in other ways. He no longer sprays off his storefront porch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='100%' height='166'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/208451680&visual=true&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false'\n title='https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/208451680'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Before, I will not lie, I would have the guys water, you know, outside,” he says. “It gets real sticky, gets real stinky. There’s a bar next door, you know, some people come and urinate here, so I mean we really had to, you know, water upfront.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now he uses recycled water to get rid of the grime. But he could get away with not conserving. He pays a flat water rate each month and there’s no water meter on his business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For resident Kari Gonzales Quintana, not having a water meter is kind of like not having a gas gauge on your car.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So you’re like, 'OK, I remember I put gas in on Tuesday. I’ve gone here and here and here. So I should have this much.' But how much do you really have?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10548412\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10548412 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Isaac-800x617.jpg\" alt=\"Isaac Orduño runs a feed store in Sultana and gives his birds and rabbits water from a 55-gallon drum. That way, he doesn’t have to keep the hose running.\" width=\"800\" height=\"617\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Isaac-800x617.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Isaac-400x309.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Isaac-1440x1111.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Isaac-1180x910.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Isaac-960x741.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Isaac.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Isaac Orduño runs a feed store in Sultana and gives his birds and rabbits water from a 55-gallon drum. That way, he doesn’t have to keep the hose running. \u003ccite>(Alice Daniel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Quintana is also conserving, even though she, too, could get away with being frivolous. She says she no longer waters her lawn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This used to look like a park at one time,” she says, staring at the brittle and abandoned grass. “We have a little more than an acre. As much as we want a green lawn, we want water more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She lived briefly in the neighboring town of Dinuba, which has water meters. She thinks people will conserve more once they see just how much water costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you get your first bill, you are going to make a change,” she says. “You’re going to make a difference in the way you do things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s worried that Sultana’s one safe well will go dry during this drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, I don’t want to find out like some of these other people did when you start getting sand in your water that we’re out,” she says. “This is my family home. I don’t want to move. We’re doing our part. I hope everyone else is, too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sultana has a backup well but it’s contaminated with the fumigant \u003ca href=\"http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/1-2-dibromo-3-chloropropane.cfm\">DBCP\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Should our well go dry, we don’t have any backup well with potable drinking water,” says Michael Prado, board president for the town’s water services district. He says not everyone here understands that well levels drop in a drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people have commented and said, ‘Well, I pay my bill and as long as I pay my bill, I should be able to use as much water as I want to use,’ ” Prado says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really need water meters to keep up with the governor’s request,” he adds. Under new state rules, small towns like Sultana are expected to cut back on water use by 20 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10548455\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-10548455 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Quintana-800x726.jpg\" alt=\"Even though Kari Gonzales Quintana has no meter to dictate her use, she's letting her one-acre lawn go brown to save water.\" width=\"800\" height=\"726\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Quintana-800x726.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Quintana-400x363.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Quintana-1440x1307.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Quintana-1180x1071.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Quintana-960x871.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/Quintana.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Even though Kari Gonzales Quintana has no meter to dictate her use, she's letting her one-acre lawn go brown to save water. \u003ccite>(Alice Daniel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At community meetings, Prado reminds folks: No more hosing down the dry, scorched streets in the summer, even if it does keep the dust in check. And as hard as it may be, no more water sharing. He says some residents send water to relatives in nearby towns where their private wells have gone dry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he understands why they do it. “When you have a family member in need of water, if you can help them out, usually that’s what people try to do,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sultana can’t afford to put in water meters on its own. Tulare County is assisting the water district with an application to get a state grant. But there’s no guarantee: The district has already applied twice for grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Denise England, a water resources analyst with Tulare County, says the current grant application will include other nearby towns that need water meters. She hopes the consolidation will boost Sultana’s chances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you can spread your fixed costs, the per user price goes down,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenny Rempel, communications and development coordinator for the\u003ca href=\"http://www.communitywatercenter.org/\"> Community Water Center, \u003c/a>says it’s important that low-income households and disadvantaged users get some of the funding and rebates going along with the state restrictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many small water systems don’t have the metering systems to help put conservation in place,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>England agrees. She says Tulare County alone has more than 300 tiny water systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A majority have meters, she says, but “a smaller portion have meters that actually function.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, says England, just to put in meters for a small town like Sultana costs around $500,000.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "California's Latest Water-Savings Report Card: 13.5 Percent Cut in April",
"title": "California's Latest Water-Savings Report Card: 13.5 Percent Cut in April",
"headTitle": "The California Report | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>California's emergency drought conservation rules took effect Monday -- and statistics released by state water managers on Tuesday show the state has a long way to go to achieve the statewide 25 percent mandate set by Gov. Jerry Brown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Statistics presented to the State Water Resources Control Board(and embedded below) show a 13.5 percent cut in water consumption in April 2015 compared with the same month in 2013 -- the year the state is using as its baseline for calculating water savings. Those numbers were reported by the 400 or so water agencies that serve the state's residential and industrial customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the April 2015 number is well short of the 25 percent overall conservation level that became law this week, there's good news in the report: The 13.5 percent cut is the second-best monthly performance since Brown requested voluntary conservation last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report showed that the state's top conserving area was the North Lahontan hydrologic region, in sparsely populated northeastern California, with 37.5 percent less water used per resident in April 2015 compared to April 2013 consumption. The North Lahontan was followed by the Sacramento Valley (23.7 percent reduction), North Coast (23.4 percent), San Joaquin Valley (19.9) and the Bay Area (19.9). The lowest level of savings was seen in the South Coast, including Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties, which saw a cut of just 8.7 percent. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The community with the highest rate of conservation: Susanville, in Lassen County, which used 56 percent less water in April than it did two years ago. Bay Area water districts on the list include Livermore, Morgan Hill, Pleasanton, Benicia and Hillsborough. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"705\" align=\"left\" height=\"505\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zdSDzehb_pYZq0k-1GySdrL5sMceWEDRLHSIpCTN3Wo/pubchart?oid=2021760258&format=interactive\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003cbr>\nIn terms of the communities with the stingiest water use -- the lowest consumption per resident -- the statewide prize goes to Lake Arrowhead, in the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles. The 22,000 or so people served by the community's water district use there used 30.1 gallons per day each in April. For comparison's sake, the statewide per capita average is 91 gallons a day and the highest use in the state, in super-wealthy Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego County, is 426 gallons per resident per day. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As good as Lake Arrowhead's consumption number sounds, it's skewed a little because it's a resort community without a year-round population. Reported per capita water consumption there is typically very low because all the district's customers are counted whether they're using water or not. In fact, April's 30.1 gallons is a jump of more than 30 percent from its March consumption of 22.6 gallons per resident per day. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water board report shows six of the state's 10 lowest-consuming water districts -- on a per resident per day basis -- are in the Bay Area or just next door: Martinez, East Palo Alto, Santa Cruz, San Bruno, South San Francisco, and San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Latest figures show state still has a long way to go to achieve mandated 25 percent cut for urban users.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California's emergency drought conservation rules took effect Monday -- and statistics released by state water managers on Tuesday show the state has a long way to go to achieve the statewide 25 percent mandate set by Gov. Jerry Brown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Statistics presented to the State Water Resources Control Board(and embedded below) show a 13.5 percent cut in water consumption in April 2015 compared with the same month in 2013 -- the year the state is using as its baseline for calculating water savings. Those numbers were reported by the 400 or so water agencies that serve the state's residential and industrial customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the April 2015 number is well short of the 25 percent overall conservation level that became law this week, there's good news in the report: The 13.5 percent cut is the second-best monthly performance since Brown requested voluntary conservation last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report showed that the state's top conserving area was the North Lahontan hydrologic region, in sparsely populated northeastern California, with 37.5 percent less water used per resident in April 2015 compared to April 2013 consumption. The North Lahontan was followed by the Sacramento Valley (23.7 percent reduction), North Coast (23.4 percent), San Joaquin Valley (19.9) and the Bay Area (19.9). The lowest level of savings was seen in the South Coast, including Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties, which saw a cut of just 8.7 percent. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The community with the highest rate of conservation: Susanville, in Lassen County, which used 56 percent less water in April than it did two years ago. Bay Area water districts on the list include Livermore, Morgan Hill, Pleasanton, Benicia and Hillsborough. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"705\" align=\"left\" height=\"505\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zdSDzehb_pYZq0k-1GySdrL5sMceWEDRLHSIpCTN3Wo/pubchart?oid=2021760258&format=interactive\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003cbr>\nIn terms of the communities with the stingiest water use -- the lowest consumption per resident -- the statewide prize goes to Lake Arrowhead, in the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles. The 22,000 or so people served by the community's water district use there used 30.1 gallons per day each in April. For comparison's sake, the statewide per capita average is 91 gallons a day and the highest use in the state, in super-wealthy Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego County, is 426 gallons per resident per day. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As good as Lake Arrowhead's consumption number sounds, it's skewed a little because it's a resort community without a year-round population. Reported per capita water consumption there is typically very low because all the district's customers are counted whether they're using water or not. In fact, April's 30.1 gallons is a jump of more than 30 percent from its March consumption of 22.6 gallons per resident per day. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water board report shows six of the state's 10 lowest-consuming water districts -- on a per resident per day basis -- are in the Bay Area or just next door: Martinez, East Palo Alto, Santa Cruz, San Bruno, South San Francisco, and San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "State Probing PG&E Safety Program After Concerns Raised About Potential Explosions",
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"content": "\u003cp>The state is investigating a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. safety program -- a probe initiated after a member of Congress flagged a potential “safety threat that could lead to explosions,” KQED has learned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The probe by the California Public Utilities Commission concerns “cross bores,” which occur when an underground natural gas line pierces another utility line -- usually a sewer line -- below the soil surface. Cross bores can result when work crews use an installation technique that doesn’t involve digging a trench, which means they can't see whether pipeline damage has occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright pullquote\">'These allegations suggested that deficiencies in the program were potentially a safety threat that could lead to explosions.' \u003ccite>Rep. Jackie Speier\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>These unintended pipe intersections might go undetected for years without causing a problem. But some Bay Area cities have recently partnered with utility companies to launch repair efforts out of concern that they are dangerous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s always the risk for gas explosions,” said Tyrone Jue, a spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, when asked about the safety hazard. “The [sewer] laterals would act like a vent, such that if there was a gas leak on that line, the gas could go up that lateral,” potentially traveling into a home or office space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This could happen if a line was damaged, triggering a gas leak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There have been 18 accidents resulting from cross-boring in the United States since 2002, according to the Gas Technology Institute. Mark Bruce, president of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.crossboresafety.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Cross Bore Safety Association\u003c/a>, said that's likely \"an understated number.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it's impossible to know, because the Department of Transportation’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration\u003c/a> does not specifically track cross-bore accidents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You should be concerned, but not irrationally concerned because this is a fixable problem,\" said Bruce. \"It's going to take many years to get this done, because we've spent decades putting them in.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Congresswoman Flags Safety Issue\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July 2014, Rep. Jackie Speier contacted the CPUC, flagging potential \"deficiencies\" in a PG&E program created to identify and repair cross bores. An email reference to her letter was buried among more than 65,000 emails included in some 123,000 documents PG&E was forced to release due to a lawsuit after the fatal 2010 pipeline explosion in San Bruno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=\"https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/208360183\" params=\"color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" iframe=\"true\" /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Performed by utility contractors, PG&E’s cross-bore safety program entailed reaching out to individual property owners and running cameras through underground pipes, to be followed by any needed repairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speier (D-San Mateo) confirmed to KQED that she had contacted the CPUC Safety and Enforcement Division.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Allegations were brought to my attention that testing was sometimes done by unqualified personnel, that test results from some addresses may have been falsified or addresses slated for testing were eliminated without supporting evidence,” Speier explained in an email to KQED. “These allegations suggested that deficiencies in the program were potentially a safety threat that could lead to explosions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emails in July 2014 between a CPUC Safety and Enforcement Division official and PG&E -- in response to Speier's concerns --indicated that a CPUC investigator would be initiating contact with the utility. But the findings of this probe have yet to be disclosed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speier's letter to the CPUC contained an excerpt from a June 17, 2013, email between apparent contractors that had been shared with her office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are a large number of addresses with potential cross bores [that were] never inspected,” says the excerpted email cited in Speier’s letter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The unnamed author requests PG&E involvement, noting, “I just don’t want to be asked the question of why an assigned address wasn’t inspected AFTER a cross bore in an uninspected address blows up. This is a very real and dangerous potential; in my humble perspective as an inspector in this program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe class=\"scribd_iframe_embed\" src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/267077044/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-KMh4hcKk0nMTQRbaRyhh&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"0.7729220222793488\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_22473\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “large number of addresses” referenced in the June 2013 email provided by the whistleblower were slated for inspection in 2012.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CPUC spokeswoman Constance Gordon told KQED that the state investigation began in July 2014. \"Whistleblower complaints are always screened for immediate safety concerns and then assigned to an investigator, in this case in our Safety and Enforcement Division,\" she said. \"The investigation includes fact-gathering, code compliance and sufficient corrective actions as warranted by the specific case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She added: “We cannot comment further until the investigation is completed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E responded to calls with a written statement saying that: \"As part of our commitment to the safety of our customers and the communities we serve, PG&E has deployed a comprehensive program to prevent, identify and repair cross bores throughout our natural gas system. We hold our employees and contractors to high standards and maintain a rigorous quality control process for this work. We are committed to cooperating fully with any reviews by our regulators.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E is facing criminal negligence charges for violating pipeline safety laws and obstructing justice in the case of the San Bruno transmission pipeline explosion, which killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes in September 2010. And two related investigations, one federal and state, focus on alleged improper communications with utility executives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cross-Bore Explosions Can Be Deadly\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Aug. 29, 1976, an explosion and fire destroyed a house in Kenosha, Wisconsin, killing Cletus Weston, 60, and his son, David, 26. Four other people were injured and two adjacent houses were also damaged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier that morning the Weston family had called a sewer cleaning company to remove a blockage. The cleaner inserted an auger into a 6-inch sewer lateral. But the auger struck and ruptured a 2-inch plastic gas main, even though the home was not served by natural gas. Quickly, gas flowed into the house through the sewer system and an explosion occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later, the National Transportation Safety Board \u003ca href=\"http://www.crossboresafety.org/documents/NTSB%20Cross%20Bore%20Recommendation%2012November1976.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">disclosed\u003c/a> that the gas main had been installed by boring through the sewer lateral -- a cross bore. The explosion prompted the NTSB to issue a series of recommendations, including that “inspections [should be made] …. where gas mains and sewer laterals may be in proximity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it took decades, and more explosions, for many municipalities and utilities to begin searching for cross bores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cross Bores Discovered In Bay Area\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nAccording to \u003ca href=\"https://www.scribd.com/doc/267081902/PG-E-s-Cross-Bore-Inspection-Program?secret_password=eYwZTAoOGpeYfzQPJhea\" target=\"_blank\">documents\u003c/a> from PG&E, there have been five \"near hits\" in San Francisco and the Peninsula since 2012 in which cross bores were damaged and gas was released. But they were fixed before any property damage occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers found 24 cross bores within four city blocks in Palo Alto, according to a document cited by PG&E and presented at the Northeast Gas Association. The City Council approved $3.8 million in 2011 to inspect sewer laterals and make repairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10547039\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 639px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/4011_S_146th_St_Tukwila_CrossBorePhoto1.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-10547039\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/4011_S_146th_St_Tukwila_CrossBorePhoto1.png\" alt=\"Example of a cross bore.\" width=\"639\" height=\"482\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/4011_S_146th_St_Tukwila_CrossBorePhoto1.png 639w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/4011_S_146th_St_Tukwila_CrossBorePhoto1-400x302.png 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 639px) 100vw, 639px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Example of a cross bore. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Cross Bore Safety Association)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, Tyrone Jue noted that the SFPUC, the agency tasked with maintaining city sewer lines, was largely unaware of cross bores until its street crews uncovered them during routine maintenance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[PG&E] had been doing the trenchless pipeline installation for a while, prior to us finding out about it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E later provided data suggesting that there were about 1,000 locations in the city where cross bores had occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a \u003ca href=\"https://www.scribd.com/doc/267071564/San-Francisco-Complaint-Against-PG-E\" target=\"_blank\">complaint\u003c/a> filed against PG&E by San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera suggests that there could be even more. “PG&E has identified thousands of additional locations where PG&E’s cross-bores might have caused damage to city sewer laterals,” Herrera’s June 6, 2013, complaint noted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Jue and Deputy City Attorney Theresa Mueller assured KQED that the problem was in the process of being addressed, both through a formal agreement between the city and the utility and through repairs, performed either by PG&E or SFPUC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A vast majority of them have already been fixed,” Jue explained. However, “There are some that are still remaining.” Meanwhile, cost recovery for damage to sewer lines is still the subject of litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city made repairs to nearly 100 locations where sewer pipes were damaged by gas lines, incurring more than $1.2 million in costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Efforts to Raise Awareness About Cross Bores\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E has issued tens of thousands of brochures to sewer districts, public works agencies, plumbers and equipment rental stores to raise awareness about \u003ca href=\"http://www.pge.com/en/safety/gaselectricsafety/sewercleaningsafety/index.page\">cross-bore safety concerns\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationwide, public safety programs stress that property owners should be aware of the potential safety hazard caused by cross bores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“OK, someone’s sewer or toilet is backing up. Normally they just call the plumber. Now they’re saying, call the gas company first to make sure there’s not a cross bore,” said Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before you or your plumber perform a repair to a sewer line outside of your foundation, call \u003ca href=\"http://www.pge.com/en/safety/diggingyard/callbeforeyoudig/index.page?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=811safedigging&gclid=CPOtxrO86MUCFY-TfgodJpgAZg\" target=\"_blank\">811\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Palo Alto's Mayor Youth Video Corp made the video below about cross bores.\u003cbr>\nhttps://vimeo.com/48531246\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There have been 18 accidents resulting from cross-boring in the United States since 2002, according to the Gas Technology Institute. Mark Bruce, president of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.crossboresafety.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Cross Bore Safety Association\u003c/a>, said that's likely \"an understated number.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it's impossible to know, because the Department of Transportation’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/\" target=\"_blank\">Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration\u003c/a> does not specifically track cross-bore accidents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You should be concerned, but not irrationally concerned because this is a fixable problem,\" said Bruce. \"It's going to take many years to get this done, because we've spent decades putting them in.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Congresswoman Flags Safety Issue\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July 2014, Rep. Jackie Speier contacted the CPUC, flagging potential \"deficiencies\" in a PG&E program created to identify and repair cross bores. An email reference to her letter was buried among more than 65,000 emails included in some 123,000 documents PG&E was forced to release due to a lawsuit after the fatal 2010 pipeline explosion in San Bruno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='100%' height='166'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/208360183&visual=true&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false'\n title='https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/208360183'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Performed by utility contractors, PG&E’s cross-bore safety program entailed reaching out to individual property owners and running cameras through underground pipes, to be followed by any needed repairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speier (D-San Mateo) confirmed to KQED that she had contacted the CPUC Safety and Enforcement Division.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Allegations were brought to my attention that testing was sometimes done by unqualified personnel, that test results from some addresses may have been falsified or addresses slated for testing were eliminated without supporting evidence,” Speier explained in an email to KQED. “These allegations suggested that deficiencies in the program were potentially a safety threat that could lead to explosions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emails in July 2014 between a CPUC Safety and Enforcement Division official and PG&E -- in response to Speier's concerns --indicated that a CPUC investigator would be initiating contact with the utility. But the findings of this probe have yet to be disclosed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speier's letter to the CPUC contained an excerpt from a June 17, 2013, email between apparent contractors that had been shared with her office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are a large number of addresses with potential cross bores [that were] never inspected,” says the excerpted email cited in Speier’s letter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The unnamed author requests PG&E involvement, noting, “I just don’t want to be asked the question of why an assigned address wasn’t inspected AFTER a cross bore in an uninspected address blows up. This is a very real and dangerous potential; in my humble perspective as an inspector in this program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe class=\"scribd_iframe_embed\" src=\"https://www.scribd.com/embeds/267077044/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-KMh4hcKk0nMTQRbaRyhh&show_recommendations=true\" data-auto-height=\"false\" data-aspect-ratio=\"0.7729220222793488\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"doc_22473\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “large number of addresses” referenced in the June 2013 email provided by the whistleblower were slated for inspection in 2012.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CPUC spokeswoman Constance Gordon told KQED that the state investigation began in July 2014. \"Whistleblower complaints are always screened for immediate safety concerns and then assigned to an investigator, in this case in our Safety and Enforcement Division,\" she said. \"The investigation includes fact-gathering, code compliance and sufficient corrective actions as warranted by the specific case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She added: “We cannot comment further until the investigation is completed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E responded to calls with a written statement saying that: \"As part of our commitment to the safety of our customers and the communities we serve, PG&E has deployed a comprehensive program to prevent, identify and repair cross bores throughout our natural gas system. We hold our employees and contractors to high standards and maintain a rigorous quality control process for this work. We are committed to cooperating fully with any reviews by our regulators.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E is facing criminal negligence charges for violating pipeline safety laws and obstructing justice in the case of the San Bruno transmission pipeline explosion, which killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes in September 2010. And two related investigations, one federal and state, focus on alleged improper communications with utility executives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cross-Bore Explosions Can Be Deadly\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Aug. 29, 1976, an explosion and fire destroyed a house in Kenosha, Wisconsin, killing Cletus Weston, 60, and his son, David, 26. Four other people were injured and two adjacent houses were also damaged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier that morning the Weston family had called a sewer cleaning company to remove a blockage. The cleaner inserted an auger into a 6-inch sewer lateral. But the auger struck and ruptured a 2-inch plastic gas main, even though the home was not served by natural gas. Quickly, gas flowed into the house through the sewer system and an explosion occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later, the National Transportation Safety Board \u003ca href=\"http://www.crossboresafety.org/documents/NTSB%20Cross%20Bore%20Recommendation%2012November1976.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">disclosed\u003c/a> that the gas main had been installed by boring through the sewer lateral -- a cross bore. The explosion prompted the NTSB to issue a series of recommendations, including that “inspections [should be made] …. where gas mains and sewer laterals may be in proximity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it took decades, and more explosions, for many municipalities and utilities to begin searching for cross bores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cross Bores Discovered In Bay Area\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nAccording to \u003ca href=\"https://www.scribd.com/doc/267081902/PG-E-s-Cross-Bore-Inspection-Program?secret_password=eYwZTAoOGpeYfzQPJhea\" target=\"_blank\">documents\u003c/a> from PG&E, there have been five \"near hits\" in San Francisco and the Peninsula since 2012 in which cross bores were damaged and gas was released. But they were fixed before any property damage occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers found 24 cross bores within four city blocks in Palo Alto, according to a document cited by PG&E and presented at the Northeast Gas Association. The City Council approved $3.8 million in 2011 to inspect sewer laterals and make repairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10547039\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 639px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/4011_S_146th_St_Tukwila_CrossBorePhoto1.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-10547039\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/4011_S_146th_St_Tukwila_CrossBorePhoto1.png\" alt=\"Example of a cross bore.\" width=\"639\" height=\"482\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/4011_S_146th_St_Tukwila_CrossBorePhoto1.png 639w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2015/06/4011_S_146th_St_Tukwila_CrossBorePhoto1-400x302.png 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 639px) 100vw, 639px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Example of a cross bore. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Cross Bore Safety Association)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, Tyrone Jue noted that the SFPUC, the agency tasked with maintaining city sewer lines, was largely unaware of cross bores until its street crews uncovered them during routine maintenance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[PG&E] had been doing the trenchless pipeline installation for a while, prior to us finding out about it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E later provided data suggesting that there were about 1,000 locations in the city where cross bores had occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a \u003ca href=\"https://www.scribd.com/doc/267071564/San-Francisco-Complaint-Against-PG-E\" target=\"_blank\">complaint\u003c/a> filed against PG&E by San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera suggests that there could be even more. “PG&E has identified thousands of additional locations where PG&E’s cross-bores might have caused damage to city sewer laterals,” Herrera’s June 6, 2013, complaint noted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Jue and Deputy City Attorney Theresa Mueller assured KQED that the problem was in the process of being addressed, both through a formal agreement between the city and the utility and through repairs, performed either by PG&E or SFPUC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A vast majority of them have already been fixed,” Jue explained. However, “There are some that are still remaining.” Meanwhile, cost recovery for damage to sewer lines is still the subject of litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city made repairs to nearly 100 locations where sewer pipes were damaged by gas lines, incurring more than $1.2 million in costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Efforts to Raise Awareness About Cross Bores\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E has issued tens of thousands of brochures to sewer districts, public works agencies, plumbers and equipment rental stores to raise awareness about \u003ca href=\"http://www.pge.com/en/safety/gaselectricsafety/sewercleaningsafety/index.page\">cross-bore safety concerns\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationwide, public safety programs stress that property owners should be aware of the potential safety hazard caused by cross bores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“OK, someone’s sewer or toilet is backing up. Normally they just call the plumber. Now they’re saying, call the gas company first to make sure there’s not a cross bore,” said Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before you or your plumber perform a repair to a sewer line outside of your foundation, call \u003ca href=\"http://www.pge.com/en/safety/diggingyard/callbeforeyoudig/index.page?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=811safedigging&gclid=CPOtxrO86MUCFY-TfgodJpgAZg\" target=\"_blank\">811\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Palo Alto's Mayor Youth Video Corp made the video below about cross bores.\u003cbr>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The pipeline that ruptured on May 19, spilling thousands of gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean, runs right through Santa Barbara County on its way to refineries in the Central Valley. Yet the county has no regulatory authority over it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our county actually had very strict regulations, but then they lost their jurisdiction over this pipeline,” explained \u003ca href=\"http://www.edcnet.org/\">Environmental Defense Center\u003c/a> chief counsel Linda Krop during a seaside news conference shortly after the spill. “They were robbed of the ability to monitor this pipeline the last 20 years. The federal regulations are much weaker.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/207838913″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company that used to operate the pipeline sued Santa Barbara County in the late 1980s. The oil firm claimed the county didn’t have the authority to impose regulations because the pipeline — now operated by Plains All American Pipeline — crosses county and federal territory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, Santa Barbara County requires major oil pipelines to be outfitted with automatic shutoff valves. Federal regulators do not require them, so the Plains pipeline didn’t have one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the feds do require pipeline operators to undergo regular inspections. Those can include everything from looking for surface erosion on pipes to drug testing of workers. A company may also have its own internal inspection schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Plains All American pipeline is on a five-year federal inspection cycle. That’s about standard, says John Stoody, from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4NDKB_enUS581US581&q=Association+of+Oil+Pipelines+\">Association of Oil Pipelines\u003c/a>, an industry trade group based in Washington, D.C.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10543896\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/REFUGIO-CLEAN-UP-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10543896\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/REFUGIO-CLEAN-UP-1-800x525.jpg\" alt=\"Members of the International Bird Rescue clean an oiled brown pelican in the aftermath of last week’s oil spill along the Santa Barbara County coast. \" width=\"800\" height=\"525\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/REFUGIO-CLEAN-UP-1-800x525.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/REFUGIO-CLEAN-UP-1-400x263.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/REFUGIO-CLEAN-UP-1-1440x945.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/REFUGIO-CLEAN-UP-1-1180x774.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/REFUGIO-CLEAN-UP-1-960x630.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/REFUGIO-CLEAN-UP-1.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of International Bird Rescue clean an oiled brown pelican in the aftermath of May 19 oil spill along the Santa Barbara County coast. \u003ccite>(courtesy of International Bird Rescue)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A minimum of every five years the operator must evaluate that pipeline, consider the different threats, conduct inspections,” says Stoody. “And then based on the risks, go out and perform maintenance on those pipelines before they become a problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The inspection process is kind of like getting a smog check for your car. A pipeline operator hires a private inspection firm that specializes in that kind of thing. Technicians then runs the pipeline through a battery of tests and submits the results to the pipeline boss, who then hands over the data to government regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On top of that, you will have regulators, whether it’s the federal government or a state agency that comes out and inspects an operator, inspects the pipeline, their paperwork for the integrity, the safe operation,” Stoody says\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state of California has a pipeline inspection team, too. It’s a branch of the state fire agency Cal Fire. But the team is small, just a handful of inspectors and engineers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yeah, we’ve been working with minimum staff for a number of years,” says \u003ca href=\"http://osfm.fire.ca.gov/pipeline/pipeline_mapping.php\">California’s director of pipeline safety, \u003c/a>Bob Gorham. “We have three full-time engineers and a couple part-time inspectors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They share oversight duties with federal inspectors on some 5,000 miles of pipelines across California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gorham says that because his staff is so small, inspections are prioritized based on each pipeline operator’s overall track record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And we work very closely with the federal government on the pipeline to try and determine what type of inspections and who to inspect,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until a couple years ago, Gorham’s crew also had primary oversight of the Plains pipeline that ruptured and sullied the Santa Barbara County coastline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But because of that staffing shortage, inspection duties on that and hundreds of miles of other pipelines were turned over to federal regulators a couple of years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And that is a problem nationwide,” says Samya Lutz, of the oil industry watchdog group the \u003ca href=\"http://pstrust.org/\">Pipeline Safety Trust\u003c/a>. “Often the federal government or states will train pipeline inspectors. And once they’re trained up, they might just stay for a year or two before they’re picked off by the industry. Because the industry can typically afford to pay a lot more for those types of jobs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire safety is essential when working on domestic and commercial gas pipes because even a small gas leak can create a serious fire or explosion hazard. Before beginning any work, the gas supply should be safely isolated, the area should be well ventilated, and all potential ignition sources should be eliminated. Using the proper tools, following established safety procedures, and testing for leaks after installation or repairs, and working with \u003ca href=\"https://fastfirewatchguards.com/maine/portland/\">Portland fire watch guards\u003c/a> can help protect workers, occupants, and property from fire-related incidents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But starting salaries for state pipeline inspectors and engineers are set to increase this summer, says Gorham. His department, with field offices in Bakersfield and in the Long Beach area, aims to add about half a dozen additional engineers and inspectors in the coming months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And California could reclaim pipeline oversight duties that it was forced to hand over over to federal regulators.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The pipeline that ruptured on May 19, spilling thousands of gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean, runs right through Santa Barbara County on its way to refineries in the Central Valley. Yet the county has no regulatory authority over it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our county actually had very strict regulations, but then they lost their jurisdiction over this pipeline,” explained \u003ca href=\"http://www.edcnet.org/\">Environmental Defense Center\u003c/a> chief counsel Linda Krop during a seaside news conference shortly after the spill. “They were robbed of the ability to monitor this pipeline the last 20 years. The federal regulations are much weaker.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='”100%”' height='”166″'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/207838913″&visual=true&”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false”'\n title='”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/207838913″'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company that used to operate the pipeline sued Santa Barbara County in the late 1980s. The oil firm claimed the county didn’t have the authority to impose regulations because the pipeline — now operated by Plains All American Pipeline — crosses county and federal territory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, Santa Barbara County requires major oil pipelines to be outfitted with automatic shutoff valves. Federal regulators do not require them, so the Plains pipeline didn’t have one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the feds do require pipeline operators to undergo regular inspections. Those can include everything from looking for surface erosion on pipes to drug testing of workers. A company may also have its own internal inspection schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Plains All American pipeline is on a five-year federal inspection cycle. That’s about standard, says John Stoody, from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4NDKB_enUS581US581&q=Association+of+Oil+Pipelines+\">Association of Oil Pipelines\u003c/a>, an industry trade group based in Washington, D.C.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10543896\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/REFUGIO-CLEAN-UP-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10543896\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/REFUGIO-CLEAN-UP-1-800x525.jpg\" alt=\"Members of the International Bird Rescue clean an oiled brown pelican in the aftermath of last week’s oil spill along the Santa Barbara County coast. \" width=\"800\" height=\"525\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/REFUGIO-CLEAN-UP-1-800x525.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/REFUGIO-CLEAN-UP-1-400x263.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/REFUGIO-CLEAN-UP-1-1440x945.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/REFUGIO-CLEAN-UP-1-1180x774.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/REFUGIO-CLEAN-UP-1-960x630.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/05/REFUGIO-CLEAN-UP-1.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of International Bird Rescue clean an oiled brown pelican in the aftermath of May 19 oil spill along the Santa Barbara County coast. \u003ccite>(courtesy of International Bird Rescue)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A minimum of every five years the operator must evaluate that pipeline, consider the different threats, conduct inspections,” says Stoody. “And then based on the risks, go out and perform maintenance on those pipelines before they become a problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The inspection process is kind of like getting a smog check for your car. A pipeline operator hires a private inspection firm that specializes in that kind of thing. Technicians then runs the pipeline through a battery of tests and submits the results to the pipeline boss, who then hands over the data to government regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On top of that, you will have regulators, whether it’s the federal government or a state agency that comes out and inspects an operator, inspects the pipeline, their paperwork for the integrity, the safe operation,” Stoody says\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state of California has a pipeline inspection team, too. It’s a branch of the state fire agency Cal Fire. But the team is small, just a handful of inspectors and engineers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yeah, we’ve been working with minimum staff for a number of years,” says \u003ca href=\"http://osfm.fire.ca.gov/pipeline/pipeline_mapping.php\">California’s director of pipeline safety, \u003c/a>Bob Gorham. “We have three full-time engineers and a couple part-time inspectors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They share oversight duties with federal inspectors on some 5,000 miles of pipelines across California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gorham says that because his staff is so small, inspections are prioritized based on each pipeline operator’s overall track record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And we work very closely with the federal government on the pipeline to try and determine what type of inspections and who to inspect,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until a couple years ago, Gorham’s crew also had primary oversight of the Plains pipeline that ruptured and sullied the Santa Barbara County coastline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But because of that staffing shortage, inspection duties on that and hundreds of miles of other pipelines were turned over to federal regulators a couple of years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And that is a problem nationwide,” says Samya Lutz, of the oil industry watchdog group the \u003ca href=\"http://pstrust.org/\">Pipeline Safety Trust\u003c/a>. “Often the federal government or states will train pipeline inspectors. And once they’re trained up, they might just stay for a year or two before they’re picked off by the industry. Because the industry can typically afford to pay a lot more for those types of jobs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire safety is essential when working on domestic and commercial gas pipes because even a small gas leak can create a serious fire or explosion hazard. Before beginning any work, the gas supply should be safely isolated, the area should be well ventilated, and all potential ignition sources should be eliminated. Using the proper tools, following established safety procedures, and testing for leaks after installation or repairs, and working with \u003ca href=\"https://fastfirewatchguards.com/maine/portland/\">Portland fire watch guards\u003c/a> can help protect workers, occupants, and property from fire-related incidents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But starting salaries for state pipeline inspectors and engineers are set to increase this summer, says Gorham. His department, with field offices in Bakersfield and in the Long Beach area, aims to add about half a dozen additional engineers and inspectors in the coming months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And California could reclaim pipeline oversight duties that it was forced to hand over over to federal regulators.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>When people call up Leigh Jerrard, founder of Greywater Corps, they're greeted with a recorded message: \"Note that we are overwhelmed with inquiries right now, so it may be a while before we get back to you. But have faith.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jerrard's company helps homeowners with the complicated process of installing their own graywater systems. The system takes drainage from showers or washing machines and uses it to water lawns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It sounds like a great idea now. But six years ago, when Jerrard started the company, few people were interested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Up until about a year ago, it's been pretty slow,\" Jerrard says. \"[But] things started to pick up. Last year was the first year we were solvent. Within the last month or two, the phone has been ringing off the hook.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In between interviewing to add another employee and another site visit, Jerrard managed to squeeze in an initial consultation for Lisa Mann at her craftsman-style home in Pasadena.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After about an hour of dispensing practical advice and sharing his water-use philosophy, Jerrard convinces Mann to jump on board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Sign me up,\" she says. \"I'm serious. We got to do this.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watering with graywater will be more expensive and complicated than Mann initially thought. But to her, it's worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It seems like the drought never ends. It's been here and it doesn't seem it is going away,\" she says. \"So we need to find ways to landscape and to be more efficient with our house.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That sentiment is also helping entrepreneurs such as Gayle Butensky. She started a drought-tolerant landscaping business five years ago. They specialize in using plants native to California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"People have been doing this for years and years and years,\" she says. \"It's just much more apparent now. Because once one person does, the next person sees it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Butensky adds that going native doesn't mean sacrificing aesthetics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It doesn't have to look like a desert. It doesn't have to look like rocks. It can look like a nice garden.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All those native plants have to come from somewhere, which has made California Cactus Center a very popular shop these days. It's been in Molly Thongthiraj's family for 38 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"When we first started it was not mainstream, but now it is,\" she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thongthiraj says because of the drought, business has never been better — up 20 percent since last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Gayle is one of her colleagues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You know there's always been a significant client base for people who were always collectors of cactuses and succulents,\" he says. \"But I think now it's a necessity.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's also a cost-saver because of government incentives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Los Angeles started offering a $3.75 rebate on every square foot of grass that homeowners rip out and replace with a drought-friendly landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No company has benefited more than Turf Terminators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Every time we think we've built the organization to a size where we think it's going to meet demand, demand just sort of jumps up and we have to grow again,\" says Julian Fox, the company's chief operating officer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Turf Terminators started just 10 months ago, it had three full-time employees. Now it has more than 500.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With no end in sight, California's drought may present a long-term boost for local entrepreneurs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=California%27s+Drought+Makes+It+Rain+Big+Bucks+For+Local+Businesses&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\" alt=\"\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
"airtime": "SUN 9pm-10pm",
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"meta": {
"site": "radio",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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}
},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
}
},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"id": "here-and-now",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/hiddenbrain.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
"subscribe": {
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Science-Podcasts/Hidden-Brain-p787503/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510308/podcast.xml"
}
},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
"imageAlt": "KQED Hyphenación",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/xtTd",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
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},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Political Breakdown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"subscribe": {
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e0c2d153-ad36-4c8d-901d-f1da6a724824/political-breakdown",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/572155894/political-breakdown",
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