On June 9, 2011 the California Public Utilities Commission announced that the Independent Review Panel formed to investigate the September 9, 2010, explosion of a Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) pipeline in San Bruno has issued its final report. The Independent Review Panel reviewed materails from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as well as a report released by the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) Pipeline Safety Committee. Since the NTSB has principal jurisdiction over the investigation of the pipeline failure, the Panel's report does not identify the root cause of the rupture. However, the report does indicate that the Panel believes third-party construction activity could have played a key role in transforming a fabrication flaw in the pipeline from a “stable” to an “unstable” threat, ultimately triggering the incident. The report focuses on PG&E’s operation of the pipeline and the CPUC’s oversight of PG&E.
The final report, an executive summary of the report and the CPUC's press release are listed below: