Jul 302025

PG&E Agrees to First-Ever Accidental Release Reporting Settlement

Samuel B. Boxerman and Hannah Posen
, ,

On July 28, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a settlement with Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) for failing to promptly report an accidental release. This is the first-ever settlement for the failure to comply with the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) Accidental Release Reporting Rule (Reporting Rule).

The 2020 Reporting Rule, which was implemented under Clean Air Act Section 112(r), requires owners and operators of a facility that experiences an accidental release resulting in a fatality, serious injury, or substantial property damage to report the incident to the CSB. The report must be made within eight hours of the release. Although the Trump administration is seeking to eliminate the budget for the CSB, Cecil Rodrigues, Deputy Administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, said that “[T]his settlement clearly signals that EPA will hold companies accountable for not providing CSB with essential information, which can lead to the potential for loss of life, injury, or property damage.”

Under the Consent Agreement, PG&E agreed to pay a $45,273 civil penalty for failing to report the June 8, 2023 accidental release of natural gas from a pipeline in San José, California. The release injured one employee, who was admitted to the hospital for treatment. While PG&E filed a report about the incident on June 8, 2023, it was not within the eight-hour time limit specified in the Reporting Rule. The settlement does not require PG&E to implement any corrective action.

This post is as of the posting date stated above. Sidley Austin LLP assumes no duty to update this post or post about any subsequent developments having a bearing on this post.

Samuel B. Boxerman

Washington, D.C.

sboxerman@sidley.com

Hannah Posen

Chicago

hposen@sidley.com

You might also like
EPA Updates Clean Air Act Standards Applicable to Small Waste Incinerators

On June 30, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized updates to its New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) and Emission Guidelines for Other Solid Waste Incineration (OSWI) units under the Clean Air Act (CAA). These units — combustion systems that incinerate solid waste from commercial or institutional sources not otherwise regulated under specific incinerator categories — include very small municipal waste combustors and institutional incinerators. The final rule includes applicability-related and definitional changes expanding the class of incinerators subject to NSPS, revises the OSWI subcategories and tightens emission limits for key pollutants. It also adopts changes to startup, shutdown, and malfunction (SSM), and expands testing, monitoring, reporting, and recordkeeping requirements that will affect both existing and new OSWI units.

Supreme Court Issues Split Rulings on Clean Air Act Venue Disputes

On June 18, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued decisions in two significant Clean Air Act cases — EPA v. Calumet Shreveport Refining and Oklahoma v. EPA — clarifying the appropriate venue for legal challenges to certain final EPA actions. In Calumet, the Court held that EPA’s universal denials of small-refinery-exemption (SRE) petitions under the Renewable Fuel Standard program were “based on a determination of nationwide scope or effect,” and thus challenges may only be brought in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. By contrast, the Court in Oklahoma held that challenges to EPA’s disapproval of State Implementation Plans (SIPs) belong in the applicable regional circuit courts because the agency’s determinations were based on facts and rationales unique to each state. Although some gray areas remain, the twin decisions put several long-standing venue issues to rest and should encourage quicker resolution of Clean Air Act regulatory challenges.

Presidential Exemption for Certain Stationary Sources of Air Pollution

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has opened an electronic mailbox to allow regulated sources to request a Presidential Exemption under section 112(i)(4) of the Clean Air Act (CAA) from nine National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs) that EPA is reconsidering (see table below) across the energy, manufacturing, and chemical sectors.