Comment on PG&E targeted critics after San Bruno blast, e-mails show

In the days after the 2010 San Bruno blast that killed eight people, top Pacific Gas and Electric Co. executives traded jokes and back-slapped with state regulators and tried to get them to denounce one of their most vocal critics, a Chronicle review of 65,000 e-mails shows. The e-mails, which PG&E released late Friday, provide a singular insight into what critics say is an overly cozy relationship between the company and the California Public Utilities Commission, the agency charged with ensuring that utilities are operating safely and setting their rates. At the center of the exchanges were Paul Clanon, the commission’s former executive director and the man who ran the agency’s day-to-day operations, and Brian Cherry, a since-fired PG&E vice president whose main job was to persuade state regulators to give the company what it wanted. Soon after the disaster, TURN noted PG&E’s history of pocketing maintenance money for other purposes and called the explosion a case of the company “putting profits before customer safety.” On Sept.