Pacific Gas & Electric Co. president announces retirement

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The president of Pacific Gas & Electric Company is retiring at the end of the year.

California's largest utility announced the retirement of Christopher P. Johns in a statement, and said the board of directors will discuss a replacement before Johns' last day.

Johns led the company through a deadly 2010 pipeline explosion that resulted in a $1.6 billion fine by the California Public Utilities Commission earlier this year.

Federal investigators faulted both PG&E and lax oversight by the utilities commission in the explosion, which killed eight people in the San Francisco suburb of San Bruno.

Johns joined PG&E in 1996 as vice president and controller. He was named chief financial officer in January 2005 and named president of PG&E in August 2009.