Unforgiven...

August 23rd, 2012

Dear Readers,

California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) president Michael R. Peevey wishes to be forgiven for his several decades as a senior executive, including president, of Southern California Edison:

"I left there in March, 1993, over 19 years ago. I assume I get some pardon some time for having worked there" he stated today to KPFA reporter Sally Schilling (URL below). He continued, "Even if you're a convicted felon you get your voting rights back after a certain period of time."

Well, not necessarily -- it depends on the crime. And Peevey's crimes didn't stop when he left SCE, they had only just begun. As head of the CPUC he not only approved the faulty steam generator replacement at San Onofre, and billions of dollars in profits for his former employer (from whom he surely gets a substantial retirement income), he is now stalling an investigation of what went wrong at the facility.

It's nice to have friends in high places. I sure wish I had a friend like Peevey!

His many global "working vacation" jaunts with SCE and other utility executives strongly suggest he's still in bed, still in cahoots, still in collusion with them. He's their blocker. He rules the CPUC like a lord in his manor. He'll ask the other commissioners for their opinion, and then cut them off before they can give it.

However, Peevey has (FINALLY) realized that San Onofre is in terrible shape.

His comments followed public testimony today at the CPUC hearing by half a dozen activists. (A transcript of my own comments appears below.)

During public testimony, Barbara George of Woman's Energy Matters (WEM) stated that she had heard rumors about the possible sale of San Onofre to a nuclear fleet company based outside California. This would take away most of the CPUC's control of SanO. When talking to the KPFA reporter, Peevey stated bluntly: "Nobody would ever buy that plant. That is just inaccurate. Who would want to buy a non-operating nuclear plant? Nobody."

Let's hope not. But even knowing what shape the plant is in, the CPUC under Peevey refuses to start an investigation into what's gone wrong there, which plays directly into SCE's hand: It keeps the plant on the books, allowing SCE to collect 54 million dollars every month from ratepayers -- for producing nothing. California is currently setting up a joint task force of agencies to look into the problems at San Onofre. This special task force is not required to seek input from anyone. It's just another way to delay the final decision and keep money pouring out of our pockets and into Edison's.

This waiting game is costly and pointless. The proper thing to do is to decommission San Onofre NOW. Unfortunately CPUC president and unconvicted felon Michael R. Peevey, with his blinders on and his close ties to the plant, might be the last person on earth to realize it.

Sincerely,

Ace Hoffman Fairfax, California (temporarily location, normally Carlsbad, CA)

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KPFA report by Sally Schilling: http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/83658

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Statement by Ace Hoffman to the CPUC Thursday, August 23rd, 2012:

President Peevey, your reputation is NOT on the line over San Onofre. It's already ruined, just like the plant is. We feel you should recuse yourself from anything having to do with what's going on there. The steam generators cannot be replaced [I meant to say "repaired"] because they're too damaged. Unit two should never be restarted because all you're doing is putting our lives on the line in Southern California. I came up here from Carlsbad to speak.

It was your baby. You put it in. You told us that we needed it.

You didn't look at the differences between the alloys and see that it wasn't going to fit. Lots of things that shouldn't have happened, happened, and what should have happened, back in 2004 when we started to realize that the old steam generators were failing, you should have shut the thing down because of the spent fuel that's piling up on our coast with nowhere to put it. The Federal laws have put everything on hold.

We're replacing San Onofre every five years. The reactor core is completely replaced. Every time we do that we're basically violating the state law that says "no new reactors until the waste problem is solved." Well, when are we going to solve the waste problem? Well, we're not, because ionizing radiation destroys any container you put it in and this reactor is now a piece of junk, so if you look at when it first went down, it was mid-January for Unit Two, it's not going to be back up until... I mean it's going to be nine months in mid October.

The investigation -- the OII [Order Instituting Investigation] -- should be started immediately. The law that says to wait nine months is really to get you to do it eventually if you haven't done it already. We know there's a problem. We know there's a lot of information that's being withheld from us. We would like that information to come out and we think the OII can help encourage that.

Thank you. I have some documents I want to leave with you.

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Ace Hoffman
Carlsbad, California USA
Author, The Code Killers:
An Expose of the Nuclear Industry
Free download: acehoffman.org
Blog: acehoffman.blogspot.com
YouTube: youtube.com/user/AceHoffman
Email: ace [at] acehoffman.org
Founder & Owner, The Animated Software Company

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