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Kevin Faulconer's pricy plan to privatize planning
San Diego will lose out to greedy developers and their right wing backers. The fix is in; the good 'ole boys are back. Bob Filner was the last hope to stop this return to business as usual downtown. With Irene McCormack and Gloria Allred $250,000 richer, we will see Paradise plundered. I am all for women's rights, but the rest of us will pay a huge price for privatized regulation of the Development Services and Planning Commission changes that will be all pro-developer. When the beaches look like Miami beach with high-rise, you can thank the use of playing the "sex scandal card."— October 18, 2014 12:32 p.m.
No nuclear emergency sirens for you
San Onofre came close to having a meltdown, according to insiders. Those pressure tubes were defectively designed when they were replaced. All of Southern California was placed at risk for a small fraction of the electrical energy. Profit was placed over safety, according to numerous engineers. The NRC is withholding documents from Senator Boxer's Committee that show that Edison should have sought a relicensing hearing if there were design changes to the replacement pressure tubes. The NRC has failed to conduct appropriate regulation in the past as well. The community activists, environmental groups, generous donors, and Senator Boxer may well have saved Southern California. The cover up continues from Edison, to the NRC to the Public Utilities Commission. The magnitude of the risk is not infinite but large enough to never be justified. Solar and wind can replace nuclear energy as the cost comes down. Factor in the true cost of safety and nuclear was never cheap. Look at true costs at Fukushima and Chernobyl.— October 18, 2014 12:13 p.m.
Corruption charges be damned
Don, That is one hell of a cloud to operate under while hearing matters on behalf of ratepayers. Reminds me of the Enron-era corruption.— October 12, 2014 6 p.m.
Corruption charges be damned
Michael Aguirre is demanding the texts as well as the emails. It will be interesting to examine copies of these communications between the PUC and with the expert you mentioned. I doubt if there are any claims of "privilege" to hide behind because of the open records policies under the California Public Records Act. If their own expert exposed the partial power charade as involving public endangerment, an example must be made. The "expert" cannot be simply de-designated and retain a consultant only status as in litigation. The PUC should not be acting in an adversarial capacity with the public on behalf of the public utilities owned by private companies. Senator Boxer is going after the records at SONGS. Edison and the PUC are making a goal-line stand to prevent a full hearing on the issue of "prudence" or lack thereof in the operation of SONGS and the defectively designed replacement steam generator tubes. There are many documents that are signed under penalty of perjury by engineers to operate a nuclear power plant certifying that all procedures were complied with. Eventually, every document will be reviewed to determine if there was compliance. This is a huge scandal risking 8.5 million lives just to increase profits.— October 11, 2014 6:04 p.m.
Corruption charges be damned
The Attorney General is investigating the PUC. Billions are at stake.for ratepayers and utilities. The SONGS settlement should be delayed until it is determined that the approval is not corrupt. The PUC does not want to wait for Senator Boxer's inquiry in her Commission because Edison was not "prudent" in its operation. Why the big rush to settle without hearing evidence on the ultimate issue? It appears that the "fix" was in long ago. Aguirre is one of the few voices against this cronyism. I told the PUC that documents need to be produced and the authors deposed under oath. That is the only way to see that ratepayers are protected and safety is not subordinated.to profit. They hung their heads in shame. Now we see that special favors were being requested by some Commissioners in the San Bruno explosions. SONGS could have blown up, too. These issues are far too important to sweep under the rug for corporate profits. We are talking issues of public safety.— October 11, 2014 3:19 p.m.
Kilroy's cronies
Kilroy hit a brick wall at the Planning Commission. John Ponder, Esq., at Sheppard Mullin produced an urban planner and a traffic engineer to expose the omissions and misstatements in the final EIR filled by Kilroy. Marcella Escobar-Eck, representing Kilroy revolving door tactics, as former head of the city's Development Services Department, held forth, as always, trying to present her army of faux-resident supporters of the proposed project. Escobar-Eck presented numerous so-called traffic engineers on October 2 at the Planning Board who tried to convince Planners that by widening Del Mar Heights Road to nine lanes across, installing two additional traffic lights, and use of computer-controlled traffic signals, the additional traffic would not cause increased delays. Mr. Ponder's expert traffic engineers testified that their junior associates tore these contentions apart in 30 minutes. The experts will return on October 16 to answer pointed questions by Planners. Kilroy was admonished to produce renderings showing what the two 9-story buildings would look like from El Camino Real. No more using little black and white renderings in black and white by Kilroy to hide the huge Twin Towers of Carmel Valley said Planners. Mr. Ponder implied that numerous CEQA violations in Kilroy's FEIR would result in a lawsuit should Kilroy ever get the City Council to approve their super-dense project that is 100 auto-dependent except for the little tram they propose. No public transportation and it is not Smart Growth by definition. Nor is it a City of Villages, said Ponder. Not even infill, said Ponder, because that refers to urban areas. It is not bikable either. 4,500 signatures by residents opposing the project were hand-delivered. That spoke volumes! Three huge volumes.— October 3, 2014 1:52 p.m.
Trillion-dollar charity man
A fool and his money are soon separated.— August 28, 2014 10:55 a.m.
Who made these errors?
I found an honest man - CaptD! Don Bauder, too, of course. I wish our politicians and their "experts" could pass the Diogenes' challenge.— August 1, 2014 3:13 p.m.
Who made these errors?
Don, Old energy hacks never die, the just chair the PUC. I remember Jerry Brown driving his old VW around Malibu, hanging out with Linda Ronstadt and Rita Coolidge, while the waves broke. No old VW for "Governor Brown!" He sold out to the "establishment." Hard to be a real hippie when Daddy was Governor.— August 1, 2014 3:09 p.m.
Electricity refund? Not in California
Southern California Edison has ongoing litigation with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. There will be effective discovery in that lawsuit as to the issue of prudence by SCE. I have not read those documents but understand that SCE chose a company which had no experience with these pressure tubes. Furthermore, modifications were made to the power plant that caused excessive vibrations. How the administrative law judge or the PUC could even image that this matter is ripe for settlement baffles me. A metallurgical failure analysis is a very complex matter. The reason for the failure of these tubes is very important; was it a mistake of design or manufacture? The PUC would make a huge mistake in prematurely shifting this loss to ratepayers in its zeal to insure profits to investors despite actions by management. Encouraging profits over safety in the nuclear industry also endangers the public. This is not to be encouraged least we have another Fukushima disaster.— May 7, 2014 6:14 p.m.