CA Anti-NUKE Activists Speak Out At CPUC On San Onofre NUKE Plant "Shut It Down Now"
California anti-nuclear activists spoke out at the August 3,
2012 meeting of the California
Public Utility Commission in
San Francisco about the threat to the people of California at the dangerous nuclear plant near
San Diego. The utilities control the commission through the former
Southern California Edison executive
Michael Peevey who is chair of the commission. He has refused to do a full investigation of the causes of the accident and the cover-up by the utility which is costing the people of California hundreds of millions of dollars to rate payers and the public. He receives thousands of dollars from these same utilities for expensive trips around the world.
No Nukes Action Committee
http://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/
Nuclear Free California
www.nuclearfreecal.org
Corrupt California
PUC Chair Peevey And
Utility Controlled
Commission Delays Full
Probe Of Southern California Edison
San Onofre Nuke Plant Cover-up
Financial probe delayed at damaged Cal nuke plant-Next
CPUC Meeting August 23 In SF
MICHAEL R.
BLOOD,
Associated Press
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Financial-probe-delayed-at-damaged-Cal-nuke-plant-3757714
.php
Updated 05:13 p.m., Thursday,
August 2, 2012
The secret life of Michael Peevey
By jackie
Created 05/24/
2011 - 3:25pm
http://www.sfbg.com/2011/05/24/secret-life-michael-peevey
California's top energy regulator rolls with power company executives behind the scenes
THE
BUDDY SYSTEM
CFEE isn't the only nonprofit that regularly flies Peevey overseas for green travel tours with high-ranking utility executives, and the 12 days he spent in
Spain wasn't the only time he spent away from official duties and in the company of the corporations his commission regulates.
These controversial getaways are just a small part of Peevey's involvement with private-sector interests. He also chairs the board of a nonprofit investment fund created as part of a $30 million settlement agreement with
PG&E;. Called the California
Clean Energy Fund, it funnels money into private venture-capital funds that invest in green start-ups, plus a few companies in the fossil-fuel sector.
While legislators have voiced frustration that lax CPUC oversight of PG&E; on pipeline-safety issues opened the door to disaster in
San Bruno, inside observers are critical of the outright favors Peevey has granted utilities, such as guaranteeing an unprecedented, higher-than-ever profit margin for PG&E; as part of the company's 2004 bankruptcy settlement.
The CPUC is set up to perform as a watchdog agency, yet social and professional ties running deep within California's insular energy community mean regulators sometimes run in the same circles as the executives who answer to them, making for cozier relationships than the general public might anticipate.
It's an old-fashioned insider game that one longtime observer wryly characterizes as "the buddy system." But the buddy system can bring consequences.
As the public face of the CPUC, Peevey repeatedly has been thrust into the spotlight. He has absorbed advocates' concerns about pipeline safety, rising electricity rates, SmartMeters, missed targets for energy efficiency, and municipalities' David-vs.-Goliath battles with PG&E; to implement community choice aggregation (
CCA), to name a few. He's a magnet for public scrutiny while occupying the center seat at commission meetings, but Peevey's behind-the-scenes engagements with private-sector organizations bent on shaping statewide energy policy demonstrate how power is wielded in California's energy world, a system in which regulators seem to be partnering with utilities rather than policing them.
Based at
Pier 35 in San Francisco, CFEE's board of directors is composed of a small group of officers, plus a long list of members who hail from some of the most prominent businesses nationwide.
Shell,
Chevron,
J.P. Morgan,
Goldman Sachs,
AT&T;, and PG&E; all hold positions on CFEE's membership board, and each entity chips in to fund the foundation's activities and travel excursions.
The group also includes representatives from labor organizations like the
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and mainstream environmental groups such as the
Natural Resources Defense Council. Among the emeritus members of CFEE's governing board are some high-ranking figures, such as
CIA director-turned-Pentagon boss
Leon Panetta. CFEE received $45,
000 in donations from PG&E; in 2009 (the most recent year available) and was granted similar amounts in prior years.
CPUC
Stuck In
Culture of Corruption
OCT. 17, 2011
http://www.calwatchdog.com/2011/
10/17/cpuc-stuck-in-culture-of-corruption/