More than Enough is Enough!

As this blog edition goes to post the spirit of nuclear abolition is reawakening around the world, even as the news from Fukushima worsens by the day.

In this digest of recent video and print postings you’ll find eyewitness reports from Japan on protests and pollution; Chris Busby’s and Arnie Gundersen’s current assessments; Karl Grossman’s take on Siemans dropping nuclear; Senator Ed Markey calling for a hearing on nuclear loan guarantees; nuclear blackouts in California; explosion at a French nuke; how US officials ‘learned nothing’ from Fukushima; information about about the Coalition Against Nukes’ demonstration plans, and more.

Scroll on down.

Dr. Chris Busby: Saving Fukushima’s Children

Fairewinds Introduces a Japanese Language Edition and Identifies Safety Problems in all Reactors Designed Like Fukushima

Clear spike in radiation measured across Japan on September 21 (CHARTS)

Nuclear Experts Say U.S. Learned Nothing From Fukushima
Sunday marks the six-month anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear reactor crisis.
In anticipation of that milestone, three leading U.S. experts held a news conference Friday to outline both what is now known in the wake of the Fukushima and where things stand for the nuclear power industry in the United States.
The overwhelming opinion of the panel, which included Peter Bradford, former member of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Edwin Lyman, Ph.D., senior scientist, Global Security Program, Union of Concerned Scientists and Dr. Andrew Kanter, national board president-elect, Physicians for Social Responsibility, was that major lessons from the Japanese nuclear disaster are in danger of going unheeded.
The experts outlined eight concerns and lessons from this crisis that should guide decisions regarding the future of nuclear power in the U.S.:
1. The U.S. regulatory response since Fukushima has been inadequate…read more

Global resources needed to combat radiation levels
Professor in Oregon Paper: Radiation from Fukushima exceeds Chernobyl — Now at level unknown to humans or machines — Human rights violations?
This month marked the half-year anniversary of the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami, and TEPCO and the Japanese government remain unable to control the nuclear emergency that continues to unfold.

Radiation levels exceed the Chernobyl disaster and now reach a level that is unknown to humans or machines. Radiation leakage from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was so high in August it exceeded the monitoring equipment’s maximum measuring capacity.

Radiation experts estimate that more than 1 million people will die from Fukushima’s radiation. According to Dr. Tatsuhiko Kodama, the director of Radioisotope Center at the University of Tokyo, the amount of radiation released thus far is equivalent to more than 29 “Hiroshima-type atomic bombs.”

“This is really bad”: Tokyo train radiation dose at 10.6 microsieverts per hour — “Geiger counter was off the charts” (VIDEOS)

8-26-2011 I took a train to Narita airport only to find it was highly radioactive. My SOEKS Gieger counter was off the charts in detecting radiation. However the People sitting next to me did not care at all even after I explained to them how dangerous this amount of radiation was. Please make this video viral and warn people not to take the trains since they have not been decontaminated yet.

Japan Confronts 29 Million Cubic Meters of Radioactive Soil
Japan Sizes Up Task of Fukushima Waste Disposal
by Yoko Kubota – Reuters
TOKYO – Japan faces the prospect of removing and disposing 29 million cubic metres of soil contaminated by the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years from an area nearly the size of Tokyo, the environment ministry said in the first official estimate of the scope and size of the cleanup.

Karl Grossman: On Siemens Abandoning Nuclear Power
Democracy: The Antidote to Nuclear Hegemony
by Karl Grossman

…What did it take for Germany to abandon nuclear power­and followed now by Siemens?

Democracy.

Germany’s decision was announced by Chancellor Angela Merkel, herself a physicist, after historic post-Fukushima election losses for her party and large wins by the anti-nuclear Greens.

Nuclear power — a product of Big Government followed by Big Business.

What can end it and lead to safe, clean, renewable energy? So far, we’ve seen only one answer. The will of the people — democracy — in action.

WATCH: Nuclear, City Officials Respond to Angry Crowd
Nuclear Regulators and San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station officials explained important safety lessons learned by the industry from the Fukushima Daiichi disaster in March.
Click the title above for video thanks to Adam Townsend

Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima: Never Again!
Fighting Back Against Nuclear Power
by MICHAEL LEONARDI – Counterpunch

As the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Nuclear Industry, and Obama administration continue to push nuclear energy as safe and clean, a grassroots insurgency is growing from the awakening depths of the growingly vociferous American maelstrom. Fukushima’s three meltdowns continue to emit over a billion bequerels of radioactivity a day into the environment and that radiation is spreading. The international media and all Atomic regulatory agencies around the world have been complicit in keeping the reality of this catastrophe silent. In the United States of America, despite reports of a decrepit, failing and unsafe nuclear program from the pages of CounterPunch to the Associated Press, CBS News and beyond, most Americans remain quiet and numbed on this issue. Much of this country’s union leadership, beholden to a broken and corporate owned Democratic Party and the monstrous energy giants that provide them jobs, have a slave plantation mentality toward their Radioactive, Oil Extrapolating and Gas Fracking bosses. The promise of a Green revolution based around economically viable, RENEWABLE and truly safe energy sources seems to be bound and shackled by a ball and chain mentality, but signs of a breaking point have finally begun to surface!

A truly grassroots insurgency is underway and is introducing itself to the world on October 1st with actions across North America. The Coalition Against Nukes has mobilized for the past several months to begin a no nuke uprising that won’t stop until ALL of our nuclear power plants are shut down and our future generations can look forward to a Nuke Free World. Isn’t it enough that we are leaving our future generations with the legacy of millions of gallons of nuclear waste and thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel to monitor and control for thousands of years? A part from Governor Perry’s idea of nuking Texas — which we might want to consider — there is no solution to ridding ourselves of this extremely toxic and highly radioactive waste piling up in hotspots around the globe. Enough is Enough!

Coalition Against Nukes Rally
10.1.11, Noon-3:30 Pier 95, Hudson River Park. 55th St., NYC. Stand with the people of Fukushima suffering multiple nuclear meltdowns. We cannot let that happen here!

Japan media reports on new daytime video showing steam rising from Reactors No. 2 and 3 — Asahi: “Under the steam are the reactors”
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Steam Rising from Reactors 2 and 3

The latest videos of Reactors 2 and 3 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant show steam rising from the locations where the reactors are located.

Breaking News: High level of radiation is making hydrogen from H2O, Fukushima Diary by Mochizuki, September 26, 2011:
These are the tonight’s tweets of actual Fukushima worker called Happy20790
* I managed to come back safely today. We couldn’t work at reactor 1 today, again. Last week, they said they detected 4% of hydrogen but it turned out to be over 100%. The current measurement tool is to detected only flammable gas, but Tepco says probably it is all hydrogen. […]
* We would have been all dead if we cut of the pipe [reportedly using blow torches]. Unbelievable story, but as our original schedule, we didn’t plan to check the presence of flammable gas. The process was added the day before the day. It’s so scary. […]
* [T]hen we are going to inject nitrogen to cut out to pipes. but normal air contains 18% of oxygen, which is enough to cause a hydrogen explosion even without fire. It’s so scary. Injecting nitrogen may also cause lack of oxygen. […]
* It’s probably that high radiation is producing hydrogen out of H2O. […]

From his valuable statements, we can tell the hydrogen is still being produced by the very high radiation hitting H2O in the reactor.

Nobody has seen it by their own eyes, but the melted fuel rods must be very active still.

Insurers discuss scrapping liability coverage for Fukushima plant
BY MAKOTO ODA SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Nonlife insurers are leaning toward ending liability coverage for the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which would complicate compensation payments if another emergency unfolds and render the plant’s reactors “illegal.”

“The insurance contracts are targeted at nuclear reactors that are operating normally and are not leaking out radioactive substances,” said a senior official at a major nonlife insurer. “It will be difficult to renew the contract under the current circumstances.”

The contract with Tokyo Electric Power Co. for the stricken Fukushima No. 1 plant expires in January.

For Insight On Solyndra Loan, Ask The Nuclear Industry, Markey Says
Sept. 23, 2011: Markey calls for hearing on nuclear loan guarantees

Radioactive Rice “Far Exceeding” Safe Levels Found in Japan
by Chikako Mogi

TOKYO – Japan found the first case of rice with radioactive materials far exceeding a government-set level for a preliminary test of pre-harvested crop, requiring thorough inspection of the rice to be harvested from the region, the farm ministry said late on Friday.

A rice field is seen in Soma, about 40 km (25 miles) north of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, in Fukushima prefecture, September 10, 2011. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon The ministry said radioactive caesium of 500 becquerels per kg was found in a sample of the pre-harvested rice in Nihonmatsu city, in Fukushima Prefecture, 56 km (35 miles) west of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant which was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, triggering the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.

An anti-nuclear protest in Japan
Sayonara, nukes, but not yet
An unusual civility brought to civil protest
Sep 24th 2011 | TOKYO | The Economist
IN A country that has had almost no experience of mass protest since the 1960s, an unexpectedly large rally in Tokyo on September 19th against nuclear energy was a polished affair. As many as 60,000 people gathered on a public holiday in the city centre.

Explosion Rocks French Plutonium Plant
Leak risk after France nuclear site blast

NIMES, France — The French government sought to play down fears of a radioactive leak after the explosion Monday at a nuclear site in the south of France in which at least one person died.

Blackout a reminder of US power grid vulnerability
Questions linger over how such a huge outage could have been caused by a single worker doing
Video: Power restored after huge blackout

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Video: Worker blamed as millions lose power

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Can We Stop the Next Fukushima Times 10,000?
by Harvey Wasserman
The horrible news from Japan continues to be ignored by the western corporate media.

Greg Palast, reports yearly at Fighting Bob Fest
This one on nuclear corruption.

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Corporate PR v. What’s Really What
Why ‘Smart’ is the New Stupid
[ Updated – 9-3-2011 ] Download PDF here.
by James Heddle and Mary Beth Brangan with thanks to Sarah Reilly of GetNourished.tv

As citizen and ratepayer opposition mounts across the country and internationally to the compulsory installation by electric, gas and water utilities of wireless so-called ‘smart’ meters, the corporate propaganda mill is in high gear.

The industry PR hacks are scrambling to put a green and friendly face on what may prove to rank as one of the stupidest and misguided management decisions of all time. They are attempting to paint those who oppose the plan on valid grounds of privacy, safety, public health, democratic choice and national security as planet-hating ‘fearmongers’ who are against renewable energy and an upgraded power grid.

We are media activists and organizers in what has emerged as one of the epicenters of ‘smart’ meter opposition – the Northern California service area of energy giant Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E). We are also ‘intervenors’ in an ‘opt-out’ proceeding currently in progress at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the state’s so-far flaccid ‘regulatory body.’

We think its time for a little ‘truthmongering.’ So here’s a reality check we hope will clear up some of the industry-sown mis- and dis-information on this important issue.

Myth #1
Wirelessness is Green.
Only a wireless ‘smart grid’ can save the world from Climate Change and wasteful energy consumption.

Reality
Wirelessness is witlessness.
This top-down, short-term corporate profit scam has nothing to do with reversing long-term, carbon-emission-driven climate change and everything to do with increasing government-funded short-term profit generation at tax- and rate-payer expense. In fact, the huge energy costs of manufacturing hundreds of millions of ‘smart’ meters outweigh any potential conservation gains. Customer cost savings also are an illusion. Utilities are replacing functioning $25 analog meters that last up to 40 years with $100 electronic meters that can last maybe 10 years if you’re lucky. Utilities are charging their ratepayers with the enormous cost of the meters, many billions of dollars.

Myth # 2
There IS no alternative
A wireless ‘smart grid’ is the only alternative (TINA – ‘there is no alternative’) to integrating intermittent alternative energy sources like wind and solar into the total energy distribution system – thus eliminating the need for fossil fueled ‘peaker plants.’

Reality
Safer, more rational load balancing solutions are available.
Neighborhood and regional ‘peak load balancing’ can be accomplished directly from the power sub stations. It’s not necessary to have devices on each home. Many other ways to accomplish what is necessary for efficient energy supply could be undertaken from decentralized sources if the goals were not first and foremost profit-driven. Some possibilities are small solar panel arrays and savonius rotor wind mills on homes, for example. These could connect in a neighborhood and must be combined with powering down energy consumption. Other reasons given for ‘smart’grid and ‘smart’ meters are to ensure recharging of electric vehicles. The requirement for the charging to take place on off peak times can be managed through simple notification of proper times, though the huge energy draw to recharge electric vehicles will also actually use more energy than ever saved.

Myth # 3:
Corporations have a mandate for wireless-ness.
Informed democratic choice is an impediment to technological and economic ‘progress.’ Despite the total lack of informed, reasoned public debate on this issue, unelected government agencies and corporations think they have the right to impose this dangerous and untested technocratic pseudo ‘solution’ on property owners, renters and the general public, world-wide with no legal recourse or democratic choice.

Reality
There is no legal Federal mandate for wireless-ness.
There has only been Federal ‘stimulus funds’ purloined by utilities and collusive, corporately-captured state public utilities commissions (like California’s CPUC) under false green washing pretenses and regulatory malfeasance. Utilities were mandated to ‘offer’ automated so-called ‘smart’ meters to customers. Automated meters can be implemented by power line, DSL, fiber optics, etc. The reason many utilities are choosing wireless meters is because wireless is cheapest.

Myth # 4:
More ‘consumer choice.’
A wireless ‘smart meter’ on every home, condo, nomad’s tent and mud hut in the world is the only way to save the planet from climate Change, because it gives ‘energy consumers’ ‘real time’ information and therefore total control of their energy usage.

Reality
‘Smart’ meters do not save energy, smart people do.
That was shown during California’s corporately-caused ‘energy crisis,’ when citizens spontaneously reduced usage by 10 to 12%. This current top-down, technocratic build-out of untested, unregulated wireless ‘smart meters” – at un-consulted ratepayers’ expense – actually eliminates hundreds of thousands of meter reader and electrical technician jobs-jobs-jobs, and allows utilities to remotely and instantaneously turn off a ratepayer’s power without prior notice, thus endangering low income and senior ratepayers who are dependent on electrical power for their medical life-support systems. AARP has consistently opposed ‘smart’ meters because of higher costs for those least able to afford it. Sept. 14, 2010. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, citing an excessive financial burden on consumers, “sweetheart deals” and no guarantees of improved service, knocked down legislation that would have paid for the widespread installation of smart meters. No significant energy savings have been shown from the use of ‘smart’ meters.

Myth # 5
Corporate dictate trumps human and civil rights and local authority.
PG&E thinks their corporate fiat supercedes and nullifies individual property owner and renter choices. PG&E believes they can overrule local elected bodies’ rights to protect their constituents health and safety by enforcing their moratoriums on ‘smart meter’ installations.

Reality
Local elected officials are asserting their authority.
So far, forty-seven cities, counties and local jurisdictions have declared opposition and moratoriums on ‘smart meter’ installation in northern California. This amounts to 2,695,947 of PG&E’s 10 million customers – over 25% of its client base. PG&E so far refuses to honor them, claiming superior authority over locally elected officials. Frank Egger, co-author with current Fairfax Mayor, Larry Bragman, of the first Fairfax ordinance, based his legal reasoning on the original Franchise Agreement each utility must sign with a municipality in order to operate within its jurisdiction. This gives the municipality the right to protect their constituents’ health and safety. These are Franchise Agreements that the CPUC has no legal authority to modify, change or eliminate. Cities and counties have certain constitutional powers granted to them and those that have adopted SM moratorium or outright bans are on firm legal footing, according to Frank Egger who was seven times elected Mayor of Fairfax.

Myth #6
SMs only emit 45 seconds per day and their radiation is less than a cell phone.

Reality>
SMs emit constant, hundreds of thousands millisecond long, ‘chirps’ and ‘chatter’ 24/7 to stay in touch with the other meters in the neighborhood ‘mesh network’ and the local ‘data collection point.’ Plus, according to UCSC radiation scientist Dan Hirsch of the Committee to Bridge the Gap, the whole body exposure from ‘smart’ meters is 100 times that of a cell phone.

Myth # 7 If you oppose a wireless ‘smart meter’ on your home, you hate the planet.

Reality
People who love the planet oppose wirelessness.
Informed individuals opposing this energy & carbon loading intensive, profit-driven plan are truly defending the long-term viability of the planet with no ulterior motives.

Myth # 8
There are no human health impacts from wireless radiation.
There are no demonstrated human health effects to RF emissions and ‘dirty electricity.’ ‘Electro-Sensitivity’ is just an unproven, pseudo-ailment made up by suggestible hypocondriacs, and self-serving ‘junk’ scientists.

Reality
Scientific reports and personal experience proves otherwise.
Several thousand people have sent written complaints of adverse health impacts from the meters, imploring utilities to remove them. Many have actually had to leave their homes because of severe adverse health effects from ‘smart’meters. At least 3 – 7% of the population is already electro-sensitive and many more will become so after being overexposed to the constant pulsing of high frequencies emitted by these wireless meters. No one is impervious, some are more sensitive than others. Some symptoms are: ringing in the ears, nausea, headaches, insomnia, heart palpitations, joint pain, brain fog, anxiety. The millions of pulsing meters are causing a massive new overlay of RF pollution to our already densely polluted air, wires and ground from cell phone antennas, radar, wi-fi, and the myriad other wireless devices. The World Health Organization’s agency for cancer research, IARC, on May 31, 2011 classified the same radio frequencies used by ‘smart’ meters as a class 2B carcinogen, like DDT and lead. This is an outrageous precedent that corporations would be allowed to force installation of a device emitting a class 2B carcinogen on homes and private property.

Myth # 9
No privacy risks.
There are no individual privacy or security risks posed by wireless ‘smart meters.’

Reality
Wirelessness MEANS hackableness.
Any thief or teenager with an iPhone could access your data. Once PG&E has your and everyone else’s it can market them to advertisers for data mining, thus increasing its profits at ratepayers’ expense. Government agencies have already made arrests based upon data gathered by ‘smart’ meters.

MYTH # 10
No safety risks.
There are no home or public safety risks posed by wireless ‘smart meters.’

Reality
There are many reports of fires, explosions and appliance damage.
They are reportedly caused by either faulty meter installation or incompatibility with home wiring. Installers are not electricians and have inadequate training of only a couple of weeks. ‘Smart’ meters are not UL certified. Several businesses and even a shopping mall have reported fires and many people report fried electronics with ‘smart’ meter installation. The inevitable occasional power surges can also cause complete destruction of the electronics in smart meters necessitating more expensive repair from the more extensive damage to household wiring and appliances than that experienced with analog meters. This just happened to 10 square blocks in San Jose. Medical devices, such as pacemakers and other medical implants can also be dangerously interfered with, as well as motion detectors. Arc fault interruptors and other safety devices can also be tripped by the ‘smart’ meters.

Myth # 11
No accuracy risks.
There are no over-billing risks posed by wireless ‘smart meters.’

Reality
Wrong again.
Just ask the many people of Bakersfield, Fresno and many other places who have seen increases in their bills by as much as 300%.

Myth # 12
No cyber-war national security risks.
There are no national security energy grid hackability risks posed by wireless ‘smart meters.’

Reality
Cyber Warfare is already happening and the energy grid is vulnerable.
IT cyber-security architects and no less an authority than former CIA Director James Woolsey say a wireless energy net is totally vulnerable to hacking and therefore ‘really stupid.’ Any teenage hacker in a cyber cafe in Beijing could potentially bring down the entire wireless North American energy grid. Lockheed-Martin and the International Monetary Fund have been hacked. It will be far easier to disrupt a system with so many easily accessible targets as millions of vulnerable wireless meters in a mesh network.

Myth # 13
PG&E can be trusted to put the public good before profit.
PG&E and other ‘regulated monopoly,’ IOU companies are model ‘corporate citizens’ with the maximum public good and interest uppermost in their ruling value systems above share-holder profitability considerations.

Reality
PG&E’s corporate rap sheet spans its history.
In fact, a case could be built that PG&E has been – as California state legislator Tom Ammiano has put it – a ‘corporado’ from its very founding in 1905. Its values and vision that ‘competition is destructive’ can be traced directly to the Robber Barons of the 19th century. Shortly after the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906 all members of the Board of Supervisors, the police chief, as well as corporate officers of PG&E were indicted for graft and bribery. It was PG&E’s shoddily maintained gas streetlight system that helped burn a huge swath of the city in 1906, a preview of the recent San Bruno fire. The company is a transnational giant with holdings around the country and the world and has been a fierce opponent of locally owned municipal power and a major promoter of nuclear energy. It remains a huge force in both California and national politics.
[ For a partial timeline of its offenses, see companion blog post here. ]

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Investor-Owned Utilities Aren’t Called ‘IOUs’ for Nothing…

During Pacific Gas and Electric’s recent unsuccessful ‘Prop. 16’ attempt to enshrine its monopoly in California’s constitution and kill in the cradle the growing movement for local power generation projects (known as community choice aggregation, or CCAs), state legislator Tom Amianno referred to PG&E as a ‘corporado.’ As one who has repeatedly locked horns with the utility in his various public service roles, he knew whereof he spoke.

Here’s a list of some of the known PG&E actions, adapted, with additions, from a timeline put together by Energy-Net.org

* The company known as Pacific Gas and Electric incorporated on October 10, 1905, as a consolidation of more than two dozen power and water concerns around the state. PG&E went on to consolidate power in northern California and by 1952 represented 520 companies merged.
* PG&E officials indicted in SF political boss Abe Ruef‘s bribery scandal following 1906 SF earthquake fire.
* SF labor leader Tom Mooney fingered by PG&E Pinkerton agents.
* PG&E organized the Greater California League, spending $500,000 in 1922 to kill statewide initiative drive to municipalize utilities.
* Coalition leader on changing the history in school text books to protect how American’s perceived their role in electric power development.
* The takeover of Hetch Hetchy dam despite the 1913 Raker Act’ stipulation that dam must be used not only to store water but also to generate electric power, which must be sold directly to the citizens through a municipal power agency at the cheapest possible rates. [ full story here: https://www.clovisnews.com/trails/hetch_hetchy_power.html ]
* The utility gained its huge size by taking over locally owned power companies from Santa Barbara in the South to Eureka in the north.
* The aggressive takeover of Friant and Shasta dam electricity that had been destined for rural coops in northern California.
* The coalition leader in developing nuclear power in U.S.
* Holds the distinction of being the focus of the first anti-nuclear movement in history, starting in 1958 when they tried to push through 4 nuclear reactors on the epicenter of the 1906 earthquake at Bodega Bay.
* Its 2nd reactor complex at Humboldt bay was dubbed the dirtiest nuclear reactor in the U.S. and shut down in the late 70’s when plutonium was found on children’s playground a mile away.
* Bribed the Sierra club into allowing the siting of Diablo Canyon at the 2nd to last coastal wilderness in California. The scandal led to David Brower leaving the Sierra Club and forming Friends of the Earth.
* Pushed to build over 60 nuclear reactors in its service area. But ended up taking on over 20 years of opposition to its push to build reactors all over the state.
* Opposed lifeline electric rates in the state, but failed.
* Attempted to take the very law it had helped to pass a few years earlier that limited its ability to construct new reactors in the state, all the way to the U.S. Supreme court, but failed.
* Caught in PCB transformer scandals that contaminated a city building and its own workers.
* Designed and built the Helms Stored River project, that went nearly 10x’s over original budget and killed a score of workers.
* Forced to rebuild the Diablo Canyon reactors 3 times, running the cost up from $300 million to $5.8 billion.
* A newly hired engineer discovers that PG&E had built the seismic supports for the reactors backwards, just after the Abalone Alliance had completed the largest civil disobedience action in U.S. history.
* PG&E is part of a national coalition to permanently privatize a 1920 agreement that would allow municipally owned utilities to bid on over 400 dams nationwide when their 50 operating license came up. The successful campaign ended up giving PG&E and SoCalEd over 60 dams here in California.
* Ronald Reagan secretly orders the EPA to give the financial strapped utility $2.7 billion to help PG&E finish Diablo Canyon.
* The Diablo Canyon operation was allowed to go ahead by Judge Robert Bork. He was famous for being the Nixon’s Saturday night massacre lawyer that fired the Watergate prosecutor.
* Literally every environmental law on the book was waived to allow PG&E to obtain its 2 billion gallon dumping permit into the ocean. The state’s regional quality control board refused to allow them to dump water, but was overturned by the state.
* The reactors were built near the Hosgri fault-line that destroyed Santa Barbara in a 1927 earthquake.
* The first time the reactors were turned on, 14,000 Abalone in Diablo Bay were killed. The cove was also home to a sacred Chumash burial area and was the home of the worlds largest oak trees.
* In the late 1990’s it was disclosed that PG&E had covered up the extent of damages to the coast and Abalone, and was given a $14 million fine. The fine was later reversed.
* The company spent $110 million in legal fees to win the Diablo Canyon rate case. The state, which had promised that it would force the utility to eat at least $2 billion of the construction costs settled a deal that gave away the whole house, setting up a $54 billion 30 contract for PG&E.
* The 1989 rate settlement led to the steepest rate increases in the country, driving electric costs from 8 cents a KWH to over 14 cents by 1994.
* This huge increase led to the revolt of big electric users, that in turn caused the disasterous Wilson deregulation plan.
* PG&E was a coalition partner in destroying the grassroots based alternative energy movement in the state that was culminated in their FERC appeal that killed PURPA contracts in the state in 1994.
* PG&E took the national lead in the mid 80’s, with their U.S. Supreme Court case that killed Citizen Utility Board’s across the country. The Nader inspired CUB’s had successfully gained access to PG&E’s electric bill here when the CPUC allowed TURN to do inserts.
* PG&E’s was part of a coalition of California corporations that sponsored the Pacific Legal Foundation and its SLAP suit against the Abalone Alliance that put it out of existence.
* PG&E was part of the inside coalition of organizers, with the help of Palo Based EPRI, in the national agenda to deregulate the electric industry.
* The San Diego team of Steve Peace and Governor Wilson led the team plan to give the state’s utilities the disastrous deregulation mess. It included a $28 billion bonus to cover all the construction costs of Diablo Canyon and SoCal Eds’ SONGS reactors.
* Check out the Julia Roberts movie for more scandals that contaminated over 1,000 workers with Chromium contamination
* Oh, yes and its spent large amounts of money many many times to defeat public power initiatives in San Francisco and elsewhere.
* Since 2000, PG&E Corp., the parent company of PG&E Co., has spent more than $112 million on federally reportable lobbying efforts, according to the Center’s analysis. Its roster of lobbyists includes an elite force of ex-government officials, and at least one of the lobbyists the company has deployed this year is a former member of Congress, Rep. Vic Fazio (D-Ca.).
And the explosion in San Bruno comes at a time when PG&E Corp. is reaching new heights in lobbying efforts.
During the first six months of the year, PG&E put unprecedented capital into lobbying efforts, reporting to the federal government that it’s so far spent nearly$44 million. Such a figure represents a more than 600 percent increase from the total it spent during all of 2009, and marks an industry-wide record for electric and utilities companies.
* Outrage as PG&E Plans to Spray Clouds With Toxic Chemical to Increase Rainfall
AlterNet June 8th, 2010 – “After a successful six-year campaign to prevent Nestle Waters from building a bottling plant in nearby McCloud, the town of Mt. Shasta, a mountain hamlet of fewer than 3000 residents in California’s far-northern Siskiyou County, is taking up a new struggle: to prevent PG&E from seeding the region’s clouds. The practice of ‘cloud seeding’ is a kind of weather modification in which silver iodide, a Class-C toxin, is disbursed aerially or from ground-based towers in an effort to induce rain. … [U]nlike other large-scale resource management practices with potential environmental impacts, cloud seeding is completely unregulated in California….provided it is done by corporations…”
* NTSB Blames PG&E ‘Litany Of Failures’ In San Bruno Explosion – CBS August 30, 2011 ‘The head of a federal safety panel is faulting Pacific Gas & Electric company for a “litany of failures” leading up to last year’s pipeline explosion in San Bruno that killed eight people and incinerated a suburban neighborhood.
Deborah Hersman, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said Tuesday PG&E also exploited weak safety oversight by state regulators who placed “a blind trust” in the utility.
The findings in the draft final report, which were publicly discussed for the first time Tuesday by the five-member board, indicate that flawed pipe, operations and oversight led to the disaster.
“It was not a question of if this pipeline would burst, but when,” Hersman said.’
* Federal investigators are looking into the explosion of a leaky Pacific Gas and Electric Co. gas line that devastated a Cupertino condominium, officials said Thursday. It took PG&E crews about an hour and a half to cut the flow of gas after the explosion and fire ripped through the condo. at 12:30 p.m. When crews examined the 2-inch plastic distribution pipe feeding smaller lines running into and around the …, they found a total of seven leaks, PG&E said. The explosion came just one day after PG&E was harshly criticized by the National Transportation Safety Board for its handling of gas safety in light of the San Bruno blast last year that claimed eight lives, and a 2008 explosion outside a home in Rancho Cordova (Sacramento County) that killed its 72-year-old owner. In both disasters, regulators took issue with the length of time it took PG&E to shut off the gas. The CPUC said it is investigating the Cupertino explosion.

Editor’s Note:
There you have it, folks. So far, so bad. This is the corporation that claims the right to place toxic technology on our homes and in our communities without our consent, sell our private information for profit and endanger national security with a hackable wireless energy grid that James Woolsey, a former head of the CIA, calls “really stupid.”
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California – Epicenter of a Planetary Issue
This unedited recording of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Workshop on Smart Meter Opt-Out Options, Sept. 14, 2011, is posted by EON in 6 segments as a public service.

Please consult the following official Agenda to locate the hourly segments which address your interests.

Scroll down for links and embedded video viewers.

[Photo: CPUC Administrative Law Judge Amy Yip-Kikugawa (far rt.) presides, as utility executives and vendors field questions from intervenors and concerned citizens.]

[ For unedited footage of the noontime “Pull the Plug on ‘Smart’ Meters” protest that occurred outside this workshop, go to CPUC Sept14 Protest ]

Workshop on Smart Meter Opt-Out Options
September 14, 2011
Agenda

9:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. Opening Remarks
ALJ Yip-Kikugawa

9:45 a.m. – 10 a.m. Ratemaking 101
Carol Brown,
Chief of Staff to CPUC President Michael R. Peevey

Smart Meter Assistance
Harold Williams
Supervisor, Consumer Affairs Branch, CPUC

10 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. Topics Applicable to All Opt-Out Options
1. Meter Technology – Are there differences in technology between the meters
utilized by each utility? Is there a difference between gas and electric meter
technology? Do the differences require consideration of different opt-out
options for each type of meter?

2. What are the costs considered by the utility (cost drivers) when setting the
costs for an opt-out option?

3. What additional procedures, if any, should be adopted for residents in multi-
unit residences who wish to opt-out of a utility’s Smart Meter program?

4. What level of assistance should be provided to low income ratepayers?

5. What provisions are there for ratepayers who wish to delay installation of a
Smart Meter at this time?

11:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Break

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Analog Meter and Radio-Out Options
1. Retention of existing electromechanical meters
2. Digital meter with radio transmission removed

12:30 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. Lunch

1:15 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. Analog Meter and Radio-Out Options
(continuation)

1:45 p.m. – 3 p.m. Radio Off Option
1. Meters manually read by ratepayer or utility
2. Intermittent Transmission

2 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. Break

2:15 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Wired Smart Meter Option

4:30 p.m. – 5 p.m. Wrap-Up and Closing Remarks

The following utility and consumer representatives will be available to address questions
concerning the various opt-out proposals:
Pacific Gas and Electric Company – Jim Meadows, Director, Smart Meter
Southern California Edison – Kenneth Devore, Director, Smart Grid
San Diego Gas and Electric Company – Ted Reguly, Director, Customer Programs
and Assistance
Southern California Gas Company – Pat Petersilia, Director, Advanced Meter Project
Itron North America/Latin America – Mark deVere-White, Vice President and
Managing Director
CPUC Division of Ratepayer Advocates – To be determined

Hr 1-CPUC ‘Smart’ Meter Opt-Out Workshop

Hr 2-CPUC ‘Smart’ Meter Opt-Out Workshop

Hr 3-CPUC ‘Smart’ Meter Opt-Out Workshop

Hr 4-CPUC ‘Smart’ Meter Opt-Out Workshop

Hr 5-CPUC ‘Smart’ Meter Opt-Out Workshop

Hr 6-CPUC ‘Smart’ Meter Opt-Out Workshop

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To help keep EON’s work going, please check out all the support options on our Donation Page or you can also send a check made out to EON to EON, POB 1047, Bolinas, CA
Or…just:

Fairfax Leads the Way to ‘Smart’ Meter Free Zones

This public forum on the compulsory installation by northern California utility, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) of environmentally toxic, privacy-violating, unsafe and hackable wireless so-called ‘smart’ meters was held in Fairfax, California Sept. 9, 2011.

The tiny city of Fairfax is on the frontline of local democratic opposition to the misconceived and dangerous corporate ‘smart’ grid plan which former CIA Director James Woolsey terms ‘really stupid.’

The Speakers in order of appearance:
Jeffry Fawcett, PhD co-produces the Your Own Health And Fitness radio show with Layna Berman – YourOwnHealthandFitness.org – and is the principal author with Layna Berman of the book ‘Too Much Medicine, Not Enough Health.’ He is on the faculty at Hawthorn University in Holistic Health and Environmental Studies. His PhD is in environmental economics and political economy from UC Riverside.
His topic: Why utilities want SmartMeters, regulatory capture, and the political economy of resistance to wireless technologies.

Syndicated radio journalist, Layna Berman – YourOwnHealthandFitness.org – is an independent scholar and health educator. Her syndicated radio program, Your Own Health and Fitness, is a investigative radio program with a critical perspective, covering the politics and practice of health.

She talks about the health effects of low level wireless microwave exposures, how and why the numbers of people suffering with symptoms is growing, and the research into the mechanisms.

Joshua Hart is the founding Director of StopSmartMeters.org. He lays out the basic campaign strategies for local communities wishing to enforce their democratic rights and successfully oppose PG&E’s compulsory installation of electromagnetically toxic, unsafe, inaccurate, privacy-invasive and hackable wireless ‘smart’ meters.

Katharina Sandizell, MA, MFT, PDHom, has a BA from Columbia University in New York, and a M.A. in Psychology from CIIS in San Francisco. She recently helped found the West Marin non-profit, Alliance for Human and Environmental Health (AllianceHEH.org), which advocates and educates about Smart Meters and harmful effects of Radio Frequency Microwave Radiation in neighborhoods and schools.

She speaks about how the wireless smart meter issue forced her into becoming active in civil disobedience for the first time. She discusses how this led to her founding a non-profit organization dedicated to education on how to stand up for our democracy through community involvement and activism vs corporate tyranny.

Attorney Larry Bragman is a two term member of the Fairfax Town Council and the current Mayor. He has an active law practice in San Rafael as a trial lawyer specializing in consumer rights and criminal defense matters. He lives in Fairfax with his wife Holly and their two stepsons.

His talk is a summary of Fairfax’s opposition to Smart Meters from its birth to its current status. The ordinance Fairfax passed is the model that many other cities and counties used. 46 local governments, cities and counties plus one tribal council, have opposed ‘smart’ meter installation, representing well over 2.6 million people in PG&E’s 10 million-ratepayer area.

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