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Economy collapses; nation
in ruins
The Mothers for Peace and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) are at it again. Well, actually, they've never stopped, so it's more accurate to say they're just going at it again with greater fury. How much do they hate each other? How much does the PLO hate Israel?
The most recent flare-up is over Attorney General Bill Lockyer's decision to flare things up. Lockyer, who sends out a press release every time he burps, just filed a "friend of the court" brief supporting the Mothers for Peace in their lawsuit against PG&E, which sends out at least as many self-congratulatory press releases as Lockyer and Mothers for Peace combined. As a "friend," Lockyer told the court and everyone else that he supports the lawsuit brought by the Mothers for Peace against the NRC and PG&E over spent fuel storage at Diablo Canyon.
Before this gets too complicated, let me interject here to say it's really pretty simple, and let me clarify the ongoing relationship between the Mothers for Peace and PG&E.
Mothers for Peace has been around to beat on PG&E ever since Diablo showed up. They chose a name that makes them sound like they bake cookies all day and want nothing more than to shush the kids so things will stay peaceful. At least Pacific Gas & Electric is forthright with its moniker. They like gas and electricity. But in the interest of full disclosure, they might want to call themselves Pacific Gas & Electric & Money.
Mothers for Peace has built its anti-nukes reputation by nipping at the heels of PG&E whenever the power company wants to move the coffeemaker at Diablo. For them, PG&E can do no right. Want to store spent fuel on site? No way. Want to move it off site? No way.
It's sort of like the relationship between San Luis and Santa Maria. San Luis can't stand its southern neighbor, while Santa Maria looks at SLO Town with bemused contempt. PG&E sees Mothers for Peace as some annoying dog barking in the night that someone should strangle. Mothers for Peace would like it if PG&E would just drop dead. Neither will acquiesce, so they just keep going at it.
When PG&E decided a little while back to build a spent fuel storage facility so it could warehouse all its icky waste, the NRC said, sure! This was to be an above-ground mini-dump that naturally didn't pass the smell test with Mothers for Peace, henceforth referred to as MF&P. But in addition to the dump being yucky, PG&E didn't have to take into account terrorist attacks in its environmental assessment, which sent MF&P off to court and Bill Lockyer to his fax machine, where he said, "The position adopted in this case by the Bush Nuclear Regulatory Commission is more than illegal, it's ludicrous [and] contrary to the President's public statements."
This comes right when former Bush appointee Richard Clarke's tell-all book has the talk show hosts gabbing this week about whether Bush 43 was as big a wimp as Bush 41 when it came to protecting everyone from terrorist bad guys, which has me thinking a couple things.
Why the hell would the NRC give PG&E a pass on this? It said that the possibility of a terrorist attack "is speculative and simply too far removed from the natural or expected consequences," which sounds a lot like what everyone would have answered on Sept. 10, 2001, when asked whether the Twin Towers would still be standing tomorrow. We have to expect terrorists to aim for the unexpected. What else can you expect?
I'd also really like it if MF&P would admit that even if the NRC made PG&E account for terrorist attacks that they'd have taken them to court because their socks didn't match and because they held their fork funny. PG&E and MF&P are locked in mortal combat, enemies to the end, which makes suspect anything one says about the other.
And let's admit this is all very political and not pretend it's not.
Richard Clarke was a Clinton appointee who likely has an ax to grind, and don't tell me otherwise because you're wrong. As for Lockyer, I'm curious why he refers to the "Bush Nuclear Regulatory Commission" when two of the three commissioners-Edward McGaffigan and Jeffery Merrifield-were appointed by Clinton. Sounds like the Clinton Nuclear Regulatory Commission to me. Lockyer just wants to dump on anyone of the political opposition, so he throws in a bunch of nonsense to heighten the pile, which only makes me wonder what else he's fibbing about.
FULL DISCLOSURE: If you're wondering about this week's headline and what it has to do with anything, wonder no more. I just happened to like it, and since it's my column, I get to do what I want. ³
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