Good riddance, Diablo 

Diablo Canyon is finally shutting down. It should never have been built, especially over two earthquake-prone fault lines. In fact, as we can see now, no nuclear power plants should ever have been built. Sooner or later, they always leak radiation, and nuclear fuel waste takes 250,000 years to decay into lead—a massive and mounting problem. Nuclear power has always been a bad idea, good only on paper if you ignore half the story, but horrible in reality. 

PG&E is an especially bad player. Think of all the people poisoned in Hinkley, Calif., and many other places, and all the pollution and the gas line accidents. Think of the totally cowed Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, corrupted and co-opted through a cozy relationship with PG&E and other big energy corporations, who then get away with murder and receive a slap on the wrist for their crimes, if anything. 

As long as PG&E and other major utilities exist as huge profit-obsessed corporations, they will manipulate all types of energy sources and markets, along with the media and the politicians, keeping prices high with everything tightly in their control. In my opinion, “public” utilities should really be publicly owned and run democratically, cooperatively, and transparently by and in the interests of consumers, not investors and fat-cat executives. This is the only way that renewable energy, alternative energy, energy storage, and all other possibilities can be developed and provided in a socially responsible way.

-- Jim Griffin - San Luis Obispo

-- Jim Griffin - San Luis Obipso

-- Jim Griffin - SLO