Citizens Oversight
Home / WebHome
NOTICE: This is a static version of the wiki site. Please excuse, not all features are operating, but response will be much faster!

Coalition to Decommission San Onofre

This Page: https://https://copswiki.org/Common/CoalitionToDecommissionSanOnofre

weshutsanonofre.jpg This group is a party to the investigation by the California Public Utilities Commission.

Parent topic is: ShutSanOnofre

SDGE's public web page for similar purposes: http://www.sdge.com/regulatory-filing/4011/songs-investigation

Help to Fund our continuing activities -- Click here: DonateToCitizensOversight

Make a Donation and we'll send you some bumper stickers so you can make the "WE SHUTDOWN SAN ONOFRE" bumper sign you see here! (Don't worry, these bumper stickers have easy-removal adhesive that will not hurt your car's paint) Just cut the W and E out of one and stick it above the other. If you already have a sticker on your car, please add "WE" and enjoy the pleasure of WINNING A BIG ONE!

CPUC Investigation

The CPUC investigation has been divided into a four phases. These are somewhat arbitrary, and in our view, are designed to defer the really spicy "who's responsible" to far in the future when it may never happen at all. For reference, the phases are as follows:

Phase 1

See the scoping ruling for details 1. Nature and effects of the steam generator failures in order to assess the reasonableness of SCE’s consequential actions and expenditures (e.g., was it reasonable to remove fuel from unit #3). 2. Whether 2012 SONGS-related expenses recorded in the SONGSMA are reasonable and necessary, including, * 100% of O&M, including segregated safety-related costs; * 100% of cost-savings from personnel reductions and other avoided costs; * 100% of maintenance and refueling outage expenses; and * 100% of capital expenditures. 3. A review of the reasonableness and effectiveness of SCE’s actions and expenditures for community outreach and emergency preparedness related to the SONGS outages. 4. Other issues as necessary to determine whether SCE should refund any rates preliminarily authorized in the 2012 GRC, in light of the changed facts and circumstances of the unit outages; and if so, when the refunds should occur.

Phase 1A

During the Phase 1 proceedings, ALJ Darling defined a Phase 1A which deals only with replacement power costs.

  • Review of Phase 1A -- A review of the documents and issues related to Phase 1A in preparation for creating a brief on the matter.

Phase 2

whether any reductions to SCE's rate base and SCE's 2012 revenue requirement are warranted or required due to the extended SONGS outages;

  • Review of Phase 2 -- A review of the documents and issues related to Phase 2 in preparation for reply briefs and evidentiary hearing.

Phase 3

causes of the SG damage and allocation of responsibility, whether claimed SGRP expenses are reasonable, including review of utility-proposed repair and/or replacement cost proposals using cost-effectiveness analysis and other factors; and

Phase 4

if needed, whether SCE's 2013 revenue requirement should be adjusted to reflect lower-than-forecast O&M, Capex, replacement power costs, and other SONGS expenses.

Nuclear Decommissioning Cost Triennial Review Proceeding

---++ We DID it! Southern California Edison's surprise announcement June 7, 2013 that San Onofre Nuclear Plant will permanently shut down was most welcome news.

Thank You very much for your support in our epic struggle! This David over Goliath victory definitely deserves celebration; and our grassroots success to Keep San Onofre Shut will have an extended one, even as:

We move forward with the major work that still remains:

  • At the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and other state agencies, WE WILL continue advocating for ratepayers vs. Southern California Edison’s (SCE) and San Diego Gas & Electric’s (SDG&E) corporate interests; and
  • At the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) as plans for SAFE decommissioning of the San Onofre plant are formalized; including the safety of continuing on-site storage of 1632 metric tons of high-level nuclear waste.

To support our grassroots Intervener Team’s dynamic work at the CPUC, CEC and NRC, please go to our Donation Page: http://www.copswiki.org/Common/DonateToCitizensOversight

We are looking to our network of supporters for financial help to continue our fight on behalf of the ratepayers, residents, businesses and local government services who bear the burden of this defective nuclear power plant.

The Coalition to Decommission San Onofre (CDSO) is a grassroots project of Citizens Oversight, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation which encourages increased engagement by the public in the operation of their local, state and federal government to reduce waste, fraud and abuse by public officials. Our Coalition member organizations also include the Peace Resource Center of San Diego, San Clemente Green, San Diego Earthkeepers, SanOnofreSafety.org and Women Occupy San Diego.

Our CDSO Intervener Team is led by 20-year CPUC veteran Martha Sullivan and Ray Lutz, the National Coordinator for Citizens Oversight and an engineer who has intervened at the U.S. NRC on San Onofre operating license specifications.

  • Unlike our SCE and SDG&E counterparts, we don't have ratepayer or shareholder funding for OUR advocacy and we operate very frugally.

  • Don Bauder of the San Diego Reader recently wrote about the uphill climb faced by truth-tellers at the CPUC: "An organization participating in a commission decision 'lives or dies by intervener compensation,' says Bill Powers of San Diego’s Powers Engineering. Therefore, the commission 'has you on a leash.' Interveners become resigned to 'fighting at the margins, not challenging the basic premise — and [the commission’s] basic premise is to make sure that the revenue of utilities is ever increasing.'” (from http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2013/apr/24/citylights1-electric-rates/ )

Our CDSO Intervener Team WILL NOT be kept on a leash!

THANKS to everyone’s initial contributions, the CDSO Team travelled to S.F. for a week last month, and participated in the first round of Evidentiary Hearings in the CPUC's formal Investigation into the San Onofre Outage. Here’s what we accomplished:

  • Starting off in a BIG way, we persuaded the two Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) presiding over the hearings to reverse their previous ruling and Webcast the rest of the week's hearings.
  • There is no video of Day 1 (Monday, May 13, 2013), but our oral argument was made following CDSO's RayLutz challenging the ruling banning video cameras or live-streaming in the hearing room by unobtrusively setting up and running a video camera at the rear of the hearing room before the official start of the hearing. A CHP officer was summoned to enforce the ALJs' ruling; but Ray had already taken down the camera and re-joined the audience to participate in the proceedings. [[M1358][See the CPUC trying to bully RayLutz to remove his camera]] "I would have continued the confrontation but we wanted to also have a seat and the table and not ruin our chances for positive rulings, so I relented after making my point. See the [[M1358][page on this issue]] to also see the complaint letter we sent to the CPUC to allow us to follow up with a lawsuit.
  • Throughout the week of Evidentiary Hearings at the CPUC in May, CDSO’s team of MarthaSullivan and RayLutz cross-examined several SCE witnesses and SCE’s decision-making in 2012, which resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars spent above and beyond CPUC-authorized levels due to the defective steam generators. We highlighted SCE’s jingoistic communications with the community about the outage and emergency preparedness:
    • Prime example of SCE deceit – Ray catches SCE witness in outright lie about the status of San Onofre Units 2 and 3 per NRC definition: http://youtu.be/XBsWcaFXahU
    • CDSO cross-examination by Ray of SCE Vice President about SCE’s decision-making throughout 2012, as costs rack up: http://youtu.be/XBsWcaFXahU
    • See the entire hearings, video recorded in more useful form by RayLutz: [[M1360][http://www.CopsWiki.org/Common/M1360]]

A Busy Summer for the CDSO Intervener Team!

  • June 19th in Sacramento: Martha and Ray will attend the CA Energy Commission’s Workshop on California Nuclear Power Plant Issues (the CEC Chairman is CA’s official liaison to the NRC) – Travel Costs = $900
    • Video recorded this entire meeting, see it here: [[M1362][CA Energy Commission’s Workshop on California Nuclear Power Plant Issues]] John Geesman's testimony was devastating.
  • June 28th: Briefs due in Phase I of the CPUC’s San Onofre Investigation – basically our arguments for SCE and SDG&E shareholders bearing the burden of the 2012 costs associated with the San Onofre Outage.
    • These have been submitted by our team, led by Martha Sullivan! [[M1365][Read the brief here!]]
  • July 9th: Reply Briefs, to push back on SCE and SDG&E’s inevitable arguments to put as much of these costs on ratepayers as possible.
  • July 10th & 24th: Testimony and Reply Testimony due on Replacement Power Costs, another component of San Onofre Outage costs to be decided by the CPUC.
  • August 5-6th: 2nd Round of Evidentiary Hearings at the CPUC in S.F. on Replacement Power Costs.
  • August 29th & September 12th: Briefs and Reply Briefs due on Replacement Power Costs.

CDSO will also continue to monitor the NRC actions and decisions related to San Onofre, especially as the NRC initiates its formal Decommissioning Structure in the coming weeks. It is ESSENTIAL that we continue to play an active Citizen Watchdog role, which proved to be so instrumental in achieving SCE’s decision to permanently shut down San Onofre.

Whatever you can contribute financially enables our grassroots campaigners to continue our very effective advocacy and watch-dogging!

Thank You once more for your partnership in this epic grassroots campaign,

Ray, Carol, Gary, Laurie, Grace, Donna, and Martha --
Representatives of the Coalition to Decommission San Onofre:

Citizens Oversight, Peace Resource Center of San Diego, San Clemente Green, San Diego Earthkeepers, !SanOnofreSafety.org and Women Occupy San Diego

Private planning notes within our group (secured)

CDSO / COPS documents filed to the CPUC

Title Status
I10-12-013-CDSO-501 Objection to Motion to Adopt Settlement< M1421 Served
I10-12-013-CDSO-502 Requests for Clarification re Settlement Process Served
I10-12-013-CDSO-503 Settlement Opening Comment Filed and Served
I10-12-013-CDSO-504 Joins Henricks Objection and Motion to Strike M1431 Filed and Served
I10-12-013-CDSO-506 Motion to Strike Not Submitted
I10-12-013-CDSO-507 Settlement Reply Comment Filed and Served
I10-12-013-CDSO-508 Exparte-Communication-Regarding-Settlement Filed and Served, Rejected
I10-12-013-CDSO-509 Motion to Reopen Record on SONGS OII to allow Dr. Budnitz to complete his investigation M1470 Filed and served by AguirreSeversonLLP
I10-12-013-CDSO-510 Comment on Ruling of 2014-09-05 Filed and Served, Filing Rejected
I10-12-013-CDSO-511 Objection To Official Notice Of 2014-09-11 Filed and Served, Filing Rejected
I10-12-013-CDSO-512 Comment on Telephonic Conference of 2014-09-23 (Exparte) Filed and Served

---++ Summary of articles submitted ([[Common.NewsMedia][All]]):

Metadata
ProjectName Coalition to Decommission San Onofre
ProjectDescription Grassroots organizations joined as a party to the California PUC
ProjectFounder RayLutz
ProjectCurator RayLutz
ProjectType IssueOversight
ProjectParents ShutSanOnofre
RelatedKeywords NuclearEnergy, NuclearWaste, ShutSanOnofre, StopTheUnfairSettlement
ProjectStatus Inactive
Attachments
NameSizeDate
weshutsanonofre.jpg 19171 26 Jun 2014