Coalition Moves to Stay San Onofre Settlement to “clean house” of corruption at the CPUC

Citizens Oversight Coalition To Decommission San Onofre (2014-10-23) Ray Lutz

This Page: https://copswiki.org/Common/M1511
More Info: Coalition To Decommission San Onofre, Shut San Onofre, Stop The Unfair Settlement

• 2014-10-23_Press_Conf._on_Motion_to_Stay_San_Onofre_Case_until_corruption_is_resolved.pdf: News Release announcing press conference.

• I12-10-013-CDSO-513-Motion_to_Stay,_2014-10-23_(with_exhibits).pdf: Motion to Stay Proceedings

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Citizens' Oversight Projects (COPs)
771 Jamacha Rd #148
El Cajon, CA 92019
Citizens Oversight.org
Contact: Ray Lutz
619-820-5321
raylutz@citizensoversight.org

Oct 23, 2014

PRESS RELEASE & MEDIA ADVISORY

COPS and COALITION TO DECOMMISSION SAN ONOFRE

Coalition Moves to Stay San Onofre Settlement to “clean house” of corruption at the CPUC

Culture of Corruption Appears Systemic and Widespread, Signals likely Collusion in the San Onofre $3.3 Billion Settlement

Coalition calls for a full and complete investigation and any corrupt Commissioners replaced before proceeding with the San Onofre Case

PRESS CONFERENCE INFORMATION
WHEN: Friday, October 24, 2014, 10 AM

WHERE: Conference Room, 501 West Broadway, Suite 1050, San Diego CA 92101

SAN DIEGO (2014-10-23) – After 65,000 items were produced in response to a public records request by the City of San Bruno which clearly documented routine and systematic illegal communications between the utilities and the Commission, pay-to-play schemes and perhaps even outright bribery, Commission President Michael Peevey announced he will step down and Commissioner Michel Florio announced he will recuse himself from the San Bruno gas explosion investigation. (The 2010 San Bruno gas line explosion killed eight people, injured dozens, destroyed blocks of homes. The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is facing billions of dollars in penalties.)

Seeing this, the Coalition to Decommission San Onofre (CDSO) has submitted a Motion to Stay the San Onofre outage investigation and consideration of the proposed $3.3 “bailout” settlement being pushed through by the utilities.

A similar request for records was made in September regarding inappropriate communications in the San Onofre investigation is being processed by the CPUC but ratepayer advocates will be unable to make a showing of collusion until those records are produced. The Coalition believe the Commission should replace the compromised officials before moving forward with any consideration of the settlement.

The motion to stay the proceedings is attached.

“When you read through the emails and documents disclosed in the San Bruno gas line explosion case, it almost seems CPUC staff and PG&E staff work for the same company and in the same department,” said Ray Lutz, of Citizens Oversight. “These improprieties are so pervasive, so blatant, and so breath-taking that there is no doubt that the corruption is systemic rather than isolated incidents. We see circumstantial evidence that the San Onofre Investigation was rigged from its inception, and now it seems our hunches were correct. This case simply cannot move forward without first cleaning house at the Commission.

“In addition, we suggest that the San Onofre proceedings be restarted and the settlement set aside pending the completion of the investigation, which the CPUC has an obligation – as a regulatory agency – to perform.”

Ratepayer advocates will hold a press conference at 10 AM on Friday, October 24, in the conference room at 501 West Broadway, Suite 1050, San Diego CA 92101

Present at the news conference will be Ray Lutz of the Coalition to Decommission San Onofre, as well as Mike Aguirre and/or Mia Severson of Aguirre & Severson LLP, representing Ruth Henricks, parties in the San Onofre investigation.

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The Coalition to Decommission San Onofre is a project of Citizens Oversight, Inc. also known as Citizens Oversight Projects, or COPS, is an official party at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in the Investigation into the outage at San Onofre Nuclear Plant. Ray Lutz is a founder of the organization, which focuses on promoting civic engagement, and has been involved in many success stories, including helping to stop the expansion of Blackwater in San Diego County and the shut down of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, of course with the involvement of the local community in each case.

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