Citizens Oversight's Federal Case Against Edison, CPUC Ignited by Warsaw Meetings & Felony Searches

Citizens Oversight (2015-02-25) Aguirre Severson LLP

This Page: https://copswiki.org/Common/M1552
More Info: California Public Utilities Commission, Energy Policy, Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Waste, Shutdown Diablo, Shut San Onofre, Stop The Unfair Settlement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

On February 25, 2015, Citizens Oversight and other plaintiffs, represented by attorneys Aguirre & Severson LLP, made a significant filing in Federal Courts regarding the San Onofre nuclear plant and the unconstitutional charging of Edison ratepayers for rates no approved or for electricity not received, costing consumers up to $5 billion for a nuclear plant that is no longer producing any power.

The documents in the filing can be found at this site: http://www.copswiki.org/Common/M1552

This filing was ignited by the recent explosive revelations that CPUC President Michael Peevey met with Edison General Counsel Stephen Pickett in Warsaw, Poland, to concoct a settlement deal long before any hearings were held, kicking off secret settlement talks that did not include all parties, followed by a startling termination of the investigation into the failure. We now know that Edison knew the replacement steam generators were a substantially changed design, while at the same time claiming to the NRC that the design was a "like-for-like" replacement. Under Peevey's direction, Southern California Edison started to charge customers for the replacement steam generators before they were proved used and useful, and a reasonableness review of that project was never held.

"This exhaustive legal filing pulls together more than 500 pages of evidence and legal precedents that will leave any reader shaking their head in disgust that any regulatory agency can get so far off track," said Ray Lutz of Citizens Oversight. "The legal team at Aguirre & Severson LLP have stepped up to the plate in this work to represent our members and ratepayers in Southern California."

The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, sometimes abbreviated as "SONGS" or "SO" experienced an emergency shut down on January 31, 2012 due to excessive vibration of tubes in the newly installed steam generators. The $780 million project to replace the steam generators were associated with billions of capital improvements in the plant with the expectation that the plant would last for another 40 years. Instead, the new generators in Unit 3 failed after only 11 months of operation, and each of the four generators had about 800 tubes plugged out of the 9972 tubes in the inventory. The NRC and Edison root cause analyses found that the failure was due to fluid-elastic instability resulting from changes in the steam generator design.

The first exhibit is a letter from Dwight E. Nunn (SCE Vice President) to Akira Sawa of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It is very plainly stated on page 2 paragraph 3 that the RSG's were not "like-for-like" but being submitted as "like for like".

"Consequently, the design of the new steam generators is currently proceeding using the existing steam generator seismic response based on a like-for-like replacement concept (although the old and the new steam generators will be similar in many respects they aren't like for like replacements)."

The investigation by the CPUC was supposed to thoroughly investigate the cause of the failure. Instead, that critical task was pushed far out into the future with the intent that it would never occur. Then, SCE worked with just one outside ratepayer group, TURN (The Utility Reform Network) to provide cover for the settlement deal that was apparently already predetermined by ex-SCE President Michael Peevey in the Warsaw, Poland pact.

[The settlement is separate from approximately $4.4 billion in decommissioning costs to dismantle and safely store about 3.6 million pounds of spent nuclear fuel.]

• Edison_OPP.pdf: PLAINTIFFS’ OPPOSITION TO DEFENDANT SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY’S MOTION TO DISMISS
• Opp_PUC.pdf: PLAINTIFFS’ OPPOSITION TO CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS
• NEW_FEDERAL_FILINGS_EVIDENCE_PART_1.pdf: Evidence Part 1
  • See Federal Filings Exhibit Details for a list of the exhibits in each of the exhibit files.
• NEW_FEDERAL_FILINGS_EVIDENCE_PART_II.pdf: Evidence Part II
• NEW_FEDERAL_FILINGS_EVIDENCE_PART_III.pdf: Evidence Part III
• NEW_FEDERAL_FILINGS_EVIDENCE_PART_IV.pdf: Evidence Part IV
• NEW_FEDERAL_FILINGS_EVIDENCE_PART_V.pdf: Evidence Part V
• NEW_FEDERAL_FILINGS_SERVICE_AUTHORITIES.pdf: Service and Authorities
• NEW_FEDERAL_FILINGS_AUTHORITIES_II.pdf: Authorities II

RELATED DOCUMENTS

• (M1518) 2014-11-13 COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF - San Onofre -- Aguirre Severson LLP, Citizens Oversight,

CONTACT:

• Ray Lutz, Citizens Oversight -- 619-820-5321 -- raylutz@citizensoversight.org
• Aguirre & Severson LLP - (619) 876-5364

ABOUT CITIZENS OVERSIGHT
Citizens Oversight is a 501(c)3 Delaware corporation with primary offices in California. Citizens Oversight, also known as Citizens Oversight Projects, or "COPs" has as its primary mission increased civic engagement by the public. One aspect of activities is ratepayer advocacy before the CPUC, a party in the San Onofre investigation, decommissioning, and general rate cases. Mr. Lutz, National Coordinator for COPS, is a trained electrical engineer and has focused his energies in direct engagement as the most effective means of citizens involvement in our democracy.

DONATE AT http://www.copswiki.org/Common/DonateToCitizensOversight

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