Here’s a map to get you situated and the release is below.
Some of the stuff in there was news to me…
“Diablo Canyon Unit 2 Safely Returns To Full Power After One Of Most Successful Refuelings In Plant History
Project Provided a Major Economic Boost to the San Luis Obispo Region
AVILA BEACH, Calif., March 28, 2013 — Unit 2 at Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s (PG&E) Diablo Canyon Power Plant is running at full power again following a planned maintenance and refueling outage that began Feb. 3.
The outage was among the most successful in Diablo Canyon’s history, given the depth and breadth of the work involved, the excellent employee safety performance, and its conclusion ahead of schedule. Unit 1 continued to reliably generate electricity throughout the Unit 2 outage.
“Diablo Canyon Power Plant plays a major role in helping PG&E deliver some of the nation’s cleanest electricity to its customers,” said PG&E Senior Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer Ed Halpin. “The work performed during this and other planned outages supports our safe operation of the facility, and ensures a steady flow of affordable, reliable and carbon-free energy to more than three million Californians.”
About 30 projects were completed during the 48-day window, in addition to standard maintenance. Crews performed about 12,000 outage-related activities, involving about one million hours of inspections, maintenance and equipment upgrades.
Major project work included replacing a portion of the Unit 2 reactor fuel, upgrading a crane system that moves key plant components, and installing a new digital Process Control System (PCS). The PCS monitors and controls various plant systems. The Diablo Canyon team set an industry record by completing the upgrade, which involved thousands of electrical connections, in less than 50 days.
Halpin attributed the success of the outage in part to effective preparation and planning by plant personnel.
“Completing the outage in a safe and efficient manner and returning the unit to service ahead of schedule is a testament to the hard work and commitment of our dedicated employees and contractors–both before and during the outage,” Halpin said. “When considering the scope of work conducted, our team of professionals turned in a world-class performance.”
Each of Diablo Canyon’s two reactor units is refueled about every 18 months. During a planned outage, more than 1,000 trained supplemental workers from around the country are brought in to assist the plant’s nearly 1,500 employees.
Pismo Beach Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Peter Candela said these outages provide a major economic boost to the region as out-of-town contractors and their families lodge in hotels, rent homes and patronize local businesses while working at the plant.
“Planned outages at Diablo Canyon help our local businesses thrive,” Candela said. “During each outage, around $5 million is spent locally by visiting workers and their families. We always appreciate the time they spend in our community, and hope they enjoy their experiences visiting Pismo Beach and the region.”
Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s two units together produce approximately 2,300 net megawatts of electricity without greenhouse-gas emissions. That total represents about 10 percent of all electricity generated in California, enough energy to meet the needs of more than three million Northern and Central Californians.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric utilities in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation’s cleanest energy to 15 million people in northern and central California. For more information, visit www.pge.com/about/newsroom/ or www.pgecurrents.com.
Click herefor more information on how planned outages at Diablo Canyon Power Plant provide economic benefits to the Central Coast.
Is this an image from the charred remains of all those houses that the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers / PG&E burned down in San Mateo County not too long ago? It sure could be, why not?
James Franco, 53 and “Janessa, 13, and Jacqueline Greig, 44; Elizabeth Torres, 81; Jessica Morales, 20, as well three member of the Bullis family — Greg, 50, Will, 17, and Lavonne, 87 “
Here’s the thing, PG&E. Everybody has the right to opt out of PublicPowerSF. So that’s why it’s not going to “nearly double electric generation costs.”
Not everybody in Chinatown is an easily cowed, easily herded stencil voter, right? Consumers will make their own choice – you don’t think that they’re all stupid, do you?
And actually, San Francisco is kind of a hippy town, filled with yuppie-types who will not opt out of public power.
But, of course, if people don’t want to pay extra for juice, they won’t.
It’s as simple as that.
BTW, you all should prolly ID the white Republican lawyer you’re quoting in the ‘Xam here. Otherwise it makes things look like the entire Examiner is agin public power.
Take a look here at this bit from Chris Roberts of SFWeeklySFBayGuardianSFExaminer and then take a look at this:
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Now let’s check the “Check the Facts” part of this recent flier.
The retort:
1. CleanPowerSF will not cost “almost double” relative to the current PG&E monopoly. So that’s a lie
2. And are you PG&E motherfuckers really talking about some disaster in some part of the world? What about the eight souls you killed right here in the Bay Area in San Bruno not too long ago? How many “brothers” or sisters of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers were responsible for those deaths?
3. And actually, consumers, you DO get to choose whether you participate in CleanPowerSF, so the “PG&E family” is lying about that as well.
Hey PG&E! Are you going to end up turning a profit on the killing of those eight people down in San Bruno?
You remember them, right? The eight people you killed?
Thusly:
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Hey is San Francisco shadow-Mayor Willie Brown still on PG&E’s payroll?
Sure, why not?
And hey, is the leader of the San Francisco Democrat party still on PG&E’s payroll?
Again, sure, why not?
Is that a good thing?
Oh well.
Here’s today’s happy talk from your energy monopoly:
“PG&E Rates to Change Modestly at Start Of 2013
Gas Rates Will Dip, Electric Rates Will Rise in Line with Inflation to Pay for Enhanced Safety, Reliability and Clean-Energy Programs
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) said today that with the start of the new year, residential customers will see a significant decline in natural gas rates, and a modest increase in electric rates to cover the utility’s costs of maintaining and modernizing its system and of meeting a state mandate to buy more renewable energy. (See table below for average estimated bill impacts.)
PG&E’s average rates for residential gas customers will dip in January almost six percent compared to January 2012, thanks in part to lower wholesale costs for gas. However, customers should expect an increase in gas rates of about two percent as early as February, reflecting spending approved this month by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for PG&E’s Pipeline Safety Enhancement Plan. This plan, one of the most aggressive and comprehensive gas pipeline modernization programs in the United States, will help PG&E achieve its goal of operating the safest and most reliable natural gas system in the country.
Average residential electric rates will increase about 2.6 percent system-wide compared to last January, close to the rate of inflation in Northern California. The increase is driven primarily by higher costs for acquiring clean, renewable energy to meet state mandates, and by spending previously approved by the CPUC for operating, maintaining and upgrading PG&E’s electric generation and distribution systems. Thanks to such upgrades, electric customers recently experienced the lowest rate of outages in the utility’s history.
Customers will likely face another electric rate increase this May of about two percent to pay for additional electric transmission infrastructure to modernize California’s power grid and deliver more renewable energy to customers.
“We know our customers care more than ever about their energy bills during these difficult economic times, so we continue to focus on keeping rate increases as modest as possible while raising enough revenue to continue improving our safety and reliability,” said Tom Bottorff, Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for PG&E. “These revenues help us serve customers by reducing the frequency of electrical outages, improving the responsiveness of our call centers, providing more convenient services and, above all, continuing to upgrade the safety of our gas and electric operations. Although electric and gas rates fluctuate from year to year, our average customer bills remain well below the national average.”
Bottorff added, “We try to empower all of our customers with tools to help them better understand and manage their energy needs so they can control their bills and make the best use of our services.”
SmartMeter-enabled online tools like MyEnergy, money-saving programs like Winter Gas Savings, rebates for energy-efficient appliances and home retrofits, and bill payment options make it easier than ever for customers the get more value for their money.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE: PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric utilities in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation’s cleanest energy to 15 million people in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit http://www.pge.com/about/newsroom/.
Now, why did the dumb-clucks who made this ad decide to pick the world’s most solar-powered gas station?
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I don’t know, because they don’t know what they’re doing?
NB: Your bad cosmetic surgery fools nobody. People laugh at you when your back is turned, you know, at those benefits ‘n stuff. Perhaps just aging gracefully is a better, safer option?
This is how they do it, with a flyer in the mail talking about how Christina Olague and Julian Davis support giving nearly $20,000,000 a year to Shell Oil.
See?
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Now, is that true?
No.
But it appears that Christina Olague and Julian Davis have run afoul of a few PG&E-loving Bay Area billioniares, et uxes.
Now, I’d call this cabal Conway/Coates, but they, and I’m seriously, call themselves:
“San Francisco Women for Accountability and a Responsible Supervisor Opposing Christina Olague 2012.”
“There is a privilege to being white in this country. I’m not saying that if you’re white, you have a lot of power as an individual. But if you’re white, you might be more likely to find* a white President,** a white Senator, a white police chief. I mean I’m just saying, right?”
Have you been to college? This is exactly what it’s like.
I mean I’m just saying, right?
*No comprendo. Do not copy. Repeat transmission, Good Buddy. So if “you” aren’t white, then you’re less likely to find a white…
**Or half-white.***
***I mean, I’m just saying, right?
UPDATE, from the Comments section – Twitter, Randy Shaw, the non-profit mafia, etc:
“sorry bout that, it seems out of context, but she actually wasn’t even asked about race, but rather gender relations…she brought up the race issue all by herself, – out of context
you might even find this even more strange, actually…but that’s still not the whole thing…the whole thing is 55 minutes long and it was a meeting at one of randy Shaws hotels, the hartland…in fact, it appears there’s quite a bit of questionable stuff in there, especially about the corrupt twitterloin tax break
notice how one of Randy Shaws clients specifically says that it’s ‘unfair to put people that are just homeless into a hotel like that full of heroin addicts, meth addicts and crackheads’ and how THC staff and Jane Kim completely sidesteps the question and takes it to another context:
it goes on..I’m working on a post myself and making clips…It really looks like the entire mid market tax break is an inside job, controlled by a tiny few non profits
this could really blow up…did she not know she was being taped, with a camera right in her face?”
Here he is at 595 Market, along with Commonwealth Club Past President J. Dennis Bonney:
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All the deets:
“Scotland targets Fortune 500 in US push for business - First Minister writes to top global companies in California ahead of trade mission
EDINBURGH, Scotland, June 17, 2012 — Over 70 leading California-based companies, including all Fortune 500 companies in the state, are being targeted as part of a new campaign to attract inward investment to Scotland.
The country’s leader, First Minister Alex Salmond, has personally written to top executives at leading companies which have been identified by Scottish Development International as potential investors in advance of his visit to the US on a trade mission.
In his letter, which is part of a wider SDI campaign to encourage some of the world’s most successful companies to consider setting up operations in Scotland, the First Minister highlights the benefits of choosing Scotland over any other nation.
The First Minister will be reinforcing the message that Scotland is ready to do business during his four-day visit to California. He stresses in his letter that Scotland - with its highly-skilled workforce and a cost-competitive business location – is a land of opportunity.
The First Minister said:“Scotland is already an economic success story and we make no apologies for going after new business at every opportunity. We perform better economically than everywhere else in the UK bar the southeast of England and that brings major business opportunities.
“Scottish Development International’s campaign is backed by a number of companies already investing in Scotland such as Pfizer and Amazon and the message is absolutely clear.
“Scotland is a land of major opportunity and it is open for business. We have a long and impressive track record in life sciences, sciences, technology and creative industries developing an environment where ingenuity and innovation can create jobs and wealth for Scotland.
“Even without our offshore oil and gas reserves, Scotland has the highest GDP in the UK outside London and southeast England.
“We have five universities in the world’s top 200, we rank first in the world in research productivity per unit of GDP and second in the world in research impact.
“Business operating costs for key functions can be almost a third lower here.
“This campaign will also send the message directly to the heart of US business community with print and online advertising running in The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Business Times, New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle.
Danny Cusick, President, Americas, Scottish Development International, said:
“SDI has seven offices across North America, including a significant presence in California, to provide support and collaboration opportunities for key North American companies.
“This campaign is part of a global drive to attract new investment to Scotland. There has been a significant level of inward investment success over the last 12 months, with Amazon, FMC Technologies and State Street all making significant investments in Scotland. SDI is building on this with a continued focus on securing new, sustainable jobs and opportunities.
“It is clear that Scotland remains a location of choice due to our winning combination of qualities, including our highly skilled and educated workforce and efficient operating costs.
“This is an excellent opportunity to highlight Scotland’s competitive advantages to some of California’s biggest companies.”
And here are some Upcoming Events at the Commonwealth Club:
If San Francisco could magically get the “Subway to Nowhere” Central Subway installed today for free it would still be a bad deal for San Francisco, mostly owing the very small amount benefits it would provide to a very small number of people and the very large hole it would put into MUNI”s annual budget.
But unless the Feds help out San Francisco by cancelling funding, politically connected players such as AECOM are all set to make a mint off of this project. Oh well.
Anyway, San Francisco officials are still trying to reassure the Feds about how great this horrible project is going, so, as of tomorrow, we’ll be on the hook for another $100,000,000, or so, to make up for the fact that California doesn’t want to chip in the money.
“On May 1, 2012, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) Board will be asked to approve Central Subway revenue bonds, of undetermined amount, to plug a large hole that has developed in the Central Subway budget. This is a very risky course of action.
A shortfall of between $61.3 million and $140 million has now appeared in the project budget. In order to make up for this substantial loss of previously anticipated State of California funding, the MTA staff is asking its Board and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to approve a revenue bond sale of undetermined amount. On the agenda of the May 1, 2012 MTA Board meeting, the bond authorization is scheduled as Item 10.4 which is unaccountably included under the Board’s consent calendar rather than its regular calendar. In the Agenda packet, the staff attributes the need for the revenue bond sale to “uncertainty regarding HSR in California.” This statement is false and misleading, for the reasons set forth below.”
Here are the deets:
“SaveMuni.com April 30, 2012
MTA’s Stealth Maneuver to Commit Additional City Funds to the Central Subway
On May 1, 2012, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) Board will be asked to approve Central Subway revenue bonds, of undetermined amount, to plug a large hole that has developed in the Central Subway budget. This is a very risky course of action.
The cost of the MTA’s Central Subway project has ballooned from $647 million to the current estimate of $1.58 billion.i The original plan was for $983 million of this total to come from the federal government, $471 from the State of California and $124 million from San Francisco’s Prop K sales tax fund.
In attempting to sell the subway to the public, MTA has repeatedly called the public’s attention to its “success” in leveraging a mere $124 million City & County contribution into a $1.58 billion subway.ii However, a shortfall of between $61.3 million and $140 million has now appeared in the project budget.
In order to make up for this substantial loss of previously anticipated State of California funding, the MTA staff is asking its Board and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to approve a revenue bond sale of undetermined amount. On the agenda of the May 1, 2012 MTA Board meeting, the bond authorization is scheduled as Item 10.4 which is unaccountably included under the Board’s consent calendar rather than its regular calendar. In the Agenda packet, the staff attributes the need for the revenue bond sale to “uncertainty regarding HSR in California”. This statement is false and misleading, for the reasons set forth below.
The MTA is caught between a skittish Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) appropriately worried about the MTA’s financial ability to handle the Central Subway project and a huge shortfall in the non-federal share of the project budget. The MTA apparently believes the solution to this problem is to skim millions of dollars a year from already overburdened Muni revenues, in order to sell revenue bonds as necessary to make up for the loss in State capital—all in hopes that the action will reassure the feds and therefore put the hoped-for federal grant back on track.
The best that could be said of the MTA’s plan is that it is extremely risky. By far, the most important element of that risk is that the costs of servicing the revenue bonds, coupled with an indeterminate amount of project overrun (estimated by CGR Management Consultants to be as high as $422 million), could result in unacceptably high Muni fare increases and/or unacceptably damaging Muni service cuts.”
