Public Watchdogs is cited as a source for documents in this Federalist article on the involvement of Kamala Harris in the cover-up of criminal activity at the failed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The Federalist pulled its punches on this story by not releasing it until Election Day, November 5, 2024.
The gist of the story, which ran on November 5, 2024, is that Harris looked the other way and refused to prosecute Southern California Edison for its well-documented criminal activity involving the publicly funded bailout.
However, the real corruption story goes deeper. Much deeper.
Now that the election is over, it is a somewhat moot point to observe that Kamala Harris was either incompetent or corrupt in her involvement with the publicly funded bailout of Southern California Edison’s stockholders. But the fact remains that she had all the evidence she needed to win a conviction and refused to do anything about it until after the statute of limitations expired. Nonetheless, it is our opinion that the dirty deal was also enabled by San Diego’s one-time City Attorney Mike Aguirre, who in his career as a private attorney took millions of dollars in exchange for keeping the evidence under wraps and out of the public court record through a series of secretly negotiated deals with Southern California Edison.
This is the history of the corruption at San Onofre, and why it matters to you.
The first thing you need to know is that the “SONGS” nuclear power plant failed because it blew radioactive steam into the atmosphere. The radiation leak occurred because the power plant’s owner, Southern California Edison (Edison), had replaced its aging Westinghouse steam generators with an experimental new design that was not approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Essentially, Edison was operating an unlicensed nuclear power plant, leaving its shareholders liable for billions of dollars in debt.
Edison’s Little Helpers
Then in a lucky break for Southern California Edison, it received two special Little Helpers who used all their power and influence to bail out Southern California Edison.
The first Little Helper, who was appointed by California’s then-Governor Jerry Brown, was a man named Michael Peevey.
Brown appointed Peevey to be the President of the California Public Utilities Commission. This was a lucky move for Edison because Peevey was the former Chief Executive Officer of Southern California Edison.
Peevey’s plan was to bail out Edison at ratepayer expense. The ratepayers (i.e. victims) in this scam are customers of Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E).
In order to pull off the multi-billion dollar bailout, Peevey had to kill a legally-required hearing at the Public Utilities Commission. This meant buying off the bailout’s opponents.
One of those opponents was Edison’s second Little Helper: a San Diego attorney and failed politician named Mike Aguirre. Mike Aguirre ultimately feasted on a $5.4 million paycheck for his participation in the cover-up. However, prior to taking his $5.4 million payday, Aguirre accepted an appetizer of $800,000.00 from Edison for the so-called “Settlement to Move the Waste,” which we have characterized as a complete betrayal of the people of Southern California. You can read the settlement here, or get our our analysis of this dirty deal here.
So far, everyone who has ever read the 5-page “Settlement to Move the Nuclear Waste” has been appalled. Even Aguirre’s client, Citizens Oversight, has called the settlement a sham (read on).
Here are the smoking gun documents that incriminated Edison:
Affidavit and Criminal Search Warrant of Special Agent Reye Diaz
Peevey’s Handwritten Notes on the “Deal Points” of the bailout he crafted with his former employer.
It was the perfect case. Attorney General Harris had everything she needed to prosecute the criminal activity, but she never pursued the case. After all, Peevey was a prominent Democrat. What was probably most troubling for Harris was the fact that the case also implicated then-Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, as well as Southern California Edison, a huge donor to the Democratic Party in California.
So Harris ignored the work done by Special Agent Diaz, and let the statute of limitations run out.
The cherry on top of this steaming pile of legal excrement was placed there by former City of San Diego attorney, Mike Aguirre, who was given the smoking gun evidence above. We know this because we told Aguirre where it was and how to get it.
Unfortunately, instead of solving the problem, Aguirre used it to leverage an additional $5.4 million dollar payment from Edison in exchange for keeping his mouth shut (get our protest to this filthy piece of work here ).
The first Aguirre lawsuit was filed on behalf of the San Diego nonprofit, Citizen’s Oversight. Citizen’s Oversight had almost no control over Aguirre’s legal activities, but it was saddled with the ugly task of falsely portraying the “Settlement to Move the Waste” as a good deal for consumers on behalf of Mike Aguirre.
It is even possible that Jerry Brown may have encouraged Harris to “play nice” with Edison. According to the San Diego Union Tribune, on June 6, 2013, Governor Brown interrupted a long anticipated golf game with then-president Barack Obama to take a more important phone call from Ted Craver, the CEO of Southern California Edison.
Below is a November 2024 screen capture from the citizensoversight.org web site. The article states: “The settlement deal appears to be a sham.”
Kamala Harris wasn’t alone in her status as an apple-polishing lackey for the big utilities. Pulling off multi-billion dollar ratepayer ripoffs requires a team effort involving people like Michal Peevey, Mike Aguirre, nonprofits like Citizen’s Oversight, and surprisingly enough, former California Governor Jerry Brown.
What this story illustrates is that when it comes to power, nuclear power will has a history of defeating political power. According to Plato, “Only those who don’t want power are qualified to have it.” Or, as Dostoevsky noted “Power is given only to those who lower themselves and pick it up.” Nuclear is the lowest form of power, and what we must demand from our leaders is the power to resist its deadly charm.
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Power, both political and nuclear, belongs to the people.