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Radiation leak during railroad transport of equipment from the failed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS)

August 22, 2024August 22, 2024 Public Watchdogs Leave a comment

Yesterday the the Union Tribune reported that radioactive water is leaking out of junked equipment on rail cars leaving the failed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) near San Clemente California. Get the full story with photographs at the San Diego Union Tribune. This historically important story is reproduced here under Section 107 of U.S. copyright law. We encourage you to view the original article with…

Supreme Court Decision weakens APA and the power of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

August 14, 2024September 19, 2024 Public Watchdogs Leave a comment

The Chevron doctrine is dead. On June 28, 2024, a new Supreme Court Decision put long overdue limits on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and its power to ignore regulatory law on behalf of the big utilities it regulates. The Chevron doctrine asserted that if a federal law is ambiguous or has an “administrative gap,” then the courts must defer to the regulatory agency’s interpretation. This…

San Diego Senators

August 9, 2024August 9, 2024 Public Watchdogs Leave a comment

To find out if this is your Senator, enter your address here to find your California Representative 2024 California State Senators-San Diego County Catherine Blakespear (D), District 38 includes District Map Capitol Office Capitol Office, 1021 O Street, Suite 7340, Sacramento, CA 95814-4900; (916) 651-4038 District Offices 169 Saxony Road, Suite 209, Encinitas, CA 92024; (760) 642-0809 24031 El Toro Road, Suite 201A, Laguna Hills, CA…

Orange County Senators

August 9, 2024August 9, 2024 Public Watchdogs Leave a comment

To find out if this is your Senator, enter your address here to find your California Representative 2024 California State Senators-Orange County Lena Gonzales (D), District 33 includes Map Capitol Office Capitol Office, 1021 O Street, Suite 7720, Sacramento, CA 95814-4900; (916) 651-4033 District Office 3939 Atlantic Avenue, Suite 107, Long Beach, CA 90807; (562) 256-7921 3355 East Gage Avenue, Huntington Park, CA 90255; (323) 277-4560 Email…

How to locate and contact County and City of San Diego elected officials, plus California State Assembly and State Senate

August 9, 2024August 9, 2024 Public Watchdogs Leave a comment

Updated August 9, 2024. This page contains hard-to-get phone numbers and email addresses of your elected representatives in San Diego County by zip code and District. For a list of Orange County Senators, click here. For San Diego Senators, click here. For advice on how to talk to politicians and take action, click here. Let your elected leaders know what you are upset about and that…

Your electric rates have DOUBLED!

August 8, 2024August 9, 2024 Public Watchdogs Leave a comment

This opinion from the Orange County Register is reproduced under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law and is published here for archival not-for-profit purposes. Please read the original report here. Electric bills have essentially doubled over the past decade Column: Free Edison programs aim to help you seal up. But the pain is real. By Teri Sforza | tsforza@scng.com | Orange County Register UPDATED:…

Letter to the Editor, Orange County Register

August 8, 2024August 9, 2024 Public Watchdogs Leave a comment

The following is a letter to the Editors of the Orange County Register in response to an exceptionally well-researched report by columnist Terri Sforza. The letter was written by Public Watchdogs’ Director of Development, Nina Babiarz, In the original opinion, Sforza pointed out the link between our sky-high electric rate increases, and how utility profits, are directly connected to the utilities’ questionable “costs.” In this response,…

Corporate Censorship: Yahoo and AOL are blocking the free speech of nuclear activists

August 5, 2024September 17, 2024 Public Watchdogs 1 Comment

WARNING: If you use Yahoo or AOL, you may never receive an email from Public Watchdogs because those emails are being censored. Yahoo is censoring emails from anti-nuclear groups such as Public Watchdogs, and also the emails of prominent citizens who support us, or have been actively organizing against the threat of nuclear war, nuclear disasters, and nuclear power. And because you are reading this, you…

State Audit of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)

July 30, 2024August 9, 2024 Public Watchdogs Leave a comment

The key point in this audit is that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has no way to verify how much money a utility has spent building infrastructure. CPUC has no process or procedure in place to determine how much a project actually cost. This report was written by the Auditor for the State of California. Get the Audit here.

“Twinkle-Eyed” fun and games at the failed San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant

July 25, 2024July 29, 2024 Public Watchdogs Leave a comment

If a handful of the radioactive plutonium stored at the failed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station was atomized, spread evenly over the earth, and then inhaled, it would be enough to give every person on the planet cancer. Plutonium is one of the many eternally deadly radioactive metals that are present in every pellet of the more than 3.6 million pounds of nuclear waste at San…

Critique of the Orange County Register and its pro-nuclear valence

July 25, 2024August 1, 2024 Public Watchdogs Leave a comment

The editorial opinion below is in response to a “twinkle-eyed fun and games” opinion by Teri Sforza in the Orange County Register. The Register’s opinion is peculiar because it downplays the lethal nature of nuclear waste as “boring.” The rebuttal below is by Ace Hoffman, author of the popular graphic-novel monograph, Code Killers. The original essay can be found at the acehoffman.org website at this page. …

It is impossible to buy insurance against nuclear disasters

May 2, 2024July 26, 2024 Public Watchdogs Leave a comment

Today, Dr. Sarah Mosco published an important and widely distributed editorial opinion explaining that it is impossible for citizens to buy insurance against a nuclear disaster at the failed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station’s beachfront nuclear waste dump. Get the opinion here. Background on Emergency Planning at San Onofre Public Watchdogs exposed the lax safety regulation at San Onofre in its widely acclaimed report Radiological Regulatory…

The AB 205 Shell Game: How the promises of AB 205 and AB 1999 were broken

April 24, 2024April 25, 2024 Public Watchdogs Leave a comment

AB 1999 was supposed to repeal the deeply flawed AB 205. It didn’t. As documented on our website for months, Public Watchdogs has followed the entire legislative process of AB 205 from beginning to its promised end when California Assemblywoman Jackie Irwin led a press conference committing to introduce new legislation to “roll back the Public Utility Commission’s proposed income graduated fixed fee.” AB 1999…

AB 205 puts five political appointees in charge of the new income charge on your electric bill

April 12, 2024May 1, 2024 Public Watchdogs Leave a comment

The price you pay for electricity is going up with a new government mandated “fixed fee” that goes straight into the pockets of California’s monopoly utilities.

FACT SHEET: Why storing nuclear waste 108 feet from San Onofre State Beach Park is a very bad idea

March 20, 2024March 20, 2024 Public Watchdogs Leave a comment

Use these talking points when you need to talk factually with the public about the storage of eternally deadly nuclear waste on the beach at the failed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).