SDG&E WTF2

As Reagan would say, "Here we go again." Once again you knew of the problem before it happened, when it was still preventable, but you went ahead anyway because you thought you could pawn the consequences off on us, the sheeple.

For those who are unfamiliar with SDG&E's current debacle they knew the new turbines were faulty before they installed them. Then they installed them. Then there was a radiation leak. The plant shut down and now SDG&E want us, the ratepayers, to pay for the plant even while it is not producing electricity.

I personally do think that is fair, or right, or legal. SDG&E you should be ashamed. I know it is in the corporate mindset to try to pay as little as possible while charging as much as possible but you even you should have a limit where you just think, "I can't be that big a jerk."

Apparently you don't have that limit.

My good friend Jody asked what I thought of Nuclear energy and I said I was in favor but that the government couldn't regulate it. By this I mean the Company that owns the plant will always be trying to maximize profit. That's Ok, that's what companies do. A company, especially a big corporation has no morals. The leadership can try to write morals into the mission statement, and I commend that, but once there are stockholders involved morals drop to a kind of lowest common denominator minimum.

So the goal is profits and that means saving money wherever possible. Safety, health, and the environment are not priorities. Even though it might make long term sense to not spill nuclear waste everywhere in the short term a manager will choose the cheaper drum for storage.

In a word corporations will not police themselves, so for the common good government must. But, just like the banks, power companies are always one step ahead of their regulators. I don't know if it can ever be otherwise.

So like marriage, nuclear power is good in theory, but I don't know if it can ever be safe. Maybe if it were a coop owned by the people who live near it, receive it's power and live near the waste. They would have the incentive to keep it safe. But i think like fossil fuels, when you add in the real costs in health effects, environmental damage, regulation, subsidies, storage costs and in the case of oil the cost of wars fought, suddenly solar and wind are cheaper than anything.