By Karl Grossman and Harvey Wasserman
California Governor Gavin Newsom has been touting himself as the Great Green Environmental Anti-Trump.
But it's an infuriating radioactive lie that demands tangible opposition, especially as it applies to the Diablo Canyon atomic reactors dangerously upwind of Los Angeles, and the California green energy industry, which he has decimated.
Newsom has loudly denounced ABC's suspension of talk host Jimmy Kimmel. He appeared on Stephen Colbert's nighttime show in New York as Kimmel was resurfacing in Los Angeles.
Newsom has loudly launched a very high-profile attack wave against Donald Trump. He's bitterly criticized Trump's anti-speech assaults on Kimmel and other talk hosts.
But Newsom has also portrayed himself as a green crusader in opposition to Trump's contempt for climate science.
And here Newsom has hypocritically crossed many lethal lines, especially when it comes to nuclear power and solar energy.
In 2018, as Lieutenant-Governor, Newsom signed on to a hugely popular plan pioneered by then-Governor Jerry Brown to phase out two aging atomic reactors at Diablo Canyon and phase in a rapid statewide transition to renewable energy.
The unprecedented landmark blueprint was signed by Pacific Gas & Electric, the owners of the two nukes, the company unions, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, all relevant state regulatory agencies, the state legislature, nearby local governments, most environmental groups and many more.
It promised a rapid statewide transition led by California's booming rooftop solar industry, which has installed more than 2 million arrays. It was set to be, backed by a booming battery industry that has already helped the state avoid at least two major blackouts.
For a few hours most days, California gets all its electricity from renewables, most notably from solar panels in the sun-drenched Central Valley.
Had the agreement been honored, both Diablo reactors would now be shut and the state's electric rates - the highest in the continental U.S. - would be plummeting.
But in 2022 - apparently at the behest of PG&E - Newsom killed the transition.In a midnight putsch, with virtually no public debate, he strong-armed the legislature to repeal the phase-out plan. He handed to PG&E more than $10 billion in ratepayer subsidies to go along with more than $1 billion in federal money.
Newsom's hand-picked Public Utilities Commission has decimated the state's rooftop solar industry, costing at least 17,000 jobs while causing ratepayer rates to soar state-wide.
Diablo's excess, mis-timed baseload power now floods the statewide grid, blocking cheaper, safer, cleaner renewable-generated juice out of the markets it would otherwise dominate.
The two Diablo reactors are uninsured. They are surrounded by a dozen known active earthquake faults. They sit just 45 miles from the San Andreas, half the distance Fukushima was from the epicenter of the quake that turned it into a radioactive nightmare. PG&E's abilities to run the 40-plus-year-old reactors are dubious, especially as the company just blew up a simple battery storage facility at Moro Bay.
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