OC Politics Blog | Tag Archives: San Clemente

Anti COVID-19 lockdown protest in San Clemente results in eight arrests

Posted on May 22, 2020 by Editor Posted in Orange County 2 Comments

SAN CLEMENTE, Ca. (May 21, 2020) – This morning at approximately 9 a.m. a protest occurred in the city of San Clemente related to the Governor’s stay-at-home orders. The vast majority of demonstrators peacefully exercised their First Amendment rights, with an estimated 200 people attending the protest.

Unfortunately, despite numerous warnings prior to the event, some individuals chose to commit unlawful activity. Eight people were arrested; their booking charges are below. Trespassing charges indicate the individual is suspected of entering into the city parking lot encircled by fencing erected by the city of San Clemente and refusing to leave after multiple requests. Those arrested for failure to disperse are suspected to have remained after the protest was declared unlawful, and were provided multiple warnings to relocate to an area designated for the protest.

Adam Kiefer, 27, Hesperia- Trespassing
Mary Lou Tanner, 40, Aliso Viejo – Trespassing
Adam Wincek, 22, Mission Viejo- Trespassing
Keegan Hill, 22, San Clemente- Trespassing
Alan Hostetter, 55, San Clemente- Inciting a Riot, Trespassing, Destruction of City Property, and Resisting Arrest
Kenneth Collins, 75, San Clemente- Failure to Disperse
Patricia Cabada, 42, Orange- Failure to Disperse
Kirk Heintz, 60, San Juan Capistrano- Failure to Disperse

“We always have and always will protect First Amendment rights,” said Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes. “That does not entitle individuals to commit other violations of law. We appreciate the support we have received from the community as we defend the rights afforded to us by the Constitution and uphold the law.”

Could Orange County’s nuclear waste dump be our problem forever?

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Editor Posted in Edison, Energy, Environmental, Nuclear Power, Orange County, San Clemente 3 Comments

Nuclear Waste: Here or Elsewhere?

Nuclear Experts Meet to Discuss Dilemma of Storing Radioactive Waste

By: Roger Johnson

When the San Onofre nuclear power plant was built, everyone was told that there was a plan to remove the radioactive waste it produced. Now it is closed, but the new plan is to leave it here indefinitely. This is an alarming turn of events for everyone who lives within 50 miles of San Onofre. The inability of government and the nuclear industry to figure out a solution has led to a lot of talk but very little action. Locally, about 2,000 tons of highly radioactive uranium and plutonium rest above ground a few hundred feet from the ocean on one side and I-5 on the other. Since there is no plan to dispose of it, this highly toxic waste will remain in our backyard for many decades (or centuries) to come.

To address this threat, a large crowd filled the San Juan Capistrano Community Center on Jan. 27 to hear a 3 hour panel discussion called “America’s Nuclear Future: Taking Action to Address Nuclear Waste.” This was a joint meeting of Edison’s Community Engagement Panel and the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington D.C. think tank. The panel focused on what local, state, and regional stakeholders can do stimulate progress on this issue which has plagued the nation for half a century. Addressing the audience were 21 panelists ranging from nuclear experts to concerned citizens. Continue reading→

San Clemente’s City Council approves a watered-down resolution on nuclear waste

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Editor Posted in Edison, Nuclear Power, Orange County, San Clemente 1 Comment

City Council Approves Watered-Down Resolution on Nuclear Waste

By Roger Johnson

Many will quickly recognize the famous Edvard Munch painting “The Scream” which was recently sold by Sotheby’s for $120 million. This primal scream may describe the reaction of many who sat through a contentious San Clemente City Council meeting on Nov. 6. The council had before it a fine resolution designed to take a small political step to toward getting nearly 2,000 tons of uranium and plutonium moved away from Zip Code 92672. Instead of passing the resolution, the council botched it. They tore it apart, emasculated it, and ended up with a resolution which was about the same as the flawed resolution they passed a year ago.

Instead of simply asking for the waste to be removed from from San Onofre, they asked for a permanent solution to all the nuclear waste problems for the entire county. They got fixated on repositories such as the one in Carlsbad, NM which closed last Feb. with fires, explosions, and radiation leaks. The nation’s only repository was supposed to last for 10,000 years but it failed after only 15. Funny thing, The Scream relates to this botched repository because they planned to bury a copy of The Scream 2150 feet underground along with the radioactive waste. Knowing that nuclear waste retains its lethal toxicity for hundreds of thousands of years, the thinking might be to warn future aliens how human civilization foolishly destroyed itself. Continue reading→

The Darrell Issa Nuclear Waste Dump?

Posted on October 28, 2014 by Editor Posted in Darrell Issa, Energy, Environmental, Nuclear Power, Orange County, San Clemente 2 Comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, Oct. 27, 2014

CONTACT: Roger Johnson, SCNJ66@yahoo.com, (949-218-1337)

The Darrell Issa Nuclear Waste Dump

Poll respondents strongly favor naming the nuclear waste dump at San Onofre after Congressman Issa

California Congressional District 49 has become the home of a large nuclear waste dump thanks to a decision of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Aug. 26 which mandates that high-level nuclear waste at San Onofre (and other nuclear power plants) be stored on-site indefinitely. The order reversed the government promise to remove the waste and take it to a safer storage location.

This curious turn of events has alarmed residents of Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego Counties and resulted in a public opinion poll on selecting an appropriate name for the new waste dump. An on-line survey was started Oct. 2 and conducted by Survey Monkey. After 25 days, the overwhelming choice (92% of respondents) is to call it The Darrell Issa Nuclear Waste Dump.
The other choices in the survey included The San Clemente Nuclear Waste Dump (the site shares the same Zip Code 92672 as downtown San Clemente) and The Camp Pendleton Nuclear Waste Dump (the site is owned by the U.S. Navy and is part of Marine Base Camp Pendleton). As of Oct. 27 the results were: Continue reading→

Has Southern California Edison turned Orange County into a nuclear waste dump?

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Editor Posted in Edison, Energy, Environmental, Nuclear Power, Orange County, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano Leave a comment

Living Near a Nuclear Waste Dump

Roger Johnson

Surprise, surprise, the government is not going to remove the nuclear waste after all. The big promises made years ago to seal the deal for allowing San Onofre to be built was the guarantee that the highly-radioactive nuclear waste would be removed when the plant closed. Now they have reneged on their promise. Instead of removing the waste, the new plan is to store the toxic waste right here indefinitely.

Voila…. Our area is now a Nuclear Waste Dump.

Funny thing is, few people even know they live near a Nuclear Waste Dump. Some even think that they are safe because the reactors are no longer operating. Living near 2,000 tons of uranium and plutonium is safe??? As the decades pass, the risks multiply. In addition to accidents and human error, there is always the danger of a big earthquake or tsunami. That is what caused the disaster in Fukushima. And now Edison is limiting its choice of casks to cheaper versions which have no internal monitoring, are vulnerable to leaks and cracks, and cannot be repaired when they do leak. Does anyone seriously believe that none of these things could happen before the government is supposed to remove the waste in 2049? But the government has no plan to remove it. Its only plan is to keep it here. If the government doesn’t remove the waste by 2049, the “plan” calls for doing nothing and leaving it here for another century. Part of the plan is to wait for a big accident and then figure out what to do.
Now factor in the possibility of a terrorist attack. With such an inviting and vulnerable target, and all the terrorism around the world, does anyone think nothing will happen in the next 50 or 100 years? Some say that one truck bomb could release enough radiation to take out all of Camp Pendleton, much of Orange and San Diego Counties, and make a wasteland of large parts of Southern California. Continue reading→

The San Clemente nuclear waste dump is now almost official

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Editor Posted in Energy, Environmental, Orange County, San Clemente 2 Comments

San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station

The San Clemente Nuclear Waste Dump is now almost official

Another reason to leave So. Cal.

By: Roger Johnson

With the present Orange County political majority totally asleep you have just been had by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) — see their press release below the following commentary.

Subject: The San Clemente Nuclear Waste Dump is now almost official

The historic vote this week by the NRC to make all nuclear power plants nuclear waste dumps now makes this almost a certainty. I hope you noticed that they changed the name from “Waste Confidence” to Continued Waste Storage. The NYT said last week that experts are skeptical that a permanent repository (Plan A) will be built. So everything going on now is PLAN B: sucker the locals into turning their NPP into “continued storage” (a nuclear waste dump). Tell them how safe it is, not to worry. No need to store it deep underground in a remote area when we can store it above ground in the middle of metropolitan areas in earthquake fault zones. Reminds me of the only independent investigation of Fukushima which concluded that the accident was caused by the collusion of government and the nuclear industry who conspired to tell the public that nuclear power is completely safe. That is what we are hearing now. The CEP is a cog in this machinery, an enabler. Now Edison can walk away saying that it carefully consulted with the public. Continue reading→