Disappointed And Sad

                                                                                   written 10 November, 2024

                                                                               published 17 November, 2024

     

            Now we know.  A majority of the voting public picked Trump.       

            I believe the world is whole, despite not yet being reflected in our dominant culture.  But inexorable social change is happening, and like it or not, we are all in this together.  I was optimistic this election would demonstrate a majority of people felt the same way.  I was mistaken, thus disappointed, and sad for the missed opportunities and disruption that is coming.  

            There is a deep anger in America.  People feel economically left out, and threatened by the rapidly changing reality of the world.  The status quo doesn't address their needs.  Trump recognized that rage.  But he is a corrupt, greedy, chronic liar, operating on hate, misogyny, and revenge, and can therefore offer no real solutions to the fundamental structural problems.  Supported by billionaires and hard right conservative groups, the damage to come, at home and across the world, is mind boggling.  But I don't want to add to the litany of doom, so I am casting about for some place to stand, with any kind of hope going forward.  

            Each day we read some uplifting spiritual material, reminding us of the loving unity that we all arise within.  That helps.  My view has been a minority opinion most of my life, but it is still relevant.  These times seems more dire, but the fundamental issue is the same.  Can I live my life, from moment to moment, experiencing the calm joy of unity reality, or do I spiral into a dark pit of despair, believing myself cut off, an isolated individual in an infinite, hostile world?

            I have experienced both joy and despair at times in my life, and I prefer joy.  I know my personal power lies within the choice of responses I make in each moment, which determines what I experience internally, despite the exterior reality.  That is not to say that I am always able to remember that power, but it is there, and I have experienced it enough to give me confidence in the truth.

            Another technique for being calm in a storm is meditation.  After multiple failed attempts over my life, I now have a strong daily routine.  It is an internal refuge, a familiar place I go to practice experiencing a still mind.  This capacity is part of my human birthright, accessible to everyone, should they choose.

            Unity reality understands we all arise from the same source, which includes not only all of manifested material form, but also contains wisdom and information, which we experience as inspiration and creativity.  Our active personality mind, always focused on exterior world events, dominates, so the quiet voice of inspiration is easily overwhelmed, like trying to hear a soft-spoken person during a loud musical concert.  Creating an inner calm makes this inner communication more efficient.  Anxiety is reduced.  With less stress, the physical body is healthier.  Life becomes more graceful, even amidst turmoil.  From a calm, inspired center, I can examine our situation more clearly, with less knee-jerk patterning.

            Our society has problems.  The consumer economy keeps people dissatisfied with their life so they will constantly buy the next new thing.  Is chronic dissatisfaction healthy?  Is infinite consumption sustainable on a finite planet?

             Housing is increasingly unaffordable.  Corporate Real Estate Investment Trusts own 40 percent of all single family home rentals.  Does treating a home as an investment increase prices?

            America is 4 percent of the global population, but we consume 24 percent of the energy and resources, 6 times our share.  Is it any wonder people from other parts of the world want to come here?  How long can we keep this imbalance going?  At what cost?  Even within the US, the benefits are not evenly distributed.  Three families control about half the total wealth, and our culture believes greed is good.  Is it a surprise there is wide spread anger?

            Extreme wealth represents a mental disorder, much like extreme hoarding or extreme obesity.  Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, overworks his 170 thousand employees and fight against unions, but squandered $33B turning Twitter into the hate saturated "X".  If he had given that same amount to his workers, would his employee moral have improved?

            It's profitable to kill the planet.  What could possibly go wrong?

            Rebuilding our society is essential, but Trump expresses the worst excesses of the present system, so he won't be bothered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once Upon A Time

                                                                                     written 3 November, 2024

                                                                               published 10 November, 2024

      

            Once upon a time, people believed the Earth was flat.  It was obvious, just look around, especially when looking at the ocean.  Some people feared if they sailed too far, they would fall off the edge.  Eventually, as adventurous people sailed out and returned, the understanding of Earth as a sphere became common knowledge, even if not directly experienced.

            Once upon a time, people believed the Earth was the center of the Universe, and everything rotated about it.  It was obvious, just look around, and watch the Sun, Moon, and all the stars move across the sky.  This perspective was enforced by the Church.  

            But astronomers noticed that planetary motion did not follow the perfect circles dictated by the Church.  Copernicus was one of the first to suggest the Earth is a rotating sphere, and orbits the Sun.  Although he was a canon of the Church, his heliocentric ideas were revolutionary.  To avoid criticism and social turmoil, he remained relatively unpublished until his death in 1543, 

            A few decades later, Galileo, one of the first scientific astronomers, championed Copernican heliocentrism.  By then, the growing scientific revolution threatened the Church, so an inquisition in 1615 found Galileo guilty of heresy, spreading "opinions contradicting Biblical interpretation", and held him in house arrest until his death in 1642.

            Despite Church efforts, reality prevailed.  Social evolution continued, and today most people know we live on a sphere, rotating over 800mph (in Ukiah), traveling around the Sun at 33,000mph.  Since everything around us is moving at the same speed, and we only notice differences, we don't experience the motion.  But one of the most widely reproduced photographs, shows the brilliant blue and white sphere of Earth against the deep black of space, viewed from the moon.

            Once upon a time, people believed matter was solid, discrete, irreducible atomic chunks.  It was obvious, just look around, every "thing" has a unique location in place and time, each clearly different.  Thousands of years of culture supported this idea.  But a little over a century ago, the inexorable scientific revolution demonstrated that atoms are made of even smaller parts.  Additionally, all these material parts, when examined correctly, are just little waves on the surface of a vast energy ocean.

            Like most human discoveries, the first application was to blow up our enemies, but the door had been opened, and the consequence of this new way of thinking now manifests as the powerful smart phone in your pocket, putting access to the entire world at your fingertips.  We are fundamentally connected.

            But even the idea of "connected" is misleading, as it starts from the perspective of individual pieces in relationship.  Imagine going to the ocean, and thinking that all those waves are somehow "connected" to the ocean from which they arise.  While superficially accurate, the deeper understanding is that the vast ocean IS, and the waves are only tiny expressions on the surface.  While each wave is unique, it never exists apart from the oceanic unity. 

            At the sea shore, we can experience both the waves and the ocean, and grasp the relationship.  With matter, we only experience the difference of surface waves, not the unity of the immense ocean of energy underlying everything.  That is why we go around thinking one color of skin is "better" than another, deluded by the surface, without regarding the content.  They say, "don't judge a book by its cover", but we are locked into the superficial differences, a naive consideration of reality.  Gender, race, age: none of these determine the deeply human nature of an individual, yet, based on our culture or religion, we will hate, even kill, based on such limitations.  As we begin to experience the common ocean, rather than being distracted by the surface waves, we will see that any attack on the "other", is an attack on ourselves.  War is suicide.  Hate is self-loathing, no matter what your religion teaches.

            All through time, some individuals, and some cultures, have known this truth.  However, the culture dominant on the planet today, ignores this truth, honoring instead selfish greed at the expense of everything else.  Is it any wonder that people despair?  Or that the climate is out of balance?  

            But an awakening is happening.  Our unity reality is more clearly manifest all the time.  There will be a time when we look back at how foolish humans were, and shake our head.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cultivating A Calm Center

                                                                                       written 27 October, 2024

                                                                                 published 3 November, 2024

            I believe in science.  The Earth is a sphere, orbiting the Sun, and the climate crisis is real, already destroying our economy.  Trump and his MAGA followers believe it is all a hoax.  Everything else follows from there.  

            In my opinion, Trump is selling fear, divisiveness, and increasingly demented rage, while the alternative is effective democracy.  However, I understand Trump supporters are just as concerned about a Harris victory, convinced by their leader and Fox News that evil is afoot.  

            This article is first being published two days before election day, but most Californians who plan to vote have already done so.  It will be reprinted elsewhere after polls have closed, but in a close race, the results may still be unclear.  Which side will prevail?  The stress and anxiety are affecting everyone.  What is a person to do?   

            I suggest the solution abides within. 

            Start by sitting quietly, and listen to your heart beating.  My heart has beat steadily more than 3 billion times so far.  When it stops, I stop.  While I can do things to affect the rate and duration, I have no control over the fact of that continual beat.  It is a gift of life to me.  I have done nothing to earn that gift.  Feel your own heart beating, and be grateful.

            Without breath, we expire.  I have taken about 750 million breaths so far.  Breathing is where the involuntary muscular system intersects with the voluntary system.  While I can hold my breath for a while, or change my breathing rate, during sleep, breathing continues.  Each inspiration draws in essential oxygen molecules, powering the biochemical carbohydrate combustion system that keeps me going.  But a free oxygen molecule only last about 6 months before being chemically reacted into another molecule, and must be constantly replenished for us to live. 

            In my entire life, I have never paid anything for this essential life ingredient, nor have you.  It is a gift from other life forms, mostly produced by phytoplankton in the ocean and trees on land.  Notice your next breath.  Feel it passing through your nostrils or mouth.  Take another breath.  Give thanks, and be grateful for the living planet that freely offers you this gift. 

            Paying attention to my beating heart and my breathing, brings my awareness into this eternal moment.  I have the immediate essentials for life, and am at peace.  As I continue to focus on my breathing, this calmness endures.  I AM, part of the larger living holism of life.  From this sense of internal sufficiency, simply being, I can contemplate the outer world.  

            Those who cultivate fear want to induce anxiety in other people or our society.  Perhaps they are fearful themselves, and unwilling, or unable, to deal with it and want to spread it.  Some choose to sow fear as a tool of domination, because fearful people are more easily controlled.  Physiologically, fear depresses the digestive and immune systems, as well as the higher brain functions, so decision making passes to the more primitive reptilian brain. Our individual challenge is to choose a different path.

            Most fears are concerns about what might happen, not what is happening right now.  Things happening right now can be dealt with right now, but the future hasn't happened yet, so fears of the future can linger, get amplified, and fester.  In every moment, we decide where we put our conscious attention.  Rather than indulging in fear, either externally generated, or more insidiously, internally generated, we can focus awareness on this present moment, now.

            In the calm awareness of the moment, pick a desired outcome, and hold that focus instead of allowing fear to run amuck.  Even if we forget, and fall into fear again, each instant, we have the opportunity to choose again.  With practice, our quality of life improves, becomes calmer.  

            Additionally, we all radiate energy.  You have experienced being with an anxious person, whose energy adversely affects everyone else.  Being calm radiates as well.  This is something we can do, with wide ranging, and unknown, consequences. 

            Like it or not, we are all in this together.  Even MAGA Republicans are oxygen breathers with beating hearts.  We can choose to live our reality inclusively.  It is simple, but not easy, because of life times of patterning.  Repeatedly choosing calmness over anxiety is an act of empowerment, which can be done anywhere, without needing permission.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Energy Efficiency

                                                                                       written 20 October, 2024

                                                                                   published 27 October, 2024

   

            The current US energy reality is that 79 percent comes from coal, oil, or natural gas, 13 percent comes from real renewables (solar, wind and hydro), and 7 percent comes from nuclear.  Electricity from nuclear is the most expensive power on the grid, twice grid scale solar.  Today, a typical 1,100MW reactor costs about $30B, in part because they are custom made, increasing the cost.  Their size means power production is centralized, needing extensive grid connections.  Only two new reactors have come online in the US since the 1979 Three Mile Island event,

            While there is a resurgence of big money interest in small modular reactors, with projected capacity of 1MW-300MW, this is still at the concept stage, despite a few holes in the ground for new development facilities.  The expectation is that mass produced smaller reactors will be cheaper.  However, these won't be in production any sooner than 2030, with no idea of final cost.  Consequently, there is no actual market for these reactors right now.  

            As the climate crisis grows, the need to eliminate further fossil fuel combustion is imperative.  But even some people not employed by a fossil fuel company believe there is no practical way to eliminate fossil fuels.  Is there any hope?  Perhaps.

            A Sankey Flowchart is a graphic representation of our total energy system in one visual diagram.  The chart breaks energy down into four levels.  Primary energy in the original material, such as coal, oil, or natural gas.  This is converted into Secondary energy, which is a form that can be transported, such as electricity, gasoline, or diesel.  Final energy has been distributed to the end customer, and is applied as Useful energy for the individual need.  Every step is inefficient, with some percentage going to "waste", often rejected as heat.  The result is that Useful energy is only about 1/3 of the original Primary energy.

            For example, when coal (primary) is burned to produce steam, to turn a turbine, which generates electricity (secondary), 65 percent of the energy is already lost.  Burning natural gas, the other major source of electrical production, the loss is still 55 percent.  Coal and gas plants are large and expensive, lasting about 30 years, getting less efficient as they age.  Shutdowns due to regular maintenance, or emergencies, waste energy in the long cool down and heat up phases.  As grid load peaks, older, less efficient plants come online. Even though they are used at less than their full capacity, the plants need to be kept hot, and staffed, even if only needed for an hour a day.  

            Other fossil fuel usage is also inefficient.  Natural gas stoves put only 40 percent of the heat into your food, the rest is lost heating the kitchen.  In an automobile, as little as 20 percent goes into moving the car, the rest is lost moving various parts, operating accessory items, and most heats the atmosphere.  Much of that useful 20 percent is thrown away when you brake the car to a stop.

            Real renewables skip the combustion/heat phase entirely, going straight to electricity.  Losses from grid transmission, distribution, and battery storage are much less, increasing the percentage of useful energy available. 

            An induction heated stove uses much less energy to cook the same food.  An electric car uses 90% of the electrical energy, providing 3-4 times more milage per unit of energy.  In addition, regenerative breaking recaptures some of the energy used to get the car moving, and stores it back into the battery to be used again.  Heat pumps heat a building 3-4 times more efficiently, because they simply move the ambient heat in the air, rather than creating it through combustion.

            A completely electrified economy would need 40% less total energy than our current economy, and renewables would produce that energy 3 times more efficiently.  Completely switching to electricity gives much more bang for the energy buck. 

            But this requires transforming our entire energy economy.  Millions of jobs will be affected, some lost from the old energy technology, and many more added to construct, and install the new systems.  Global estimates range up $45T, which is a lot.  However, we already pay about $7T per year for fossil fuels.  If unaddressed, the climate crisis will cost $180T, and risks putting an end to humanity.  The only question is: do we have the wisdom and will to make it happen?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Sane Society

                                                                                       written 13 October, 2024

                                                                                   published 20 October, 2024

   

            In 1956, philosopher/psychologist Erich Fromm wrote "The Sane Society", exploring how a sane person can living within an insane society, which demands some definition of the term "sane".  A brief web search finds definitions such as: "proceeding from a rational mind", "able to anticipate effect of one's actions", "healthy", "balanced between mind and emotions", and "consensual validation".  However, Fromm argued that just because a person is in accord with their culture, that doesn't mean the culture itself is sane.  A simple example, with local roots, was Peoples Temple, which resulted in the 1978 mass suicide in Guyana, using poisoned Kool-Aid, when relatively normal folks believed their charismatic paranoid leader.  Clearly, true sanity can't be just consensual agreement.

            In my opinion, sanity is awareness and experience in harmony with the larger reality, including not only the outer, cultural reality, but equally important, clear experience of our own inner reality.  It is well known that our entire experience is shaped by our internal perception.  We see what we believe, and then mistakenly assume what we see is absolutely true, rather than only relatively true, at best.  Consequently, examining, and understanding, our internal story is essential to experiencing a more harmonious life.

            A slogan which inspires me reads: "When one's spiritual needs are met by an untroubled inner life, happiness comes when work and words are of benefit to yourself and others".

            Without an internal enquiry, we are at the mercy of subconscious patterns that shape and disrupt our life, many of which were laid down long before we were even conscious of ourselves as individual beings.  These include everything from the culture and economy we were raised in, our native language, and the wisdom and compassion (or lack thereof) of our parents.  

            Integrity comes from having a good sense of our inner experience, combined with the courage to live our truth in the face of conflicting opinions.  This can be dangerous, generating strong pressure in response, even to the point of physical violence and death.  A common tool of all authoritarian systems is to demand allegiance, enforced by violence.

            Our society is under stress, as people with different beliefs accept different "facts", eroding our cultural agreement.  These social fissures are long standing, but Trump has amplifying them for his personal gain.  He is the product of his upbringing, with an authoritarian father, an emotionally unavailable mother, and enough family money to dominate everyone he ever encountered.  Many psychological professionals, including his niece, have described him as a malignant narcissist, unable to experience anything other than his own world view, taking credit for everything, and responsibility for nothing.  

            He is documented to lie about anything, if he thinks it will be to his advantage in the moment.  But Trump is very charismatic, believing everything he says, at the time he says it, even if he said something completely different just a moment before, so people believe him, even if it is to their own disadvantage.

            My particular focus is the climate crisis, which Trump claims is a hoax.  But despite his claims, climate change is real.  Recently, hurricanes Helene and Milton have created such devastation in traditionally red areas of the country, that people are beginning to see that what is happening in their own life conflicts with the lies Trump and his enablers continue to spout.  Trump lied that FEMA wasn't helping, even after the governors of Georgia, and both Carolinas publicly applauded FEMA assistance.  In Florida, people know that officially banning the term "climate change" didn't save their communities.   

            When reality conflicts with preconceived ideas, a person can go one of two ways.  The diehard believers double down, taking refuge in conspiracy theories like "they can control the weather", and usually blame "someone else", often from a dogmatic religious framework.  Either God is punishing the wicked (those that don't agree with the believer), or Evil is driving the situation, demanding the righteous take action.  This can engender intense passion, and complete certainty.  However, from an inclusive unity perspective, these are followers of a little god, despite their passionate conviction.

            The alternative path is to change our mind, realizing we have been led astray by people with ulterior motives, not aligned with our interests.  At some point, everyone will experience we are all in this together.  The only real questions are: how long will it take? and will we still be able to respond effectively?

 

             

 

Our Foolish Energy System

                                                                                         written 6 October, 2024

                                                                                   published 13 October, 2024

  

            Recently, Helene came ashore as a category 4 hurricane, 600 miles in diameter.  A tropical depression just a few days earlier, the very hot water in the Gulf of Mexico rapidly amplified the storm, and increased the amount of water it carried. 

            Helene made landfall in the Big Bend section of Florida, the third, and strongest, hurricane to hit there in just 13 months, producing a 15 foot storm surge, the largest ever recorded in that area.  Moving quickly inland, Helene dropping torrents of rain, before dissipating hundreds of miles north.  The hardest hit parts of North Carolina had already experienced days of rain before Helene arrived, and some areas received as much as 24 inches, causing epic flooding and destruction.

            Another tropical depression has formed in the Gulf of Mexico, and will reach Florida before this article is printed, possibly as a category 3 hurricane.

            The Project 2025 authoritarian plan for the United States claimed in the climate section that "climate change is overstated, and will be mild and manageable."  The reality now being dealt with in the southeast is neither mild, nor manageable.  Insured costs and infrastructure repair expenses are estimated at over $150B, and will take years to accomplish.  This doesn't include uninsured losses, or business income lost during recovery.  When your home and place of work have been destroyed, getting back to "normal" can take time.  Some of the people in Florida haven't recovered from the previous two hurricanes, and may not ever rebuild there.  Home insurance in Florida is already four times more expensive than California, and the industry may not survive the current impacts. 

            The climate we experience today is the result of more than a century of changing atmospheric chemistry, resulting from human energy production, trapping more heat, which is then distributed in more extreme weather events.  Storms are becoming more numerous, stronger, larger, and carry more rain.  No place on Earth is immune.

            For those willing to actually look at the issue, the challenge is stark: stop adding to the problem (economic decarbonization), and begin removing what has already been done (carbon sequestration).  For those addicted to the money of the status quo, and willing to ignore the reality of the ongoing impact, this is intolerable.  We saw that at the Vice-Presidential debate, a few days after the Helene devastation.  When asked about the climate crisis, Vance faithfully parroted the party line.  Republicans are committed to "clean air and water" (without mentioning greenhouse gases), and the solution is "Drill Baby Drill".

            Without even considering the climate crisis, our current energy solution is foolish, leading to economic bankruptcy and societal collapse.  Classic fiscal advice is to conserve your savings, and live on the income.  The cautionary tale is the person who rapidly spends their inheritance, and then dies broke.  Humanity inherited a vast supply of stored solar energy in the form of fossil fuels, laid down over tens of millions of years.  In just two centuries, we have burned through about half of that inheritance.  These have been the most accessible reserves, which produced the cheapest power.  As we continue to deplete our finite energy savings, all future fossil fuels will become increasingly more expensive.  This same limitation is inherent in nuclear fission, which also consumes rare, finite material.

            The alternative is learning to live within our income.  We can now efficiently harvest our daily energy income, collecting it as solar, wind, or hydro power (collectively called renewables), and efficiently store this energy until needed.  Unlike all energy produced by combustion, this energy is free, needing only the hardware to collect it, which is a fixed cost.  Furthermore, the collection/storage hardware can be produced in a range of sizes, from vast systems to those scaled for a single dwelling.  This helps free us from the constraint of centralization, which requires huge capital investments and massive distribution systems.  Such energy systems are useful all over the planet, and the increasing scale of manufacturing keeps reducing the costs every year.

            Tapping another free energy source, the emerging technology of closed loop geothermal power collects the internal heat of the planet.  It can be located almost anywhere, with a modest physical footprint.

            Learning to live within our energy income is sustainable well into the future.  The existing energy system is getting more expensive, and produces unintended consequences that are killing our society.  Are we wise enough to change?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

             

 

Gambling On Nuclear

                                                                                   written 29 September, 2024

                                                                                     published 6 October, 2024

    

            PG&E's Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, located on the coast near San Luis Obispo, is the last operating nuclear facility in California.  The two 1,100MW reactors came online in 1985 and 1986, designed to operate for 40 years.  In 2016, PG&E announced plans to close both reactors by 2025, rather than incur costly upgrades.

            Nuclear power is baseload power, meaning it operates 24 hours a day, but output can't easily be adjusted to meet variable grid loads.  These days, it is the most expensive form of utility scale electricity.  As with all combustion power sources, uranium is a finite fuel, and most deposits easy to access have been depleted, driving up fuel costs.  Each reactor holds tens of tons of enriched uranium fuel, but the nuclear decay by-products degrade the energy efficiency of the fuel rods, requiring refueling after just 5 percent of the uranium has been consumed, contributing to the high operating costs.  After 70 years of commercial nuclear power, there is still no adequate storage for the highly radioactive used fuel rods. 

            While it is accurate that a normally functioning nuclear reactor does not emit any greenhouse gases, there is great concern about what happens when a reactor fails.  Greenhouse gases last for ten centuries, but radioactive contamination lasts for a thousand centuries.  There have been three major reactor malfunctions that made the news (Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima), so we know such failures are possible. 

            The Diablo Canyon reactors are at the end of their design life, without any upgrades, and it is known that prolonged, intense radiation embrittles metal, weakening it, increasing risk of failure.  There are three active seismic faults within three miles of the Diablo Canyon plant, each capable of a magnitude 7 event, including one running right through the site.  PG&E tested for embrittlement in 2006, but refused to make the results public, claiming "proprietary information", and has postponed any further testing.  A structural failure of a weakened reactor cooling system due to an earthquake could cause wide spread radiation contamination.

            Fukushima failed when the tsunami flooded the emergency backup generators, causing several reactors to overheat and melt down, with resulting hydrogen explosions.  This was a direct result of original cost cutting decisions about how high to build protective sea walls, and sea level placement of the generators.  Safety is always sacrificed when decisions prioritize maximum profit.

            The reactors at Fukushima broke thirteen years ago, and real clean-up has yet to begin because the site is still too lethal for even robots to operate.  Cleanup costs are estimated at over a trillion dollar, and will take 4 decades, considered optimistic, as clean up on this scale has never been accomplished before.  

            PG&E is not liable for any radiation contamination damages, or cleanup costs, by long standing federal legislation.  No insurance policy in the country has ever covered such losses, because the price is indeterminant and the risk is completely unknown.  

            In 2021, the California Energy Commission became concerned about summer blackouts resulting from increasing air conditioning loads due to growing planetary heating, and recommended Diablo Canyon continue operating until 2035.  Recently, all electric utilities were told they must share the cost of keeping the plant open, even if they aren't in PG&E territory.

            Despite plans to operate past the original design life of the system, PG&E has not been required to make any major plant upgrades, which would be expensive and time consuming.  In addition, PG&E has not been required to make public the embrittlement testing done 18 years ago, or make any new tests on the current state of the system.  We are supposed to just "trust them", and hope for the best.

            This is the nuclear gamble: operate an aging nuclear plant, in an unknown operating condition, sitting on known fault systems, hoping for no seismic events for the next decade.  On the one hand, it has worked so far, and PG&E continues to get massive profits from the most expensive power on the grid.  However, should a low probability seismic event occur, and the reactors break, contaminating the center of California, PG&E is fiscally responsible for nothing.  However, we all get to deal with, and pay for, the result.  

            This is typical corporate financial reasoning: capitalize the profits and socialize the losses.  Sweet deal for the company, which has already demonstrated its complete disregard for customer welfare over the last few decades.