'Ideological Bragging Rights' 

Editor:

Thanks for reporting on the Diablo Canyon issue now facing Redwood Coast Energy Authority ("RCEA Ponders Nuclear Power," Sept. 12).

In an effort to keep our state's fossil fuel emissions down, California's utility regulators have decided to keep the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant running until at least 2030. That means PG&E is now offering free electricity from Diablo Canyon to jurisdictions like ours. It's not as if what comes across our transmission lines will vary depending on our answer; it is purely an accounting entry. The plant will generate the same amount of radioactive waste whatever we say. We pay to subsidize Diablo Canyon's operations either way. The question is, "Do we want Humboldt to get some free electricity, or would we prefer it go somewhere else?" Same electrons, same transmission lines, same facility operation regardless of our answer.

This past year, 14 Republican governors rejected food for hungry school children that the federal government offered to make available at no cost to their states. They preferred ideological bragging rights over feeding hungry children in their states. I'd thought we were better than that, but if we reject free electricity to be able to brag that ours is "nuclear free," we're no better than those governors.

This is not a question of being pro-nuclear or not. It is a question of which is more important: ideological bragging rights or lower costs for citizens.

Mitch Trachtenberg, Trinidad