ML19305C010

Opposes Protracted & Expensive Study of Jcp&L Financial Condition,W/Followup Hearings & Court Battles.Study Would Block Constructive Activity for Yrs.Consumers Will Pay for Delays.Ltr Dtd 800125 to Nj Ofc of Public Advocate Encl

ML19305C010
Person / Time
Site:	Oyster Creek, 05000363
Issue date:	01/25/1980
From:	Grove L AFFILIATION NOT ASSIGNED
To:	Ahearne J NRC COMMISSION (OCM)
Shared Package
ML19305C004	List: ML19305C010
References
NUDOCS 8003250468
Download: ML19305C010 (5)

Text

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200 KENT 121..h C E H o t* 1.H V A 34 D

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January 25. '090 Mr. John F..Ahearne,

- Chairman, Nuclear Regulatory Commission

.lashington, DC 20555 vear Mr. Ahearnes I have been living in New Jersey since 1939 and in Summit since 1949. I am a Middle-Class owner of a 6-Room home. Public Service Electric and Gas provides gas for heating and cooking and Jersey Central Power & Light provides electricity for lighting etc. ,

I have contacts with many, many people in the State -

business, social and otherwise, especially in Morris, Union and Essex County.

We all are very much concerned with the atomic power problems and the fate of the New Jersey Utilities.

Af ter many of us read tha Sunday New York Times ar-ticle: " Nuclear Power - What is the bottom line?"

friends asked me to write this letter.

We hear that a man in the Public Advocate's Office,

• Alfred L. Nardelli, pushes financial questions in the foreground and that now a study should be made, to find out a) if General Public Utility should be taken over by the State b) should be throen into bankruptcy c) or if its subsiciary, Jersey Central & Light Co.,

should be merged w;th PSE&G or another utility Mr. Ahearne,we de not want this studv made The study is supp6 sed to take a full year and will probably cost about 1 Million Dollar. After it will be submitted, their will be hearings of at least .

another half year. Than chere will be the usual fights in the Courts and it will be 2 to 3 years before final decision is reached.

And during a3'. these years nothing constructive can be done and .henr -receedings with their publicity and uncertain outcome will further financially wea-ken the alrtady c0eply in trouble utility.

And during eli *his time, we the consumers will pay for these deJr~e. with increased surcharges, based on ever increasino oilprices. There is a good pro-bability, that the technical problems can be solved i

' and that your cpmmission will decide that that - under special safeguards - atomic energy should replace' i

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non nn.ve ps.aus nort.xvann S t*>s is :T. N sw .I nc u ss u r ov se os the much higher oil as feedstock, at leact as far as already existing Atomic Power Plants are concerned.

This decision would reflect the hopes of th: President of the United States, who publicly declared that Atomic Energy is here to stay and the Kemeny report.

However, this is a hi~hiv technical cuestion and coli-ticians should not interfere in these proceedincs.

The taxpayers know, that electricity produced ' , atomic power costs about 10% of the productioncost by oil. We all are anxious to see our fuelbills held stacle, if not reduced. We shall take a dim view in the November election, if on' account of avoidable delays our fuel-bills will be further increased instead of reduced.

As far as the 3 options are concerned a) We do not want the State to take over GPU or any of its subsidiaries. Ours is not a socialist society and we do not want to see our industries run by Mr. Nar-delli or any other politician.

b) We do not want GPU thrown into bankruptcy. GPU has over 176.000 stockholders and its subsidiaries have over half a billion preferred stock outstanding. Their debt is over 2 billion. A couragious and public spirited consortium of 45 banks has lent the utility over 400.million to tie it over the emergency. Thou-sand of stockholders are little people - owning 10 to 100 shares, who bought this "save" and "nonspecu-lative" stock to increase their meager incomes, some also are minors, especially recommended to the pro-tection of the S tate.

Is Er. Eardelli going to compensate all these people against all these undeserved losses?

No, Sir, ootions 1 and 2 are out of the cuestion As far as option 3 is concerned, there should not be a separate s'cudy either. The best financial brains in the countr" will be only to glad to testify before and give the ' advis to your commission.

No time- and monovconsumina study can better serve this l

i pureose.

t There has been a trorosal made by GPU to create a new

firm to operate all its atomic facilities. This unit l

should be completely separate and spun off, to become an independent company. It seems to us, that this pro-posal is as good as any as a basis for further dis-  !

cussions. l l

As far as GPU and its subsidiaries are concerned, they i doubtless made mistakes and so did many others of the l l

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INVOLVD HCTI".a , II:CLU;ING THE EUILCE"'I C" -

THE SUPPLIERS OF THE EQUIPMENT, THE SUFE2 VISING aCTHO RITIES and many others. All these things are in dctail discussed in the Kemeny report. It would not be fair to concentrate all the blame on GPU and destroy the company for its " misdeeds".

It is public knowledge that the. utility made a spe-cial effort to correct its passed mistakes. They made a deep cut in the dividend, reduced the sala-ries of its executives and directors, trimmed the workforce, were puccessfull in reducing the addi-tional powerecethey very much increased the safe-guards and training of their employees. They hired top experts to prevent any problems in the future As explained in the enclosed letter to Mr. van Nesse the Commissioner of the Office of the Public Advocate, Mr. Nardelli is in this matter not in compliance with his legal responsibilities or with the political leadership of the Country or the State of New Jersey.

He has no right to represent the public inammission,E the a'c highlytechnical proceedings before your are opposing his views. He should return to his original duties and restrict himself to expressing his views concerning the justification of rate in-cr9ases. In this respect he might represent the in-terests of some powerusers in the State.

You will oblige me by acknowledging receipt of this letter.

Copies are sent at this time to Mssrs. Barbour of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and Ms.

Susan M. Shanaman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.

The writer firmly believes that reason will prevail and that corrective action will be taken, so that further steps and unpleasantness can be avoided.

Very truly yours ,

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s e. i . wr. .N >: .v . :: n n t:v o r o o January 25, 1":0.

. . .e .!cn. stanicy C. van ;: esse C,; mirsioner C .~ f ice of the .*'ublic .'dvocate

51. cast State Street, T rer.t en , NJ 08625.

e.ir Mr. Commissioner

I am sorry that you lost Ms. Yaskin as Deputy Direc-tor of the Civision of F. ate Counsel. Her replacement

'.lf rec . ardelli might need so.no guidan' e f rom you and

'r. .

Curel. Mr. Nardelli reems to be a very ambitious

.:an , who apparently wantn to make a name for himself and loves public exposure. We do not mind this, as lor.g as i.e does not overstep his jurisdiction, which is strictly prescribed by law. We do not like his

c:- ture in the General Public Utility case atall.

.i i .' jurisdiction is cicar?y prescribed.by law. He has to

" rcpre!.cnt.. tbc I'ublic Int crest before regulatory agen-cics in proceedings involving utility and' insurance rate increasen_or c'.c.nges in basic utility services."

e obviously 1 ' f ar over his hat if he feels autho-rined by thi: cter to make before the NRC motSons which substitute hich:f co.rplex technical and financial

roblems, whica concern ownership and corporate struc-ture, for "channes in basic utility services"

'enidos his actions are contradictory in itself. On one hand he trice 'to prevent the utility to get on its feet and produce cheap atomic powcr. On the other hand he denic: the powercompany the higher prices which are needed to r;av for the higher fuelcost, which the ever increasin. vilprices mako necessary. (The utilitics thich supply ClJ during the emergency were authori cd by thei r rc:;ulat ors to charge these higher prices) .

ihan he move.c to bring everything to a standstill by requcut.ing' a .../. vi.it;h will take a full year.-And durin;; all thi t_ime we , the consumers, vil have to rav onorr.ous priceadjustments for everincreasing oil-

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the letter to Jho !!on. Stanley C. van

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• ort.unat.cly this af f air airo has so.r.e unpleasant olitical ramificatiokns, especially in this election

'aar.

The !' resident of the United States has publicly declared,

. hat at.o:ttic energy is noconuary and is here to stay. The

cn- ross and both

najor partic.s recognico the i.mportance of this very cheap powersourcc. The complex technical '

uestions have been discussed in detail in the Kemeny report. Nith our supplybase in the Middio East threatened, "othing should be done to agcravate the situation.

fho :Juclear Regular Co=nission has enough problems without an intervonor, who has nothing constructve '

to of fer, is not familiar with technical and corpo-rate -structural problemn and causes unnecessary

.ind long dulays.

You would oblige uu, if it would ho exrlained to Mr.

.N.a rd e r i , that wide groups of the voters do not agree

' lith hia position and that it might be in his own in-if he himself would take the remedial actions, terest, which are necessary and in the Public Interest. .

Very truly yours l

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