Guest Commentary: On Earth Day and Measure A

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1. Who is Dan Carson ?  Nobody wrote anything about his  appearance for the celebration of the Earth Day by the Davis Vanguard’s administrator and readers . Strange .

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2. “ENERGY IS THE #1 SOURCE OF GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS IN AMERICA. ALL OF US WILL CONTINUE TO DEPEND ON THE ENERGY GRID, ALTHOUGH CAN INFLUENCE USAGE AND SOURCES.”

   REWARD AND PUNISHMENT FOR PROTECTING NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
   OPEN LETTER
    
   MOTTO
   “Don’t be afraid to see what you see.”
   Ronald Reagan
    
   INTRODUCTION
    
   Writing on blogs and introducing meaningless environmental bills about saving Planet Earth and the natural environment is cheap and easy, but to actually do something meaningful about these problems is more difficult and could be also very expensive and life devastating.
   My and my family life was devastated two times in the State of California because I had idea to act in attempt to stop crime hurting natural environment and California taxpayers. 
   Once I was awarded $ 100,000 by Pacific Gas & Electric company for my effort to protect the natural environment.
   In the last few years, besides state law enforcement agencies, I have asked several “environmentalists” from the California legislature, including Darrel Steinberg, Roger Hernandez, John Perez, Toni Atkins, Das Williams, and Richard Pan for help in curbing the criminal behavior of the rotten and corrupted University of California administration and management.
   By sending my inquiry to legislators, I did not check whether they were Democrats or Republicans. I looked at who they represented in the legislature when asking for help.
   Most of the responses from the above noble California legislators amounted, basically, to “get lost” and don’t write to me.
   Similar to the California legislators, I also received the same generic response from U.S. Senator Hon. Diane Feinstein, a response I will publish on Twitter).
   Lack of bill to lessen the privilege and power of the UC Office of the President and UC campuses administrations to review and decide employees whistle blowing complaints group of California legislators engaged themselves in unsupported by majority embarrassing attacks on UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi.
   A new bill or an amendment to the CALIFORNIA WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION ACT (GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 8547- 8547.12) will make our natural environment and Planet Earth happier and safer, not to mention UC employees, who were forced to the unemployment office or who committed suicide because they dared to complain against the university’s white collar criminals.
   All the Chief Compliance Officers and their staff in the UC system is the waste of the millions of dollars of tax payer’s money and the university resources that could be used to hire more qualified staff and management and for protection of the natural environment.
   In  this response, I would like to contribute a few words about environmental justice in communities and how it relates to my employment at Destec/Dynegy Power Corporation for 9 years and at the University of California for 13 years, which combine for a working time of 11 years and 10 months. In September 2011, I was placed by the university administration under home arrest and was not permitted to enter university premises or do any work. My employment was terminated on December 7, 2012 after an ill crafted but unsuccessful provocation to kill me or end my employment at the UC Davis Medical Center Trauma Unit # 11. The provocation was attempted by a team especially assembled for this purpose, with UC Davis Lt. James Barbour who was bribed with $ 35, 000 wage increase to carry out the execution
    
   Also, by writing this response, I also have in mind two of the newest State of California Assembly’s pseudo and meaningless Bills: AB 1288 & AB 1071. They were authored by Speaker Emeritus Tony Atkins and signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown. The bills are a form of socialist propaganda and agenda and are an unnecessary cost and burden for California taxpayers.
   Before I wrote my rant , I  reviewed many publications and laws in relation to greenhouse gas emissions and environmental laws, which include but are not limited to:
   ·        The University of California Sustainable Practices Policy issued on June 22, 2015. The policy   is making reference to six greenhouse gasses identified in the Kyoto Protocol as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons, and perfluorocarbons. The Kyoto Protocol   was never ratified by the United States of America and it must be a reason behind.                                            
   ·        A Proposal for the Design of the Successor to the Kyoto Protocol –Author Larry Karp , UC Berkeley and Jinhua Zhao , Michigan State University
    
   ·        The UC Davis 2009-2010 Climate Action Plan
    
   ·        Deep Energy Efficiency and Cogeneration Study Finding Report dated September 12, 2014. The very shallow inadequate and waste of money report was prepared for the University of California Office of the President by ARC Alternatives.
     
   ·        Reform of Environmental Law Needed for California to Move Forward.
    
   ·        The California Supreme Court’s Recent Flood of CEQA Decisions
   ·        The US. Clean Air Act
    
   ·        The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Review of National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Carbon Monoxide Final Rule
     
   ·        2012-2015 California Efficiency Strategic Plan –Research and Technology
    
   ·        The 2014 UC Berkeley Sustainability Report
     
   ·        Natural Gas and Environment
    
   ·        2012 Steam Emission of UC Campus : Mitigating Climate Impacts –UC Berkeley Climate and Greenhouse Gas Emission Research /Analysis
    
   ·        EPA-453/R-93-007 –Alternative Control Techniques Document Nox Emission from Stationary Gas Turbines .
    
   ·        Boiler Emission Guide –Cleaver/Brooks
    
   Realistic Application and Air Quality Implication of Distributed Generation and Combined Heat and Power in California – Prepared by University of California , Irvine for the California Energy Commission .
    
   ·        September 24, 2014 article –UC Davis , Sun Power to build largest solar power plant in UC system
    
   ·        The Supreme Court of The United States Case  540_(2007) Massachusetts et al v. Environmental Protection Agency
     
   ·        EPA Regulation of Greenhouse Emission from New Power Plants
    
   ·        A Look Inside the Berkeley Cogeneration Facility
    
   ·        2006 Maintain, Enhance and Improve Reliability Of California’s Electric System Under Restructuring Customization of the EPRI Artificial Neural Network Short-Term Load Forecaster (ANNSTLF) and User Support for the California Independent System Operator (CA-ISO)( Prepared for California Energy Commission by: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
   ·        U.S Clean Water Act
    
   ·        California Environmental Quality Act
    
   ·        CEQA Turns Forty –The More Things Change , The More They Remain The Same by Lisabeth D. Rothman (Very Interesting Publication )
    
   ·        USCA Case #14-1112 In re: Murray Energy Corp.,Petitioner, v. Environmental Protection Agency, On Petition for Extraordinary Writ to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
   ·        Amicus Curiae Brief of the States Of New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont,Washington, And The District Of Columbia In Support Of Respondent
    
   ·        March 2014 University of California System – Campus Climate Project Final
    
   ·        USCA Case #14-1112 In re: Murray Energy Corp.,Petitioner, v. Environmental Protection Agency, On Petition for Extraordinary Writ to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
    
   ·        Amicus Curiae Brief of the States Of New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont,Washington, And The District Of Columbia In Support Of Respondent
    
   ·        March 2014 University of California System – Campus Climate Project Final
    
   ·        The Amendments of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) enacted by U.S Congress in 1978 to conserve energy.
    
   ·        Filing with  the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in  relation to the 2007 Settlement –Agreement in Case
    
   ·        The Waste Heat Recovery and Carbon Emissions Reduction Act, also known as Assembly Bill 1613 (Blakeslee, Chapter 713, Statutes of 2007)created a feed-in tariff for certified CHP facilities that meet efficiency and performance requirements.
   MISREPRESENTATIONS AND UNLAWFUL CONDUCT OF DESTEC/DYNEGY.
    
   The managers of the San Joaquin Cogeneration Plant realized in 1989 that Libby Owens Ford Auto Glass Company (LOF) would not use sufficient steam to qualify the facility as a cogenerator under California Public Utility Code Section 218.5 or PURPA. Destec then conspired with LOF and agreed to defraud PG&E and violate all possible environmental laws by representing the San Joaquin Facility as complying with the Section 218.5 cogeneration standards, which it did not. Destec also concealed from PG&E that the steam being delivered to LOF was not being put to beneficial use but rather was being vented into the atmosphere.
   Destec believed that venting that quantity of steam could be detected due to the loud sound from the vents. To conceal their scheme, Destec conspired with LOF to obtain and install two steam vent silencers at the LOF premises. Thus, the steam produced by the San Joaquin Facility could be quietly and secretly vented into the air after the meter had measured it. Destec instructed San Joaquin cogeneration plant personnel to avoid any mention of such venting in operating logs and other ordinary business records. Plant operators and employees were told not to discuss steam-related issues with PG&E employees. The Destec also directed LOF to stop venting steam while PG&E employees were visiting.
   THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF THE VIOLATION OF UNITED STATES PUBLIC UTILITY REGULATORY ACT (PURPA) BY DESTEC ENERGY INC. /DYNEGY
   Discharging millions of gallons of water into the atmosphere in the form of superheated steam was not only a waste of money and a waste of expensively purified water for PG&E ratepayers and California taxpayers, but it was also an enormous environmental crime committed against State of California residents.
           To produce and discharge into the atmosphere millions of pounds of superheated steam required the burning of an enormous amount of natural gas, which is a clean fuel that produces electrical energy. However, if burned in LM 5000 aero derivative gas turbines or gas fire boilers, it would translate into huge amounts—numbered in the millions of Metric Tons (MT)—of unnecessary greenhouse gas, which includes Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and air pollutants, Carbon Monoxide (CO), and Nitrate Oxides (NOx). Ammonia was used to control the NOx and was discharged into the atmosphere for 7 seven years until I reported the crime and PG&E stopped Destec’s unlawful operation by terminating the power sale contract. Destec/Dynegy installed a silencer in the steam vent after plant personnel received complaints from local residents about the noise from venting high pressured steam into the atmosphere.
   Dynegy had a 20-year power sale contract with PG&E and if I had not taken action against Dynegy in 1997, PG&E ratepayers and California taxpayers would have paid another 200 million due to Dynegy’s violation of the state and federal laws. Destec’s/Dynegy’s  crime, if not reported, would have caused millions more metric tons of air pollutants to be discharged into the California atmosphere and millions of gallons of water would be wasted.
             Furthermore, by fraudulently misrepresenting the San Joaquin Facility as a “qualified cogenerate,” and by unfair and unlawful conduct, the San Joaquin facility, when in operation, created large quantities of contaminated wastewater. The city of Lathrop allowed the facility to discharge certain quantities of that wastewater for treatment. The city restricted San Joaquin’s discharges to a maximum rate of discharge at certain hours of the day and with a specific chemical composition. San Joaquin was regularly required to report data about the discharges to the City of Lathrop. However, the San Joaquin facility has routinely ignored Lathrop’s restrictions on wastewater discharges and has falsified the reports it has provided to the city to misrepresent the facility’s compliance with the city’s restrictions.
             The Pacific Gas & Electric Company partially recovered approximately $240,000,000 fraud through a settlement with Destec/Dynegy to the amount of   $100,000,000 for its own ratepayers. However, Dynegy was never punished for natural environment gross pollution caused by the unlawful operation of the San Joaquin Cogeneration Facility in Lathrop, CA.
   THE VIOLATION OF THE PUBLIC UTILITY REGULATORY POLICIES ACT (PURPA) BY UC DAVIS MEDICAL CENTER  (UCDMC) COGENERATION FACILILTY (CENTRAL PLANT)
   As I mentioned previously, the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA, enacted on November 9, 1978) is a United States Act passed as part of the National Energy Act. It was meant to promote energy conservation (to reduce demand) and to promote greater use of domestic energy and renewable energy.
   The unlawful operation and violations of PURPA by UCDMC 27 MW cogeneration facility were no different than those, described previously, of the unlawful operation of Dynegy’s Corporation 50 MW San Joaquin Cogeneration Facility located in Lathrop, CA.
   The difference between the Dynegy San Joaquin Cogeneration facility and the UC Davis Medical Center Central Plant is that Dynegy was and is a private enterprise and could be prosecuted by state law and federal law  it violated environmental laws and was obligated to pay state and federal taxes
    
   The UC Davis Medical Center Central Plant is an integrated part of the University of California, which is the government branch interconnected closely with the State of California government, state agencies, and legislature and, in most cases, the California  and federal laws  are the UC Regents’ laws.
    
   Destec/Dynegy, by disregarding federal law, wasted millions of gallons of water by visibly and illegally venting millions of pounds of steam into the atmosphere. By cheating the law, Dynegy received a significant 25% discount on natural gas costs from the Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) company, as mandated by PURPA at the PG&E ratepayers’ expense until it was stopped 
   The UC Davis Medical Center 27 MW Central Plant does not need to vent millions of gallons of purified water in the form of steam into the atmosphere to cheat the law or meet PURPA requirements.
    
   The UCDMC cogeneration facility Central Plant is equipped with a waste condenser that parallels the steam turbine.
   If during the high peak demand for power, the steam generated by the Heat Recovery Steam Generator can’t be utilized than  instead of venting steam into the atmosphere, steam is dumped into the waste condenser, turned into liquid (water), and returned to the system
    
   During a full load of the LM2500 gas turbine, the production of steam is 89,000 lb/hour and the maximum UC Davis Medical Center demand for steam is 45,000 lb/hour. Half of the steam produced by the Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HSRG) is not used and is being dumped into the waste condenser
    
   The UC Davis 27 MW cogeneration facility Central Plant  is  a combined cycle plant equipped with a 23 MW LM 2500 aero derivative gas turbine and a 4 MW steam turbine, which uses steam generated by the Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) heated to 900 oF high temperature and exhaust flue gasses from the LM 2500 gas turbine. It is a very economical and very environmentally sound system if it is properly applied and operated as the load is designed.
   However, this process is increasingly using a parasitic load in the plant equipment such as pumps and fan motors. The useless parasitic load requires more natural gas to make energy. Besides this energy, the evaporation in the cooling tower increases and requires more makeup water and more chemicals, which are an environmental and health hazard and are partially being discharged from the cooling tower with vapor into the atmosphere.   
    
   If you take into consideration the 17-year lifespan of the UC Davis Medical Center cogeneration facility operation, it would translate into burning extra amounts of natural gas, which causes countless thousands of Metric Tons (MTe) of CO, CO2, and NOx to be unnecessarily emitted into the atmosphere.  
    
   The California Air Resources Board (ARB) is the state agency responsible for providing implementation mechanisms, regulatory guidance, and enforcement of Assembly Bill 32 (AB32). AB32 includes statutory requirements that require inventorying, reporting, and verification of GHG emissions, depending upon the size and source type. UC Davis is subject to these reporting requirements. Facilities that emit 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide or its equivalent (MTCO2e) are required to report their annual emissions to the USEPA, and both the Davis and Sacramento campuses have facilities that emit over 25,000 MTCO2e.        
    
   It means that thousands of Metric Tons (MTe) of CO, CO2, and NOx to be unnecessarily emitted into the atmosphere are being reported by UC Davis to USEPA as the legitimate and lawful emission which is not and the reports are provided to the USEPA were or are fraudulent and misleading.
    
   “The Climate Action Plan includes a discussion of purchasing carbon credits and offsets but views these as options of last resort because they are expensive, do not offer a long-term solution for emissions reduction and are subject to regulatory changes.”
   Sources:
   2010. UC Davis Climate Action Plan
    
     
    
   THE MACHINE OIL DISCHARGE
   FROM THE UC DAVIS MEDICAL CENTER DEFECTIVE  LEAKING OIL COOLING TOWERS, FANS, AND GEAR BOXES FOR SEVEN YEARS TO THE  SACRAMENTO RIVER VIA THE CITY OF SACRAMENTO’S STORM DRAIN
   Regardless of the $100 million fraud committed by my previous employer Destec/Dynegy against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Destec/Dynegy was very safety oriented and a strict enforcer of safety rules.
    
   Destec/Dynegy had outstanding safety rules and safety training for employees. I was hazmat certified and a first responder, and I also knew CPR. I had a big problem adapting to UC Davis Medical Center, where safety rules and regulations were disregarded and ignored by management and safety training was unheard of and viewed as an unnecessary burden and hassle.
   The UC Davis Medical Center’s state-of-the-art cogeneration facility, which cost  $70-$80  million to build, was commissioned with many serious safety problems and hazards, endangering working personnel and raising concerns about my safety and the safety of coworkers, many of whom had little or no working experiences in a power plant environment.
   A power plant’s working environment is dangerous by nature, and if safety rules and regulations are not followed, it can lead to disastrous consequences.
              
   The arrogance of the UCDMCP Plant Operation and Maintenance (PO&M) Department Management was unbelievable and unacceptable. The Cal/OSHA intervention fixed some minor problems, but major safety problems at the Central Plant went unnoticed or were deliberately ignored by the Cal/OSHA inspector. There is no record of the Central Plant personnel being interviewed. The most dangerous place was the oily cement floor underneath the cooling tower, which drained oil into the Sacramento River via a storm drain but was unnoticed by the inspecting Cal/OSHA personnel. Coincidently, when the Cal/OSHA inspection took place, I was on vacation.
    
   The twenty-two (22) defective-by-design cooling tower gearboxes were massively leaking machine oil underneath the cooling tower and creating serious safety problems for personnel working underneath the cooling tower; in addition, the leaking machine oil created an enormous environmental hazard. Every week, as usual, the Central Plant maintenance supervisor issued a preventive maintenance work order to refill the cooling tower’s leaking gearboxes. The machine leaked approximately 10 gallons of oil per week for seven (7) years, and the cooling tower floor was washed out with water to the storm drain (river) or to the soil around the cooling tower when the new cooling tower was under construction. Once a month or every three months, the Central Plant maintenance supervisor (the same supervisor who said to Plaintiff that: “Somebody [should] give this Polack a bad evaluation and fire him”) also issued a preventive maintenance work order to use a pressure washer to wash out the gearboxes, which were covered with oil, and the cooling tower underneath the floor and to discharge everything into the City of Sacramento’s storm drain, which was connected to the Sacramento River.
               In 2002, one of my coworkers, William Buckans, was inspecting the cooling tower fans, and Buckans fell on the cement floor due to the oily, slippery surface underneath the cooling tower. As a result of this accident, Buckans was taken by ambulance to the UCDMC emergency room with severe back pain. The accident was reported to the Central Plant manager. However, the accident did not encourage management to take care of oil leaks underneath the cooling tower, and every day, Central Plant operators were risking injury under the cooling tower due to the daily routine of checking the oil level in the leaking oil gear boxes and the condition of the mechanical equipment.
   After the above-mentioned accident, William Buckans asked the plant managers and the maintenance superintendent to apply a nonskid material to the work area where Buckans was injured to prevent another—perhaps more serious—accident and injury. Buckans was absolutely devastated when both supervisors said no to his request. It was unspeakable and unbelievable that his superiors would force their subordinates to work in an extremely unsafe environment without any hesitation. Besides this accident, three other workers got hurt working under the cooling tower.
    
   In August 2003, my coworker, Mike Murphy (who quit the job in 2005), and I received from the central plant maintenance supervisor Tom Kavanaugh a Preventive Maintenance Work Order that required us to pressure wash all dirt and oil underneath the Cooling Tower into the storm drain. We refused to pressure wash the oil into the storm drain. We took pictures using Mike Murphy’s Sony Digital Camera and told Tom Kavanaugh that we had not pressure washed the oil into the storm drain. Several times, I approached an employee from the UC Davis Medical Center’s Environmental Health and Safety Department (EH&S) who visited the Central Plant frequently to sign Hazardous Work Permits (due to it being long ago, I have forgotten his name). The EH&S employee was not very anxious to discuss the oil problem under the Cooling Tower, and his response was, “Well if we get caught then we pay the price.”
    
    
   It would cost $5,000/unit to replace the defective units, according to the whistleblowing investigation report, a copy of which I received in 2007 from UC Davis Public Record Act Office. It was merely $110,000 and a drop in the ocean compared to the $70-80 million profit UC Davis Medical Center made by unlawfully operating the Central Plant since 1998. However, UC Davis management’s solution to this urgent safety and environment problem was a dilution, covering up the criminal activities and retaliating against anybody who mentioned the problem. This safety and environment hazard also created unbelievable hostility and an intolerable working environment in the Plant. Besides this, the UC Davis Management violated state and federal environmental law by discharging oil into the Sacramento River. It was so disgusting and immoral and unthinkable for any normal person or human being. 
    
   The UC Davis Medical Center did not want to fix the problem of discharging machine oil into the Sacramento River because, sometimes in 2003, the decision was made that the new cooling tower would be rebuilt at the cost of $3 million and it would be a waste of money to spend $110,000 replacing the defective leaking gear boxes. Thus, dilution as a solution was continued until the whistle-blowing complaint forced the angry and vicious UC Davis Medical Center administration to stop polluting the Sacramento River. In 2005, the new cooling tower construction was under way and the situation with the leaking oil from the defective gear boxes got worse. The cement berm protecting the soil around the old cooling tower from the leaking machine was destroyed and oil was flowing into the Sacramento River and the Cooling Tower.
    
   In August 2005, my coworker William Buckans filed a whistleblowing complaint with UC HR Vice President Office and, thereafter, management created enormous hostility aimed at William Buckans and myself. I was removed from the Central Plant in March 2007 due to a witch hunt orchestrated by the present UC Davis Health System HR Executive Director Stephen Chilcott, former UC Davis Chief Counsel Steven Drown, and the newly hired, in January 2007, UC General Counsel Charles Robinson, who was transferred to the University of California from the California Independent System Operator (ISO) to cover up further the UC frauds related to unlawful power sales. After I was removed from the Central Plant, the UCDMC managers and supervisors responsible for committing and condoning the crime were awarded with promotions and pay rises for the successful witch hunt.
    
   The pollution of the Sacramento River by the UC Davis Medical Center for 7 years without any hesitation was a serious crime, but it was allowed to continue because the corrupt UC administration was a lot stronger than state and federal laws.
    
   One can only imagine what University of California campuses, which use hundreds of different hazardous chemicals and hazardous materials, are dumping into drains and garbage cans to save money and to generate bonuses (extra pay) for the rotten and corrupted UC administration and management. 
    
    
   CONCLUSION
   Recently, I had no choice but to file a complaint with a U.S. Attorney against the UC Regents to bring criminal charges against them due to their alleged unlawful and criminal activities, which caused millions of dollars of losses in revenue for the university due to fraud, not to mention the violation of many employees’ civil and human rights.
   As I pointed in my complaint with the U.S Attorney office:
   “It would be futile for me to file a complaint or rely on the State of California’s Attorney General Office or any District Attorney in the State of California to go with the charges against the Regents of the University of California in general or against any employee of the University of California which participated in the destruction of my life on UC Regents behalf.”
         It clearly appears in the United States of America Federal Energy Regulatory Commission public record that two formers State of California Attorneys General, Bill Lockyer’s and Edmund Brown’s staff, participated in a cover up for the Regents of the University of California in a planned and deliberated scheme to defraud the U.S. Federal Government and the People of the United States of millions of dollars.
    
   I described the UC Regents’ fraud scheme in the enclosed, and provide a copy of the complaint I sent to the Internal Revenues Service (IRS) in March, 2016, together with copies of the complaints I submitted to the State of California Commission on Judicial Performance against Sacramento Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne Chang (former Governor Grey Davis Deputy Chief Legal Secretary ) and the complaint I submitted to the State Bar of California against 23 attorneys, most of whom are present or former employees of the University of California  “
   My normal life was completely devastated by the lawlessness and false principles of UC and UC Davis’s white-collar criminals and the uncontrolled corruption in the UC system.
   Recently, I also received a tip off with a video clip and photos showing that one cogeneration plant in the San Joaquin Valley is dumping waste water into the ground and massively venting steam into the atmosphere, which results in the discharge of many extra millions of metric tons of greenhouse gases into the California atmosphere, not to mention wasting millions of gallons of water, which the California population needs so badly
    
   Jaroslaw Waszczuk
   April  4.2016
   Lodi, CA   
    
    
    
    
    
    

    

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