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4A Daily News – Saturday, June 11, 2011 Opinion D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Speeders Editor: Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer’s home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. 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Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (415) 403-0100. Fax (202) 224- 0454. The art of the corporate apology Commentary Pacific Gas and Electric Company has recently made a public "apology" in newspapers throughout the state. As a school principal I often had the opportunity to try to help students patch up their differ- ences, often after vicious name calling or a dispute over who would go first. After my first attempt the students, usually both boys, would look away from each other, put out their right hands, and give a dead fish shake while mumbling some- thing about being sorry. After several promptings and ques- tions I was usually able to con- vince them it was acceptable to look their former dire enemy in the eye, shake with a firm hand, and show contrition while apol- ogizing. Someone needs to encourage P.G. &E. to apologize like they mean it. Just look at their open "apology." That letter is a remarkable example of corpo- rate double speak and deception and it can only be read with a chuckle, unless you are a rate payer and are upset by their duplicity. I thought it might be instructive to analyze the open letter. The bold face heading states the company apologizes. P.G. &E. is apologizing nine months after the explosion in San Bruno that destroyed several homes and took several lives. Most married couples learn early on to apologize to each other before they go to bed the night of their disagreement. One wonders what may have happened to delay the P.G. &E. apology; per- haps corporate pride got in the way; it may be that regulatory needling and federal investiga- tions may have slowly prodded it out of the company. Perhaps PG&E subscribes to the better late than never code. In any case, let’s take the apology at face value. PG&E is sorry for some- thing. The next sentence states “There are no excuses when it comes to safety.” Then two sen- tences later the letter states “fed- eral investigators report that this explosion occurred when a faulty longitudinal seam weld was ruptured….” They do not admit that the report was true, only that something was report- ed. This is followed by “Con- tributing factors are still being determined” which sounds a lit- tle bit like looking for excuses to me. The company states “we want you to know how deeply sorry we are about last year’s tragic explosion…” There is no men- tion of loss of eight lives and 38 houses, but the company appar- ently thinks the explosion was not good. Most likely their attor- neys suggested avoiding being sorry for any damage they may ultimately be responsible for. The company, which so far only admits sorrow, then tells us steps it has or will be taking to assure our safety. They are “making improvements in the operations of [their natural] gas systems.” They have changed their top leadership, implemented more stringent standards for gas oper- ations, are providing more train- ing for staff, and are “launching a major initiative to replace or upgrade many older gas lines.” It is not clear if we are at the breaking the bottle of Cham- paign part of the launching or if anything beside a ceremony or announcement has taken place; we do not know what “many” means; and we are not sure why the company had to wait until after the San Bruno explosion to take such seemingly logical safety steps. What we do know from other sources is that P.G. &E. had to rent space at the Cow Palace to sort through their apparently complex file systems to deter- mine what their safety records might or might not show. It might have been more expedient to use Wiki Leaks to accomplish this task. The sorting out the records was probably complicated by the move. If you have attended an FFA event at the Cow Palace, you know how huge that facility is. At FFA events you have to careful not to step in cattle byproducts; I am not sure if P.G. &E. was able to do that, although to this writer it appears the company is attempting to toss some of those byproducts around. Apparently their Her- culean effort was not successful because as recently as June 2nd, P.G.&E. reported that its efforts to find relevant files will conflict with its efforts to provide a safer services to us, the consumers of P.G.&E. gas, I mean natural gas. This sounds like a bunch of cat- tle byproduct to me. It seems like P.G. &E. is too big to multitask. That will prob- ably continue to be the case since the two new “leaders” of the company are not women, the gender which has been known for its ability to multitask since the dawn of time. The company has tentatively agreed to pay a $3 million fine without admitting any liability; of course, they will keep looking through the files to see if they have some liability, and they will let us know as soon as they can if that is the case. Don’t hold your breath. If our rates for natural gas increase as a result of the compa- ny’s apparently new focus on Joe Harrop safety, rate payers will have a beef. First, the natural gas mar- ket is soft right now; even Alas- ka has not been able to build its well publicized natural gas pipe line because of that softness. That means a price increase would be hard to justi- fy on the basis of the market. Secondly, these new efforts at safety and maintenance of natural gas lines should have been an ongoing part of the normal program. A typical householder knows regular mainte- nance is important for his/her own safety and peace of mind; a gigantic “well managed” company like P.G. &E. should know that as well. The costs for these apparently new efforts at safety should come out of the profits of the company, and not be placed on the backs of ratepayers. Data reveal that stockholders netted over $1 billion last year. Rate payers would have trouble accepting profit before safety. Surely if stockholders had not been asleep at the wheel they would have settled for less to make sure they were investing in a safe company. One the one hand, there seems to be a positive note in the PG. &E. letter. “Your trust and confidence …is critically impor- tant to us. We believe we will earn it only by taking action and delivering results.” On the other hand, this statement sounds a lit- tle like “I will still love you in the morning.” Joe Harrop is a retired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. South Jackson Street has become a 100 mile a second highway they take so fast nobody can get across the street. Kids almost getting hit because of careless drivers, stop signs must be put up on every block and corner to slow down these cracknuts. Orange Street, too, has become a raceway. Most of the people take Orange Street at 90 miles a second as well. I want a stop sign at every corner on South Jackson Street to put a slow on all the careless drivers. So please look at this raceway on South Jackson and put up stop signs at every block. Dave Eric, Red Bluff Save the 4th Editor: The 4th of July celebration has been a longstanding event in our community. I am proud to be a member of the volunteer committee that banded together a couple of years ago to pre- serve this event, we have pro- duced a spectacular fireworks show that has been enjoyed by so many and has become truly our – Tehama County residents — celebration. Two years ago we started with $0, zero, nada, zip. Last year, with the support of so many businesses and personal donations by hundreds of our citizens we were able to earn the funds necessary to pull it off again. This year again we must find the funds necessary to make our annual event a reality. We need your help. We have just a little under a month to find the sup- port needed. I am writing to exhort the citizens of Tehama County to please help carry on this tradition so loved by our community. It is not just our obligation and responsibility but rather our duty to preserve this cele- bration of Independence Day which is the reason we are here today. We must honor those that have served our country and given their lives so that we may stand here and still live in freedom. We need to be con- stantly reminded of our God given gift of freedom, and of those who gave all to make sure future genera- tions continue to know life in a free, democra- tic society. So if you know or don?t know me, I personally implore you, to please join in the efforts by donating in as a sponsorship or personal donations, and with your time and effort as volun- teer committee member to raise the needed funds and to ensure the future of this event in our community. Please donate any amount right now. Remembering those who have passed is only half of the task that is before us today. We must also carry their love, honor and duty forward to the future generations that will pass. Our children must know who they were, what they did and why they did it. To do anything less, will be a disservice to their sac- rifice and their memories. Your Turn Those that are gone created a clear path- way for us to continue on -- we must never waiver from that path of freedom and democracy. Take their memories, take their dreams and walk forward shouldering the cause of freedom -- carry it high and proud, they did and now you must walk forward for them and for our children. "God of our Fathers — from war's alarms, by Thy strong arm, our ever sure defense — fill our lives with love and grace divine, and glory, laud and praise be ever Thine." May the Lord give you all a beautiful week filled with his joy, peace and grace. Ali Abbassi, Red Bluff