by Amanda Witherell
That’s the only explanation I can come up with. They love me. They’re fascinated by everything I write about them and they’re dying to get to know me better. That must be it.
Or at least that’s what it seemed like the other night at this little shindig I went to at the Monte Cristo Cafe down at the Embarcadero. It was the Spring Banquet for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, which would be an otherwise snooze for someone like me who knows and cares little about the intricacies of engineering. But the entertainment for the evening was a discussion on the “renaissance of nuclear power,” about which I just wrote a story. The pro-nukes speaker was Jasmina Vujic, a prof in UC Berkeley’s Nuclear Engineering program, which totally gets money from PG&E. The anti-nuke voice was Dan Hirsch from Committee to Bridge the Gap, which wins the award for Best Non-Profit Name, “Intrigue” category.
Now, when I RSVPed for the event, I noticed the contact had a PG&E email address, but I was undaunted even though they just turned down my request for a tour of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant because I didn’t have a “clear business need.” (What business needs do qualify? I asked in several emails and phone calls. Response still pending.)