People’s Lobby Press Release March 25, 1976

JOYCE KOUPAL RESIGNS FROM LOS ANGELES COUNTY

ENERGY COMMISSION

Joyce Koupal, Los Angeles County Energy Commissioner and Co-Director of the Western Bloc Safe Energy Initiative Campaign₁ today resigned from the Los Angeles County Energy Commission. In a letter to Commission Chairman John Foster, Ms. Koupal. charged today that, “today’s Commission hearings on Proposition 15, the Nuclear Safeguards Initiative, are a sham and a disservice to the people of California.”

In a statement before the Commission this morning Ms. Koupal moved that the Commission extend its hearings until May 1st, in order to assemble a hearing panel of experts to “ consider the atomic energy issue before making a recommendation to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. I say this because I, as a citizen, have a conflict of interest on this issue, I say this because both my husband and myself have worked for safe nuclear power. And I say this because we know, in a very personal way, the issue which we are addressing.”

Ms. Koupal went on to say that, “My husband and I have worked to qualify safe energy initiatives in 16 states, and my husband has spent his life in pursuit of true se1f-government and a humane society and is now dying of cancer₀ My husband will die of the very disease that we consider when we discuss atomic energy and its consequences.”

In addition, Ms. Koupal stated that, “I know that in spite of the conflicts of interest, and the billions of taxpayers’ dollars that have been poured into the nuclear industry, we must seriously consider the question of whether atomic power is safe, reliable

and economical. And I know that this commission, by its hastily conceived hearings, is only paying lip service to the issue.”

Concluded Ms. Koupal, “Our kangaroo court system of government is once again in motion, and I will not be a party to it.”