I largely agree with you, Randy. I think framing it as nuclear having it's place-- not being the silver bullet but also not being an untouchable pariah-- is the right way we need to move forward. SMRs can reduce construction time and capital upfront costs, and as clean energy / storage advances the amount needed for that baseline power will be smaller anyway so  having them strategically geographically located will be beneficial towards that. And energy storage is advancing quickly-- Elon or not (I think it's important not to put our hopes on a single visionary / company, while of course owing thanks for the progress he ushered in via Tesla breaking into the market before the major automakers were ready to do so). 

As for your comments on California and the Interior vs. State Natural Resources Office vs. DOE vs. etc... Is there an argument to be made, in your opinion, that the past decade or so in CA has created the need for some more synergy across CA departments? Forest management and utility asset planning never really made sense to have under a single roof, but in that geography at this point in time it's hard to deny that they need to go hand-in-hand, and the separation of responsibilities into different offices may only be making that more difficult.