Edhat Staff
By the edhat staff
State legislators approved a proposal Thursday to keep the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant open past its original 2025 decommissioning date.
Governor Newsom proposed allocating up to $1.4 billion for a forgivable loan to PG&E to keep the plant running another five to 10 years to strengthen the state’s power grid due to environmental changes and lack of renewable energy replacements.
Diablo Canyon currently generates about 8.6% of the state’s total electricity supply and is the state’s last remaining nuclear power plant.
The California State Assembly approved the measure 67-3 and the Senate passed it 31-1 in the early morning hours on the last day of the year to approve bills.
“Diablo Canyon produces nearly 10% of our state’s electricity. It’s baseload power, it’s carbon free, it employs thousands of local residents — and we desperately need it to keep the lights on in California. I am proud of and grateful to my colleagues for their support on this absolutely critical measure. After years of hard work, Diablo Canyon’s importance to our state’s residents has finally been recognized,” said Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham, the bill’s principal coauthor.
The bill also includes $160 million in new funding that will be credited to San Luis Obispo County. More specifically, $10 million in 2023-24 and $150 million in 2024-25 for conservation, environmental enhancements and access to the Diablo Lands and economic development consistent with decommissioning efforts. The Natural Resources Agency, working with the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), will sign off on a plan for the money by March 2023, according to REACH — the Regional Economic Action Coalition, a San Luis Obispo-based economic development nonprofit.
“This is a huge win for the Central Coast and shows what speaking loudly with a united voice can accomplish in state and national decisions. This money has the potential to realize the broadly adopted community vision for the region’s post-Diablo future: preserving the 12,000 acres of pristine lands while transforming the plant into a future-oriented engine of economic growth and innovation,” said REACH President/CEO Melissa James.
Congressman Salud Carbajal stated there is a critical need for California to be equipped to handle increasing impacts of climate change, but the right decision in a crisis could still be the wrong one.
“That is why, from the first suggestions of this extension in April, I have made it clear that consistent outreach to the Central Coast on the safety and environmental concerns was necessary to accompany this proposed extension. I appreciate the steps that have been taken to engage with our community in recent months, but this is not the end. In fact, there are still many decisions that remain to be made before the plant is approved for extended operations,” said Rep. Carbajal. “I believe the shorter-term extension approved by the Legislature will help meet one of my top concerns: ensuring that this move does not jeopardize future renewable energy projects like our offshore wind lease in Morro Bay nor the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary.”
Most of the state lawmakers are hoping to produce all electricity from clean sources by 2045, but concerns continue to be raised about energy storage, lack of renewable sources, and the threat of power outages.
Wow! It’s amazing to see that our state representatives gave a nearly unanimous vote of no confidence in so-called “green” energy. Now we’re looking at what will likely end up being a minimum of 10 more years of operation for diablo canyon. What will they do next, restart san onofre?
Chip you can celebrate, time to get a car with a bigger engine and less gas mileage.
The vote was not one of no confidence but merely one of political prudence. However if deadlines are not set and pressure is not kept on, the ultimate goal is not going to be achieved. By pressing SCE and begrudgingly allowing short extensions progress will be made on the inevitable alternatives. We should just hope that nothing really bad happens at Diablo in the next 5 years.
So nuclear is safer & more green than fossil fuels?
Did you read that hydro power is in jeopardy as well with the drought. Hydro power accounts for 7% of the nations electricity and is used to back up solar & wind energy.
Soon they will need to decide to increase water rates and perhaps limit the agriculture to save water for power.
@SBLET… Imagine if the $40 +BILLION (and we’re still writing checks) to Ukraine was invested in our Infrastructure… Like DESAL PLANTS !
The projected Electricity demand if CA is to run all trucks, cars, machinery with electricty in 2025 would take 20 new Diablo Cyn size nuclear plants to meet or 3.1 million acres of new solar panels. About 1/3 of the Mojave Desert lands within CA not under federal protections
Nothing is without consequence, even solar
From a pro-solar think tank via Harvard Business Review
https://hbr.org/2021/06/the-dark-side-of-solar-power
Here is another interesting fact/comparison.
At current capacity, CA solar energy already exceeds capacity of the CA grid…. but only at mid-day, causing solar farms to be taken offline and requiring massive massive battery farms to store
Nuclear is far easier to moderate down or up and it doesn’t need any storage
COMMON SENSE PREVAILS
Hear! Hear! And how about additional de-sal plants as well!?
Diablo is base load power, about 18,000,000 MWh of clean and reliable electricity annually, and those gigantic pump that feed the CA Aqueduct water to LA use 6,000,000 MWhto 9,500,000 MWh and run 24/7. There is no “renewable energy” on earth that can provide that stable power to provide 20 million+ people with water reliably 24/7. We need to get the politics out of engineering, ie. PG&E and SCE, and let the true professionals fight the whims of mother nature to insure our access to cheap energy, clean water and reasonably priced food.
Alfred Holzheu
@7:21 AM
Previous notions about cheap energy have brought us to this point. It’s not cheap energy if you consider the subsidies, side effects, and potential consequences. Fission power is dangerous, expensive, and slow to come on line. We will not have truly cheap energy until we have fusion up and going. In the interim, other green energy options are the only sane path ahead.
Clean water will be scarce worldwide, also, because of our abuse of the environment.
Face it – pure “engineering”, without proper consideration of other factors, brought us such debacles as the “atoms for peace” ideas for using nuclear explosions to dig canals.
Engineers are often thrilled to discover the *can* do something, but all too often don’t consider whether the *should* do it.
Excellent post. Thank you for your reason and citing actual facts.
“We need to get the politics out of engineering…” Wow. Didn’t know Technocracy advocates were still around. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy_movement See “Things to Come” for a silly view of the idea that scientists should run world. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028358/ The idea that “scientists” will objectively decide the future of society in a democracy is at the best naive.
https://mavensphotoblog.com/2011/08/27/the-big-lift-a-photo-tour-of-the-state-water-projects-pumps-at-edmonston/
The Edmonston pumping station is an engineering marvel, the largest in the world. 14 80,000hp pumps Wow!
There are 4th generation reactors as well
As thorium reactors that don’t melt down. Instead we send $100B to foreign country where most is siphoned off from the people.
I’ve got solar and 2 teslas. Please keep in mind the sun and wind are renewable- solar and wind last between 10-15 years (inverters much less) while nuclear 4th gen plants last 100 years and don’t melt down. We need to put all the green funds into safe nuclear. Windmills need 1,000 gallons of oil and hydraulic fluid every 9 months. Imagine changing oil on an offshore turbine.
Lastly- our grid can’t handle the EVs we have. Yesterday my Tesla posted a message asking me not to charge between 4-9. One day that’ll be mandatory and your car will be shut down by the California govt just the same way they shut the beaches.
More on EVs. They’re great for single family home owners with disposable wealth not for everyone. https://mobile.twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1565084729434468352
Nonsense and FUD. There’s no such thing as an operating commercial “4th gen” fission plant anywhere. Not charging your EV between 4 and 9 is no inconvenience at all. You’re just spreading the carbon propaganda.