The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday voted unanimously to authorize utility Pacific Gas & Electric to close its Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in 2025.
The plan approved by the five-member commission does not provide all the ratepayer financing PG&E and partnering nongovernmental groups had proposed in their 2016 “Joint Proposal” on shutting down California’s last operational atomic energy facility. In particular, the state zeroed out the $85 million requested to mitigate the community impact of the closure.
“Since the full proposal was not approved, in line with our agreement, PG&E will be meeting to confer with our labor, community and environmental group partners in the days ahead about the decision, our next steps and the path forward,” the utility said in a statement Thursday after the CPUC decision. It did not elaborate on what those next steps might involve.
Pacific Gas & Electric plans to shut down Diablo Canyon’s two reactors as their U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission operating licenses expire: Unit 1 in 2024 and Unit 2 in 2025. The need for the power from the plant will be significantly reduced by that point, according to PG&E, which said it would focus on renewable, greenhouse-gas-free forms of energy production.
Commissioners made clear their intention that Diablo Canyon’s closure would not lead to an increase in GHG emissions from other power sources in the state.
“There’s no retreat from our commitment to have no GHG emissions in the short term or long term,” Commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen said before the vote.
Diablo Canyon, which opened in 1985 in San Luis Obispo County, produces 18,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity each year through its two pressurized water reactors. It employs roughly 1,500 workers and provides tens of millions of dollars in annual property taxes to the county, among other economic benefits.
The Joint Proposal sought to offset the upcoming loss of jobs and community support provided by the facility. The commission approved recommendations from a CPUC administrative law judge that includes some, but not all, of that requested funding from utility ratepayer fees: $241.2 million in expenses linked to the plant closure; $211.3 million for employee retention over the next eight years; $11.3 million for employee retraining; and $18.6 million for Diablo Canyon license renewal costs.
Left out was the $85 million in community impact mitigation support from utility ratepayers for San Luis Obispo County and local cities and schools. The commission noted in a press release, though, that PG&E could employ “shareholder funds” for the program.
“In the absence of legislative authorization, the community impacts mitigation program is not approved,” Commission Chairman Michael Picker said. “Utility rates should be used to provide utility services and not government services, no matter how beneficial those services may be.”
The California Public Utilities Commission is in the middle of reviewing the $4.7 billion 2014 settlement over the 2013 permanent closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in San Diego County. The settlement, which would require ratepayers to fund $3.3 billion of the closure costs, was reopened in 2016 after it was determined that former commission President Michael Peevey had in 2013 conducted ex-parte talks on the matter with a then-executive for SONGS majority owner Southern California Edison (SCE).
Southern California Edison and consumer groups have apparently reached a settlement on the closure costs, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Thursday. Details of the agreement have not been made public, and any deal would have to be approved by the Public Utilities Commission.
