| Independently Powered Energy News

Updated Dec. 15

A group of environmental organizations warned the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that fast tracking Pacific Gas & Electric’s renewal of its operating license for its 2.2 GW nuclear power plant would violate federal law. PG&E requested that the NRC speed up its license process for its Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant at the end of October.

The utility “has spent the past six years preparing to mothball the reactors and has saved money by not investing in future operations,” Jane Swanson, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace Board president, said last week. The utility “can’t reverse course and revive a license renewal application that was declared dead years ago.”

Back in 2009, PG&E sought to relicense its Diablo nuclear power plant. In 2018, it withdrew its application with NRC’s approval after reaching a state multi-party settlement to shut the plant in 2025 because continuing its operations was deemed uneconomic.

Accelerating a review of PG&E’s previous license application at the NRC would violate the National Environmental Policy Act, according to a statement co-authored by Mothers for Peace, Friends of the Earth, Environmental Working Group, and Committee to Bridge the Gap.

If the utility continues running its nuclear plant on the central coast beyond 2025, when its operating license expires, it must “file an entirely new and up-to-date license renewal application, which the NRC must thoroughly analyze by the full letter of the law before reaching a decision,” Friends of the Earth Legal Director Hallie Templeton said. That includes preparation of an updated environmental impact statement.

The Dec. 6 protest letter was the environmental groups’ second joint letter to the NRC in three weeks.

Gov. Gavin Newsom successfully pushed for legislation earlier this year that offers PG&E a forgivable loan of $1.4 billion to help extend Diablo operations to 2030. He and a majority of lawmakers concluded that was necessary because worsening heat waves have led to much higher projections for future grid constraints and because of supply chain bottlenecks impacting renewable and energy storage projects.

The Department of Energy said last month that PG&E qualifies for $1 billion in federal funding to keep Diablo running under DOE's Civil Nuclear Credit Program.

Other groups protested the California Public Utilities Commission's ratification of the Office of Infrastructure Safety’s approval of PG&E’s safety certificate and its signing off on its 2022 wildfire mitigation plan on Dec. 15. The same day, PG&E filed an application with the CPUC to recover $1.36 billion under its 2022 wildfire mitigation plan, the utility reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Reclaim Our Power said if the CPUC's approves the certificate, which it calls “a license to burn,” PG&E would be allowed to collect its costs for the harm it caused. “How can anyone look back at the damage to our communities caused by PG&E and label the utility ‘safe,'” Spokesperson Pete Woiwode said Dec. 12.

In 2019, legislation was passed that created a wildfire fund investor-owned utilities can access to be reimbursed for damages paid to victims of fires their power lines started.

An active safety certification deems the utility actions reasonable. The office, created in 2016, is within the California Natural Resources Agency and responsible for reducing utility-related wildfire risk.

A state auditor’s report from March found that the Safety Infrastructure office’s process for approving utility wildfire plans fails to ensure improvements are being made in regions with high fire threats.

Reclaim our Power and some ratepayer advocates also took issue with the CPUC’s decision on Dec. 1 to remove PG&E from its safety oversight . The utility was placed under enhanced oversight last year because in 2020 it cut back trees and other vegetation around power lines in places with lower fire risks instead of in the riskiest areas.

The Utility Reform Network said the removal of safety oversight was “great news for PG&E shareholders and Wall Street investors” but “bad news for PG&E ratepayers and California residents who like to breathe clean air.”