New Laws Fully Fund Diablo Canyon Closure & Lift Direct Access Cap

Gov. Jerry Brown Sept. 19 signed a bill to restore funds the California Public Utilities Commission cut from a closure cost settlement agreement for the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in San Luis Obispo County. The next day he signed another measure to expand direct access to power supplies by businesses.

SB 1090 will backfill the loss of local tax revenue from the plant after it closes in 2025 and provide additional money for employee retention and retraining until then. SB 1090, by Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel), also specifies that replacement power for the nuclear plant, which at peak capacity can supply up to 10 percent of the state’s power, must come from carbon-free resources.

Monning said the new law will provide the Central Coast region with “stability and security as the transition to closure of Diablo Canyon moves forward.” The plant, he notes, contributes about $1 billion to the local economy and provides thousands of jobs

Specifically, the measure directs the CPUC to restore $85 million of community impact mitigation funding cut from the closure cost settlement. It also requires fully funding the $350 million employee retention and retraining program outlined in the initial settlement.

When it approved the settlement early this year—which was reached by plant owner Pacific Gas & Electric, unions, and environmental groups—the CPUC eliminated the community mitigation funding and cut the employee program by $127 million.

In a controversial move, the CPUC also cut a $1.3 billion effort outlined in the initial settlement to replace the 2,240 MW nuclear plant’s power output with energy efficiency measures.

Under SB 1090, the CPUC has to make sure PG&E’s upcoming integrated resource plan will replace that power with efficiency, renewable energy, and other technologies that do not cause a net increase in carbon emissions.

“Diablo will be the first nuclear power plant retirement to be conditioned on full replacement with lower cost zero-carbon resources,” said Peter Miller, western energy project director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, a party to the settlement.

PG&E decided to close the aging nuclear plant, which opened in the mid-1980s, in the face of massive expenditures for seismic updates and other needed work.

Brown's signing into law SB 237 by Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) will lift the current cap on direct access to power for businesses. This will allow more businesses to purchase their electricity directly from suppliers and bypass their local utility or community choice program operator.

Hertzberg’s bill lifts the current cap on direct access, which is set at 13 percent of total load in investor-owned utility territories, to 15.4 percent of total load. The bill also requires the CPUC to study allowing further expansion of direct access and report its findings and any recommendations to the Legislature. —William J. Kelly

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New Laws Fully Fund Diablo Canyon Closure & Lift Direct Access Cap

William J. Kelly

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