Devin Nunes wants to keep Diablo Canyon open. PG&E says its plans haven’t changed
A California congressman has proposed a bill that would require Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant to stay open, but PG&E isn’t stopping its decommissioning process just yet.
U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, who represents the 22nd District in the Central Valley, on July 9 introduced HR 4394, also known as the Clean Energy Protection Act, which would require the state to issue the permits needed for the power plant to stay open.
PG&E announced a joint agreement to close Diablo Canyon Power Plant, the last plant producing nuclear power in California, in June 2016. The closure is expected to take place once permits for the plant expire in 2024 and 2025.
Nunes, who did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Tribune, wrote in an email to supporters last week that his bill is meant to stave off “a bleak energy future of even higher electricity prices and more unreliable energy production.”
“If the Democrats believed their own warnings about an approaching climate apocalypse, they’d be actively building nuclear power plants — a clean, efficient, and safe energy source with zero carbon emissions,” he wrote. “Instead, they are forcing the shutdown of California’s last operational nuclear power plant.”
Nunes cited last summer’s rolling blackouts and PG&E price hikes as examples of California’s “sustained energy crisis.”
On Tuesday, PG&E spokesperson Suzanne Hosn told The Tribune that the utility company is aware of the bill, and would follow whatever the state decides. However, she said, PG&E has not halted the decommissioning process.
“California has really been pretty clear about the future of nuclear power in this state,” Hosn said. “So, there’s a whole lot that would have to happen on the state side — I mean just the simplest way to put it is PG&E’s plans haven’t changed.”
PG&E previously said Diablo Canyon’s closure is at least in part due to the state’s push for more renewable energy production, as well as projected lower demand from consumers as they switch to solar panels.
A key factor of the agreement to close the plant was a requirement to replace the plant’s energy output with reliable and cost-effective clean energy sources — something critics say the state has since dropped the ball on.
As far as Nunes’ bill goes, Hosn said California has already spoken on the issue of whether Diablo should stay open.
Hosn noted that the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates public utilities such as PG&E, approved the joint proposal to close the power plant in 2018.
She also noted that the California State Legislature passed Senate Bill 1090 that same year, which approved the proposal to give San Luis Obispo County communities $85 million to mitigate the impacts of Diablo Canyon closing.
“The plan to retire Diablo has been approved by the California Public Utilities Commission and the state legislature,” Hosn said. “So, our focus remains on safely and reliably operating Diablo, until the end of its current operating licenses and planning for successful decommissioning.”
This isn’t the first time a legislator has attempted to keep the power plant open.
California Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham planned to propose a bill in 2019 that aimed to reclassify nuclear power to allow Diablo Canyon’s production to count toward California’s target for renewable energy.
That bill was meant to encourage an outside party to take over the plant during PG&E’s bankruptcy proceedings that year and continue operating for the next several decades..
Cunningham’s bill died in 2020.
This story was originally published July 16, 2021 at 4:20 PM.
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