Group drops Diablo Canyon lawsuit after learning it wouldn’t shut down the nuclear plant
An environmental group dropped a lawsuit that aimed to interrupt federal funding for Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant when it realized it wouldn’t succeed in shutting down the plant.
Friends of the Earth sued the U.S. Department of Energy in April for awarding $1.1 billion in federal funding to PG&E to keep operating the nuclear power plant.
PG&E will use the grant to repay a state loan authorized by Senate Bill 846 that covered some of the cost of operating the power plant.
The goal of the lawsuit was to derail the grant, “impede Diablo Canyon’s ability to continue operating” and offer “temporary or permanent relief from the dangerous, outdated facility,” a Friends of the Earth news release said.
However, Friends of the Earth ultimately decided to withdrew the lawsuit when it learned that the state would forgive the loan if PG&E spent or committed the funds — meaning the nuclear power plant could afford to continue operating with or without the federal grant, the news release said.
Why did Friends of the Earth sue?
The $1.1 billion grant was awarded through the U.S. Civil Nuclear Credit Program, which was created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund nuclear reactors slated to close for economic reasons.
The U.S. Department of Energy finalized the funding plan in January 2024, according to a news release from the agency.
PG&E will receive the funding in installments to support the power plant’s operating costs from 2023 to 2026, the agency said.
The grant will be used to repay a state loan that supports the nuclear power plant’s continued operations.
The amount of each payment will be decided by the actual costs of operating the plant for each time period. PG&E was scheduled to get its first payment in 2025 based on the cost of operating the plant in 2023 and 2024, the release said.
According to Friends of the Earth, the U.S. Department of Energy’s environmental impact review that accompanied the grant included outdated analysis from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission — which the group said violates the National Environmental Policy Act.
PG&E, however, told The Tribune in April that the Department of Energy followed federal policy throughout the process.
“The environmental impacts of operation at Diablo Canyon are well understood and have been documented extensively over the course of the plant’s operation,” Hosn said in a statement in April. “Because an award under the Department of Energy’s Civil Nuclear Credit Program does not change the existing operating configuration of Diablo Canyon or result in significant new circumstances or information relevant to environmental concerns, the Department of Energy properly relied on prior analyses to support its decision.”
Friends of the Earth withdrew the lawsuit when it learned that PG&E is not required to repay the state loan — so the plant would continue to operate even if the group lost the lawsuit, and as a result, the federal grant.
Even though Friends of the Earth dropped the lawsuit, the organization stood by its claim that the U.S. Department of Energy did not conduct appropriate environmental review.
“The Department of Energy has almost certainly violated federal law, yet circumvented meaningful judicial review due to a technicality,” Friends of the Earth legal director Hallie Templeton said in a news release.
