Key meeting on Diablo Canyon should be held in SLO

Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of the State Lands Commission.

If your hand is up, you can safely skip the next few paragraphs. If it’s down, here’s a little background, courtesy of the commission’s website: “Established in 1938, the Commission manages the state’s 4 million acres of tidelands and submerged lands and the beds of navigable rivers, streams, lakes, bays, estuaries, inlets and straits.”

“OK, so what does that have to do with me?” you may be asking.

Here’s the answer: The commission is a key player in deciding the future of Diablo Canyon Power Plant.

PG&E leases coastal land for its water intake and discharge structures that are part of its once-through cooling system. The leases expire in 2018 and 2019. Diablo Canyon has applied to extend the leases until its operating licenses expire, in 2024 and 2025.

The leases are critical; in PG&E’s annual financial report, the company lays it out like this: “If the leases are not extended … then operations at Diablo Canyon would cease …”

The decision on whether to extend the leases rests with — you guessed it — the State Lands Commission, which includes State Controller Betty Yee, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Finance Director Michael Cohen.

The item is expected to be heard in June, but it’s unlikely to come down to a simple up-or-down vote. The commission will first debate whether PG&E should be required to conduct a California Environmental Quality Act review and, if so, what the scope of that review should be.

Given local interest in the issue, it’s been suggested the commission convene in San Luis Obispo in June.

We believe a meeting in SLO is an excellent idea, especially because the commission’s website notes that it meets at “different locations.” Those locations, though, appear to be major cities like San Diego, Sacramento, Los Angeles and the Bay Area. That seems a shame, when SLO is so conveniently located between L.A. and San Francisco. Plus, there’s a lot less traffic and cleaner air.

We’re not holding our breath, though, because according to the commission’s website, the June meeting already has been scheduled — in Sacramento.

In the unlikely event that State Lands commissioners change their minds, however, we promise them freshly picked bouquets of SLO-grown wildflowers — along with a meeting place overflowing with interested constituents.

This story was originally published March 17, 2016 at 5:03 PM with the headline "Key meeting on Diablo Canyon should be held in SLO."