The fate of an $85 million settlement for SLO County schools and agencies as a stopgap for the looming Diablo Canyon Power Plant closure will hang in the balance until 2018.
Scheduled to make a decision on PG&E’s application to decommission Diablo Canyon, the last nuclear power plant in the state, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) continued its planned Dec. 14 vote to a Jan. 11 meeting. The commissioners made the decision without any discussion about the eight-year, $1.76 billion closure plan or explaining their reasons for continuing the item.
CPUC Director of News and Outreach Terrie Prosper told New Times in an email on Dec. 19 that the item was held to January to allow time for “further consideration.” None of the five commissioners responded to an email request from New Times for comment.
Local officials expressed cautious optimism that the delay signaled that the commission was reconsidering the findings of its administrative law judge, Peter V. Allen, who ruled that statewide ratepayers shouldn’t fund the $85 million in PG&E payouts to SLO agencies as impact mitigation.
“Hope this is good news for us,” said Eric Prater, superintendent of the San Luis Coastal Unified School District (SLCUSD), in an email to New Times.
The SLCUSD is set to lose $8 million in annual property taxes from PG&E but would receive the largest slice of the closure settlement pie: $36 million.
In his proposed decision, Allen also rejected more than half of the funding for a PG&E employee retention program at Diablo Canyon, which PG&E officials claim is a critical component of keeping the power plant staffed and running until 2025.
Allen’s ruling goes to the CPUC as a recommendation, but the commissioners have the final vote on the closure plan.
PG&E announced in June 2016 that it would pursue the retirement of Diablo Canyon, citing the shift in California’s energy economy toward renewable sources like solar and wind. Δ
This article appears in Dec 21-31, 2017.
PG&E has NO viable plan or facility–on the Central Coast or elsewhere–for permanent storage of the MILLIONS of pounds of highly toxic radioactive waste piling up at the Diablo plant. Every year the old, inefficient plant operates, TONS more radioactive waste is added to the highly vulnerable, temporary storage field north of the nuclear reactors.
There is NO denying the FACT that by all nuclear industry standards and regulations, Diablo does not have a safe and reliable facility for permanent storage of the toxic waste. In fact, there is NO ACCEPTED PLAN whatsoever on what to ultimately do with the waste. The long term cost of storing and monitoring the waste at Diablo in the current facility is staggering and, as it is now, will far exceed the cost of building every single elementary school, university, hospital, fire department and police station on the entire Central Coast. It is an expanding bill that will weigh heavily upon generation upon generation of Central Coast residents. And each day the plant remains open, the bill escalates at an alarming rate.
And, as PG&E officials have stated repeatedly, it makes no financial sense to keep the plant running. Furthermore, hundreds of people will be employed in the long process of decommissioning the plant in a safe manner. The Central Coast should look forward to being at the forefront and a leader in the proper and safe decommissioning of abandoned nuclear plants and dealing with nearby radioactive waste sites.
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