With the impending closure of Diablo Canyon Power Plant, I’m starting to get worried about what this really means for San Luis Obispo County.
More than 1,500 jobs will be lost when Diablo Canyon is gone. This not only impacts the lives of those workers and their families, but it also impacts the small-business owners in our area who rely on local customers. Likewise, the loss of tax revenue to our county could hurt our ability to receive things like a speedy response to an emergency.
That’s something I’m particularly worried about. We live in a fire-prone area; our neighbors just to the north of us are battling one as I type this. What happens when funding is cut to fire protection or public safety?
Public safety isn’t the only thing that will suffer. We have some of the best school districts in the country. What happens to our schools when the education budget gets slashed by millions of dollars? With Lockheed Martin and Weatherby leaving SLO County and our new ranking as a top 10 worst place to open a business, I’m concerned that we may not recover if we keep losing businesses and hurting our economy.
Zoe Duty
Atascadero
This article appears in Aug 30 – Sep 9, 2018.
The Diablo Canyon reactors were built to last until 2024 and 2025. This was known from the beginning. There was plenty of time to plan for these closures.
Not only has there been plenty of time to plan toward a 2024 shut-down, the flag was raised two years ago and the county should begin communicating their plans for employees and the impact. What if the county organized a retraining program in support of the solar industry. BTW what happen to the 10’s of millions of dollars PGE was going to pay as compensation for the loss of economic growth?? Is that still being negotiated?
We’re further strangling our economy and forcing people out by refusing to build enough housing to meet our needs.