Newsom aide defends plan to keep California’s last nuclear plant open with loan to PG&E
Facing a series of questions from state senators Thursday, a top aide to Gov. Gavin Newsom defended a proposal to extend the operation of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in San Luis Obispo County, saying it provided a cost effective and cleaner response to the state’s rising energy needs.
Cabinet Secretary Ana Matosantos said keeping the state’s only nuclear plant open would help offset impacts from climate change and buy additional time to develop more renewable energy sources.
Pacific Gas & Electric, which operates the plant, would keep it open up to five years beyond its current closing date and would receive a loan of as much as $1.4 billion from the state. The plant, located on the Central Coast near San Luis Obispo, is currently set to close in 2025.
During a hearing Thursday of the Senate’s Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee, members questioned the push to approve the deal less than a week before the legislative session ends Aug. 31.
There is an additional time crunch: Under the State Constitution, a bill has to be printed and published in its final form for at least 72 hours before a vote, except in the case of an emergency.
“I’m just really frustrated,” Sen. Brian Dahle, R-Bieber, told Matosantos. “We need a lot of information in a short time.”
Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, tried to get some of that information from Matosantos through a series of questions during the more than three-hour hearing.
Why did the proposal need to move forward right now? said Laird, who represents the part of the state that includes the plant.
Because PG&E faces a Sept. 6 deadline to apply for federal funding, Matosantos responded.
A representative from the Natural Resources Defense Council, who also testified at the hearing, questioned whether PG&E would be eligible for the federal money. But Matosantos said staff believed that it would.
The proposed deal also faced biting testimony from representatives of other groups. One questioned why the plan called for waiving state environmental requirements while another said it looked like it would enrich PG&E’s shareholders.
“If it quacks like a profit, it is a profit,” said Mark Toney, the executive director of The Utility Reform Network.
In an emailed statement, a PG&E spokesperson said the company was “focused on providing reliable, low-cost, emission-free energy to Californians, while safely operating one of the top performing plants in the country.”
When asked if the company supported the plan, the spokesperson responded: “We follow the energy policies of the state. We’re ready to support should there be a change in policy.”
While the opposition to the plan was strong, keeping Diablo Canyon open also drew support from several speakers, including members of the public who provided feedback in person and over the phone.
Some cited a 2021 report from a team organized by Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It found delaying retirement of the plant would reduce carbon emissions and improve the reliability of the state’s power system.
Earlier in the hearing, Karen Douglas, an energy advisor to the Governor’s Office, told senators the plan was motivated by a concern that the state would not have enough available energy in 2025 to meet demands during certain times in the day.
In 2021, more than 25 percent of California’s power came from wind and solar energy. And the state is supposed to increase its renewable sources rapidly.
But those forms of energy are not always reliable. Keeping open the plant, which accounted for 8.5% of power generated by the state last year, means using fewer resources that have higher greenhouse gas emissions, Matosantos said.
That argument was echoed by public testimony that not extending the plant’s life would cause greater health risks to residents.
Dahle, who is running against Newsom for governor, told Matosantos that it felt like the state always seemed to be in a “crisis mode” when it came to energy.
When questioned by another senator, Matosantos said the Governor’s Office still planned to accelerate California’s transition to renewable resources.
Still, the proposal did not rule out the possibility the Legislature could later ask to keep the plant open even longer.
Senators did not vote on the plan during Thursday’s hearing. Its future is unclear.
This story was originally published August 26, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Newsom aide defends plan to keep California’s last nuclear plant open with loan to PG&E."
