The agreement says that PG&E will renounce plans to seek renewed operating licenses for Diablo Canyon’s two reactors and allow them to go offline in 2024 and 2025 respectively.
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“California’s energy landscape is changing dramatically, with energy efficiency, renewables, and storage being central to the state’s energy policy”, Tony Earley, PG&E’s chief executive, said in a prepared statement.
Pacific Gas and Electric plans to close the Diablo Canyon Power Plant near Avila Beach by 2025, the company announced June 21.
Tuesday’s announcement comes after a long debate over the fate of the plant, which sits near several natural disaster fault lines. At Newsom’s urging, the State Lands Commission, of which he is a member, was preparing to require that PG&E undertake an environmental impact review before extending leases beyond 2018 for land where Diablo Canyon’s water intake and discharge structures sit. After this week’s announcement, a post on the group’s Facebook page stated, “Today’s announcement about the looming closure of Diablo Canyon saddens us and also deepens our resolve”.
Rhea Suh, president of NRDC, said the joint agreement is “a tribute to what can be accomplished when we rally together around a common goal”.
The Sierra Club, for example, is debating whether to revamp its longtime strict opposition to nuclear power as it campaigns more intensively for the reduction of fossil fuel-producing coal and gas plants.
The Bloomberg estimate doesn’t include potential costs of new transmission lines, back-up resources for solar, or potential tax credits from renewable energy investments, Barnett said.
Under the terms of the proposal, PG&E will retire Diablo Canyon at the expiration of its current Nuclear Regulatory Commission operating licenses.
Diablo Canyon’s security concerns are less acute than those at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) about 250 miles to the south bordering the coastal city of San Clemente.
The closure agreement calls for determining which employees will be needed to decommission the plant and which can be transferred to other jobs within PG&E, with severance payments planned for the rest.
Under the joint proposal, PG&E plans to replace DC with a portfolio of energy efficiency, renewables and energy storage consistent with California energy policy. They said it demonstrates the choice was not between nuclear power and climate-changing fossil fuels.
“It’s going to cost less overall as a total package than if you just continued to operate Diablo Canyon”, Earley said.
A recent analysis by the International Energy Agency found that in order for the world to meet the global warming limit enshrined in the Paris climate agreement in December, nuclear’s share of global energy production will need to grow from around 11 percent in 2013 to 16 percent by 2030.
“Hopefully, this timeline will give time to see the transition to clean, renewable energy”, Capps said, adding that “we want to make sure the area is satisfied as this major transition proceeds”.
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The Natural Resources Defense Council, which co-signed the joint proposal, estimated PG&E customers would save at least $1 billion.
