22 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY february 9-15, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com auction for leases for offshore wind energy, two off the coast of Eureka in Northern California, and three off the coast of Cambria, roughly aligned with the Diablo Canyon site. The leases were awarded to the five highest bidders for a total of $757 million. The three winning bidders on the Central Coast are Equinor Wind US LLC, Central California Offshore Wind LLC and Invenergy California Offshore LLC. “Today’s auction results demonstrate that floating offshore wind on the West Coast is both absolutely necessary to address the climate crisis, and economically viable for the companies that won today’s bids,” Assemblymember Dawn Addis, D-Morro Bay, said in a statement on Dec. 7. “What happens next is critical. I look forward to working with our coastal communities to ensure the auction winners are true partners.” To that end, Addis is a co-author of Assembly Bill 3, stating the Legislature’s intent to clarify which state entities will impact offshore wind projects and establish public participation and environmental protection requirements. As to continued operations at Diablo Canyon and whatever comes next, Addis says only, “We need more information.” Not everyone is so sanguine about the maneuvering to maintain operations at Diablo. Mark Z. Jacobson, director of Stanford’s Atmosphere/ Energy Program, believes, “There is no need to keep Diablo Canyon open. In fact, keeping it open slows the transition to clean, renewable electricity in California.” Jacobson calls the loan a subsidy that was “a complete waste of money” better spent on cheaper solar and wind. He adds that Diablo Canyon was “hogging the state’s biggest transmission line to the coast” and preventing offshore wind from being developed quickly. Jacobson notes that California imports hydropower from Oregon, the state of Washington, and Canada. “Any shortage of hydropower for California’s grid has been made up by imports from out of state. More in-state hydro this year merely means less import of hydro this year,” he says. Although the January rains made progress in filling California’s depleted reservoirs, and snow melt this spring will top some of them off, in Nevada, Lake Mead at the Hoover Dam is only a quarter full. It is a large source of California’s power supply. The waste of money is as much as $300 million, which the state is just giving to PG&E, says David Weisman. He’s been following the economic end of the deal for the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability. His calculation is the difference between the outlay of $1.4 billion and the $1.1 billion infrastructure act grant that PG&E is supposed to use to pay the state back. The grant is for “struggling” nuclear power companies, he said. “When the state loans the money, PG&E now owes and is now struggling. It’s all a shell game to make them eligible to apply.” Mothers for Peace was the first to cheer when PG&E announced it would close Diablo. Jane Swanson, who’s rallied with Mothers for Peace for many years, says their concerns are “number-one, seismic, and the other safety concerns can’t be specified because PG&E doesn’t share information very well.” The Hosgri fault was discovered in 1971, and the Shoreline fault was found in 2008: one while the plant was being built, and the other shortly before PG&E’s first application to extend the life of the nuclear power plant. According to former state senator Sam Blakeslee, who once worked for Exxon as an earthquake expert and then went on to represent the Central Coast in the Legislature, at least five earthquake hazards lie off Diablo Canyon; Shoreline is within 300 meters of its intake lines. Together and individually, they could deliver quakes that exceed the ground-motion standard the nuclear power plant was designed to withstand. In 2014, Blakeslee testified to then-Senator Barbara Boxer’s environment committee that the NRC was going down the same path that led to Fukushima, Deep Water Horizon, and the abrupt closure of San Onofre—relying too much on utilities to provide factual conclusions. State Senator Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, was one of eight senators absent the day voting took place for SB 846. In keeping with her reputation as an analytical and cautious politician, she said, “We must ensure that the lights stay on. I have continuously stressed that the Central Coast is apprised of all efforts at Diablo Canyon moving forward, but at this point in time, we are awaiting more information to ensure we can deliver on all fronts for Californians.” The next information drop comes when the NRC decides on PG&E’s request for a time waiver. The utility was supposed to file for a license at least five years before Diablo’s would run out, and as the NRC letter states, they expire for Diablo’s Unit 1 reactor on Nov. 2, 2024, and for Unit 2 on Aug. 26, 2025. That means the five-year windows have definitely closed. Nonetheless, PG&E is asking for the waiver, which would allow it to run on its current license until the new one is final. The NRC stated it would decide whether to let PG&E slide or not in March. Jean Yamamura is opinions editor at the Santa Barbara Independent, where this story first appeared. Sara Rubin contributed to this report. These video stills from PG&E show scenes from inside Diablo Canyon’s two reactors. California has had a moratorium on new nuclear power licenses since 1976; Diablo Canyon is the state’s last operating power plant. “Corners cannot be cut when it comes to nuclear safety.” Courtesy of PG&E Courtesy of PG&E
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