PG&E pushing free Diablo Canyon nuclear energy

by James Heddle – EON

Meanwhile, up the California coast at the state’s last operating nuclear plant Diablo Canyon, the facility’s bankrupt, convicted felon and admitted mass murdering utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has come up with a new scam.  In an opaque and convoluted ‘procurement bundling proposal’ to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) the utility is offering nuclear-generated energy to CCA’s at bargain rates. 

The towering irony here is that the motivation for the legislation mandating local and regional proliferation of Community Choice Aggregation entities – CCAs – was to facilitate the transition to clean, green, renewable energy sources.

PG&E fought CCAs tooth and nail. It spent $46.1 million in 2010 to sponsor an initiative, Prop. 16 , that would have outlawed CCAs and enshrined nuclear energy in the state constitution.  Prop. 16 was roundly defeated at the polls.

According to BallotPedia, “If Proposition 16 had been approved by voters, it would have henceforward taken a two-thirds vote of the electorate before a public agency could enter the retail power business. This would have made it more difficult than it is currently for local entities to form either municipal utilities, or community wide clean electricity districts called Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs). Forming a local municipal utility or a CCA, if Proposition 16 had been approved, would have required the approval, through election, of 2/3rds of the voters who live in the area of the would-be local municipal utility or CCA.”

Undaunted by that resounding failure, PG&E is now trying to co-opt the growing CCA movement.

Jill ZamEk, of the MothersForPeace explains it this way:
“A pressure campaign by PG&E and the CPUC, Community Choice programs across the state have been asked to buy nuclear power from Diablo Canyon. Very few have.

“However, our local program, Monterey Bay Community Power, (soon to be renamed Central Coast Community Energy!) has preliminarily agreed to accept nuclear as 20% of their power portfolio. While classified as carbon free, nuclear power is certainly not renewable, and potentially a very bad move for public relations.

“We believe that community choice programs should stick to cheaper, cleaner sources of power like wind and solar and avoid helping PG&E fund it’s expensive and expiring nuclear plant, already set to end operations in 2025.”

Long-time nuclear safety advocate Don Eichleberger warned in a letter to CCAs,