California shutters its last nuclear plant, irking some environmentalists
The closing of California鈥檚 last nuclear power plant, announced in a deal with environmental and labor groups on Tuesday, marks a key milestone, as one of the first states to embrace nuclear power has dramatically increased its focus on renewable energy sources.
Utility Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), which operates the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, , including a requirement that utilities produce 50 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2030, played a key role in its decision.
But for some environmental groups across the country, concerns about a resulting rise in greenhouse gas emissions following the closing of nuclear power plants, which produce almost no carbon emissions, has led to a shift away from aggressively campaigning for their closure.
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.
鈥淲别鈥檙别 in which nuclear plants should be decommissioned as we reduce our reliance on coal and gas in the electric sector,鈥� Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, told the Wall Street Journal this month.
With nearly a dozen nuclear reactors either already shut down or set to close in the next few years, the debate about the impact of nuclear power is ramping up just as PG&E announced it would shutter the power plants two nuclear reactors, located between San Francisco and Los Angeles, by 2025.
The deal, which must still be approved by regulators, including California鈥檚 Public Utilities Commission, could also cut costs and help resolve longstanding safety concerns about nuclear power.
With the state鈥檚 increasing wind and solar production and emphasis on energy efficiency, 鈥渢here鈥檚 just to have to run your nuclear plant,鈥� PG&E President Tony Earley told reporters on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.
But elsewhere, concerns loom about the impact closing nuclear plants can have on carbon emissions. After the Vermont Yankee plant in Vernon closed two years ago, power plants in New England more CO2 in 2015 than during the previous year. It was first year-to-year increase since 2010, the Boston Globe reports.
Some environmentalists have even begun actively campaigning to keep nuclear power plants open. In Illinois, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, and other groups have formed an unlikely alliance with Exelon, the largest owner of nuclear plants in the US, to reverse a deal to close two nuclear plants in the next two years, the Journal reports.
鈥� for the Illinois wind and solar sectors, which together comprise six percent of the state鈥檚 current generation, to grow enough to replace nuclear鈥檚 output,鈥� a number of prominent environmentalists who oppose the closing of the Clinton and Quad Cities plants wrote in an open letter, saying the closures would lead to further coal and gas plants.
But in California, Diablo Canyon, which produces 9 percent of the state鈥檚 energy, has long been controversial and raised safety concerns. Advocates of closing the plants are hoping the changeover聽 in renewable energy.
In Los Angeles, for example, the police department bought a 聽fleet of electric patrol cars this month. Under a sweeping law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, the state by 2030.
Proponents say it鈥檚 the right decision for the state. 鈥淎lthough nuclear plants don鈥檛 produce greenhouse gas, there are good and cost-effective 21st-century ,鈥� wrote the Sacramento Bee鈥檚 editorial board.
鈥淧erhaps PG&E should have acted sooner鈥ut the utility is making the right decision by extricating itself and California from reliance on nuclear power. For that it deserves credit.鈥�
