California Will Close Its Last Nuclear Power Plant (sfchronicle.com)

An anonymous reader quotes the San Francisco Chronicle: California's last nuclear power plant -- Diablo Canyon, whose contentious birth helped shape the modern environmental movement -- will close in 2025, state utility regulators decided Thursday. The unanimous vote by the California Public Utilities Commission will likely bring an end to nuclear energy's long history in the state. State law forbids building more nuclear plants in California until the federal government creates a long-term solution for dealing with their waste, a goal that remains elusive despite decades of effort.

The decision comes even as California expands its fight against global warming. Owned by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Diablo Canyon is the state's largest power plant, supplying 9 percent of California's electricity while producing no greenhouse gases. "With this decision, we chart a new energy future by phasing out nuclear power here in California," said commission President Michael Picker. "We've looked hard at all the arguments, and we agree the time has come."

Comments

YAY for coal?

[CaptainDork]

Do we have any rails coming in from West Virginia?

Re:YAY for coal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, California energy will come from Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon.

"The problems always easier to solve when it's given to someone else."

Re:YAY for coal?

[Anonymous Coward]

No new coal plants are under construction or planned anywhere in America.

California energy will come from gas, wind, and solar, with a tiny contribution from geothermal.

Ah, so they have seven short years to figure out how they're going to generate 9% of California's electrical demand from gas, wind, and solar, while also dealing with growth and more demand between now and 2025?

Yeah, good luck with that shit. This touchy-feely story is about as realistic as California balancing their budget. That power plant will get shut down alright; when it melts down.

Re:YAY for coal?

[Ol Olsoc]

And CA doesn't get the power it needs.

I don't think you get the dynamics here of supply and demand here. CA needs the power, the other states have the power.

A similar situation exists for cars. California sets standards for itself, and tells the manufacturers that it will not allow them to sell them in Cali if they don't meet those standards. So whenever possible, the automakers produce vehicles to the Cali standards because they don't want to have to make two versions.

So if California gives purchase preference to NatGas produced electricity, it serves as an incentive to switch to NatGas.

Nothing is stopping an outfit from sticking to their guns and remaining on coal. But the goal isn't coal, the goal is selling electrical power. About the only way to work that system in favor of coal is to radically reduce the selling price.

In other words, lowering the supply price to increase the demand for it.

Morons

[sexconker]

California is run by morons.

Re:Not really

[blind biker]

Natural Gas is still a lot safer

Natural gas plants leak methane like a motherfucker. And methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. After a few decades it decomposes into water and... CO2, but in the meantime it helps wrecking havoc of climate.

I much prefer nuclear power to natural gas. It's safer for the planet.

Re:Red states demand the most federal aid

[davide marney]

The red state vs. blue state comparison is flawed because there are no purely red or blue states. What there is instead are urban and rural parts of the country. Urban areas are deeply blue and rural is deeply red.

To see the truth of this, just look at an election map by precinct for your state. Compare it to a map of urban vs. rural.

To truly compare, you need to cut across geographical boundaries. The Pew Research Center did that by correlating political party to food stamp usage. Democrats are TWICE as likely as Republicans to have taken food stamps.

Source: http://www.pewresearch.org/fac...

This makes good common sense, too. Democrats in the urban core are obviously much more supportive of a large, active government, and Republicans in rural areas want smaller government.