As the California Coastal Commission considered the future of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant this week, Santa Barbara County officials urged members to consider the local economic impact of the facility. 

“Santa Barbara County suffers from some of the largest wealth gaps in the state and the nation,” Supervisor Bob Nelson said, adding that Diablo Canyon and PG&E are some of the largest employers in the North County region and provide head-of-household jobs. 

“Consider my constituents in your vote,” said Nelson, who represents North County areas including the Santa Maria Valley. 

Santa Maria Mayor Alice Patino said the power plant’s energy is needed for the region’s projected population growth. 

“The state has mandated homes and cars and the state become electrified, and how do we do that if we don’t have Diablo online?” she asked. 

Reports say about 8% of California’s energy comes from the San Luis Obispo County power plant, and it also makes up about 17% of the state’s carbon-free energy. 

The Coastal Commission met in Sacramento Thursday and considered PG&E’s request for a permit to continue operating another five years, and a consistency certification for a 20-year licensing extension. They ultimately delayed a decision on both, and will consider the issue again next month. 

Diablo Canyon was expected to close by the end of 2025, due to economic reasons and a legal settlement, but moves by the state legislature and California Public Utilities Commission supported PG&E to continue operating the plant until 2030. 

Then in 2023, the company filed a license renewal application with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to keep the reactors open another 20 years. 

Commission Continues Decision

Thursday’s meeting included hours of presentations, public comment and commission discussion on the issue. 

Many speakers touted the power plant’s economic benefits and contribution to the state’s clean energy portfolio, while others pointed to the ongoing negative environmental impacts of the plant’s operations. 

Commission Chair Meagan Harmon, a Santa Barbara City Council member, said she agreed with her colleagues that the power plant is critical for the state’s energy portfolio but the “mitigation package as laid out before us is insufficient.” 

Coastal Commission staff recommended approving both PG&E requests for extended operations, but with conditions including public access and conservation easements on the property near Avila Beach. 

“The scale of the effects is significant, their impacts undeniable,” Harmon said after an hours-long hearing in Sacramento Thursday. “This stretch of coast is absolutely remarkable,” she said, and “this is a generational opportunity to protect it.” 

Commissioners ultimately voted to continue both items until December, so staff and PG&E can discuss changes to the mitigation package. 

Economic, Environmental Impacts of Power Plant 

Solvang Councilwoman Elizabeth Orona said energy costs and demand are increasing, and taking the power plant offline now “is counterproductive” for clean energy production. 

The Solvang City Council has passed a proclamation in favor of PG&E’s application for license renewal and extension, Mayor David Brown said. 

Representatives from many environmental groups opposed Diablo Canyon’s request for permits and licensing extensions. 

Jeremy Frankel, a staff attorney for the Environmental Defense Center, said continuing to operate the power plant is “unnecessary” and mitigations are “grossly inadequate” in the face of the facility’s negative environmental impacts on marine resources. 

EDC, representing Mothers for Peace, presented arguments to the commission against the extensions. 

PG&E “seized on” the state legislation allowing a five-year extension and is now pushing for a 20-year license renewal, Frankel said. He argued that the commission cannot make findings to allow it given the adverse ocean impacts from the power plant’s cooling system. 

Preserving land can’t replace harm to the ocean environment, he said. 

The Coastal Commission staff report notes the “large scale of the DCPP’s adverse impacts to coastal resources” and indicates that there isn’t a way to mitigate the damage done by the power plant’s once-through cooling system. 

That system uses about 2.5 billion gallons of seawater every day and “results in an annual loss of marine life equal to that produced in up to 9,360 acres, or more than 14 square miles, of nearshore waters,” the Coastal Commission staff report states. 

The Coastal Commission staff report recommended approving PG&E’s requests with special conditions that included conservation easements, public access and trails on the PG&E property, including the North Ranch adjacent to Montaña de Oro State Park.

State Senator John Laird proposed alternative conditions for approval, including public access to 12,000 coastal acres in the Diablo Canyon area. 

Laird, representing District 17 including San Luis Obispo County, called for conservation easements on North Ranch and South Ranch, and a right of first refusal to purchase land interests of Wild Cherry Canyon. 

“…the staff report recommendations to the Coastal Commission (calling for the implementation of just a small part of the Diablo Canyon Lands vision) falls particularly short,” Laird wrote in his comment letter to the commission. 

The California Coastal Commission’s next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 10-12 in Imperial Beach.