The Latest: Land officials OK closing nuclear site in 2025
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on the closure of California's last nuclear power plant (all times local):
5 p.m.
The State Lands Commission has approved a deal to close California's last nuclear energy plant nearly 20 years ahead of its previously planned termination.
It took the action Tuesday in approving a lease that allows Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to continue operating the Diablo Canyon twin-reactor facility through 2025.
The company and environmental groups agreed to that date last week after decades of protests by environmental activists over the facility, which is poised along earthquake fault lines in Central California.
Other state agencies must also approve the deal.
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom says keeping the plant open for nine years allows PG&E to avoid the mistakes of Edison International, which quickly terminated a nuclear generator in San Onofre (oh-NOH'-fray).
___
3:15 p.m.
Not all conservationists back a recent agreement between environmental groups and California's largest utility provider to close the state's last nuclear power facility in nine years.
Dozens of people argued against the deal at a public hearing Tuesday. State lands officials are expected to decide whether to renew a lease allowing Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to continue operating the Diablo Canyon facility until the agreed closing date in August 2025.
Activists, including some who have been fighting nuclear energy for 40 years, argued against the plant's continued operation near major earthquake-causing fault lines.
They want the state to consider the plant's environmental effects.
PG&E President of Electric Operations Geisha Williams repeated the company's position at the daylong hearing that the plant is safe from the region's greatest potential quakes.
___
12:40 p.m.
Local officials are expressing support for an agreement to close California's last nuclear energy plant in nine years.
Representatives of the San Luis Obispo sheriff's office, school district, city council and county supervisor say the deal announced last week provides ample time to plan for a safe closure and transition about 1,400 workers away from the plant.
State lands officials are considering signing off on the agreement between Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and environmental groups to close the Diablo Canyon twin-reactor facility 20 years earlier than planned.
PG&E is asking the commission Tuesday to renew a lease allowing it to operate after 2018.
John Geesman of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility says the state should conduct one of its strict environmental reviews before approving a lease, however short.
___
12 a.m.
California regulators are considering whether to drop their longstanding environmental objections to the state's last nuclear power plant in return for its promise to close early.
The State Lands Commission will consider foregoing an environmental review before renewing a contract with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in light of its agreement to close Diablo Canyon in nine years.
California's largest utility and environmental groups announced a deal last week to close the Central California twin-reactor facility by 2025.
The commission is the first of multiple regulatory hurdles facing the agreement to shut down the 31-year-old plant nearly 20 years ahead of its planned termination.
Fears about the seismic faults near the plant have dogged the project since its conception in the 1960s, and helped spark the national anti-nuclear power movement.