Wacko Greenies Suing to Shut Down Power Plant Producing 9 Percent of California Energy

Almost ten percent of California’s energy comes from the last remaining Nuclear power plant, so let’s close it down since  “This is in a state where, according to EnergySage, residents already pay an average of $3,060 a year on their electricity bill — 34 percent higher than the national average.”

Let’s do it after a couple of Billion buckeroos have been spent on it to extend the life 5 years. Typical California where surly a friendly judge will be more than happy to go along with the thought to jettison the plant. Here are the details:

The Associated Press, an environmentalist group called Friends of the Earth is suing the U.S. Department of Energy over its decision to award funds to keep California’s last remaining nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, open.

The DOE awarded $1 billion to keep the plant open past its planned 2025 closure date after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said shuttering Diablo Canyon, which provides 9 percent of the state’s power, would leave California vulnerable to blackouts, according to regional conservative outlet The Center Square.

“As we experienced during the record heat wave last September, climate change-driven extreme events are causing unprecedented stress on our power grid — the Diablo Canyon Power Plant is important to support energy reliability as we accelerate progress towards achieving our clean energy and climate goals,” Newsom said in a 2023 statement.

In 2022, Newsom signed a bill to allocate $1.4 billion in loans to keep Diablo Canyon, located in San Luis Obispo, to extend its service life to 2030.

“Climate change is causing unprecedented stress on California’s energy system and I appreciate the Legislature’s action to maintain energy reliability as the state accelerates the transition to clean energy,” Newsom said at the time.

The move came after the state announced earlier in the year that it would ban sales of gas-powered cars by 2035; just days afterwards the California Independent System Operator, the non-profit organization which manages most of California’s energy grid, put the Golden State on notice that the stress charging electric vehicles would put on the grid would simply be too much to close a source of reliable, carbon-free energy generation.

CISO pleaded with EV owners to not charge their cars during “flex alerts” because it was “likely to strain the grid with increased energy demands, especially over the [Labor Day] holiday weekend.”

In January, the Biden administration chipped in $1.1 billion to extend the plant’s service life. So, naturally, the environmentalists sued, because reality doesn’t have to matter when you’re a privileged ideologue.

Keep reading.

So let’s do the math. They are spending billions to keep the power plant open just to 2030?? The DOE on behalf of all Americans dumped $1 Billion into it. Newsom in 2022 authorized $1.4 Billion in loans. Add that Californians are paying some of the highest energy costs?

And in the bigger picture, recall when Bunk here offered this post back in 2022?

Biden Shuts Down 2 Nuclear Power Plants, 4 Hydroelectric Dams, 1 Refinery

Shutting down oil, coal and gas? Just getting started. One refinery in the Virgin Islands, Limetree Bay Refinery. Nuclear? Turkey Point outside of Miami. Peach Bottom in Pennsylvania. Four Hydroelectric dams in Southern Oregon and Northern California – The Klamath River Dams. The indications from the agencies are they are just getting started.

Add that to Biden’s yanking 77 small refineries biofuel waivers that now put them at risk for bankruptcy.

This clip was from September 2022:

Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant operations extended through 2030 by California Lawmakers

The very best of the swamp today.