Opinion: If CA'ns dislike blackouts, we should oppose closing Diablo Canyon NPP

California's last operating nuclear power plant, in Diablo Canyon, is currently scheduled to shutter in the next year or two. But CalMatters' Dan Walters points out why local cities need non-renewable energy: It's more reliable and we have more of it, whereas 100% reliance on “green” sources causes frequent blackouts for residents.

As California struggles to keep the lights burning, compromise legislation will, if enacted, keep the state’s only remaining nuclear power plant in operation.

When California voters recalled then-Gov. Gray Davis in 2003, a year after giving him a second term, they established a new political principle: Governors must, no matter what the political or financial cost, avoid power blackouts.

Fairly or not, Davis was blamed when power blackouts hit the state in early 2003 due to a botched overhaul of utility regulation.

That’s why, despite his insistence that California will lead the world in conversion to an all-electric, zero-emission society, Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to extend operations of some gas-powered generating plants that had been ticketed for closure and — most ironically — of California’s only remaining nuclear power plant, which was to shut down in 2025.

The state’s shift to wind and solar power has not kept pace with demand, especially during increasingly frequent heat waves, and we’ve teetered on the brink of blackouts on particularly hot days. Closing down the gas-fired generators and the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant — the latter supplying about 9% of the state’s power supply — would make blackouts very likely.

This article originally appeared in CalMatters. Read the whole thing here.

Read more on CA’s facetious green energy push here.

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