Environmental group suffers setback in legal fight to close California's last nuclear power plant
A California judge is rejecting an environmental group’s lawsuit that sought to block the state's largest utility from seeking to extend the operating life of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant
A California judge on Thursday rejected an environmental group’s lawsuit that sought to block the state’s largest utility from seeking to extend the operating life of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant.
Friends of the Earth sued in state Superior Court in April, hoping to derail a state-backed proposal to keep the twin-domed plant running for at least five additional years. The group was part of a 2016 agreement with operator Pacific Gas & Electric to shutter the state's last nuclear power plant by 2025.
Amid concerns over power supplies in a changing climate, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature opened the way for PG&E to seek a longer lifespan last year. In legal filings, the environmental group argued that the 2016 deal to close the reactors “is not fully extinguished,” and that the utility would break what it called a binding contract if it asked federal regulators to extend the operating licenses.
In an 18-page ruling, Judge Ethan P. Schulman dismissed the complaint, agreeing with the company that Friends of the Earth was asking the court to “impermissibly hinder or interfere” with state regulatory oversight of the seaside plant, located midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
If the group's request was granted, the court would be placed in conflict with state regulators, and it would “enmesh the court in complex questions of energy, economic and environmental policy” that are best handled by the California Public Utilities Commission and other agencies, Schulman wrote.
The group said it might appeal.
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