California Senate Bill 846
Session 20212022
Diablo Canyon powerplant: extension of operations.
Became Law
Became Law on Sep 2, 2022
Origin Chamber
Senate
Type
Bill
Bill Number
846
State
California
Session
20212022
Bill Dodd
grade
Author
Principal Coauthor
Motion Text
W/O REF. TO FILE
Senate Roll Call Votes
Other
Yes
Yes
Dahle
Other
Yes
Yes
Gonzalez
Yes
Other
Yes
Yes
Yes
Other
Yes
Other
Yes
Other
Rubio
Yes
Other
Yes
Other
Summary
(1) Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over electrical corporations. The Diablo Canyon nuclear powerplant, composed of Reactor Units 1 and 2, is operated by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, an electrical corporation, in the County of San Luis Obispo. On January 11, 2018, the PUC approved the Pacific Gas and Electric Company's proposal to retire Unit 1 in 2024 and Unit 2 in 2025.
This bill would invalidate the PUC's approval of that proposal and would require the PUC to set new retirement dates for the Diablo Canyon powerplant, as provided, conditioned upon the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission extending the powerplant's operating licenses, as specified. The bill would require the PUC to take certain actions to enable the operator of the Diablo Canyon powerplant to recover the reasonable costs and expenses of operating the Diablo Canyon powerplant, as provided, including the imposition of a fully nonbypassable charge on all customers of electrical corporations, electric service providers, and community choice aggregators, and would require the PUC to authorize the operator to recover in rates an operating fee for each megawatthour generated by the powerplant, as specified.
This bill, for purposes of certain requests by the operator of the Diablo Canyon powerplant or the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission that are necessary to authorize the Diablo Canyon powerplant to continue to operate after those retirement dates, would require a state agency to act on the request to extend the operations of Diablo Canyon powerplant within 180 days, and would provide that the Diablo Canyon powerplant site, and all structures, buildings, and equipment at the site, or necessary to extend operations at the site, shall conclusively be deemed an existing facility and not subject to specified exceptions. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature to make available to the Department of Water Resources a total principal amount not to exceed $1.4 billion for the purpose of being loaned out to facilitate the extension of the operating period of the Diablo Canyon powerplant, as provided. The bill would establish the Diablo Canyon Extension Fund in the State Treasury and would continuously appropriate moneys in the fund to the department for purposes of making the loan. Because the Diablo Canyon Extension Fund would be a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. The bill would transfer $600,000,000 from the General Fund to the Diablo Canyon Extension Fund, thereby making an appropriation.
(2) Existing law requires the PUC to adopt a process for each load-serving entity to file an integrated resource plan and a schedule for periodic updates to the plan and to ensure load-serving entities take certain actions, including actions to ensure system and local reliability on both a near-term and long-term basis, including meeting the near-term and forecasted long-term resource adequacy requirements. Existing law establishes as policy of the state that eligible renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources supply 100% of retail sales of electricity to California end-use customers and 100% of electricity procured to serve all state agencies by December 31, 2045.
This bill would additionally require sufficient, predictable resource procurement and development to avoid unplanned energy supply shortfalls by taking into account impacts due to climate change and other factors that can result in those shortfalls. The bill would require that the PUC not include, and disallow a load-serving entity from including in their adopted resource plan, the energy, capacity, or any attribute from the Diablo Canyon powerplant in the integrated resource plan portfolios beyond specified dates, and would require the Energy Commission not consider the energy, capacity, or any attribute from the Diablo Canyon powerplant in meeting the above state policy.
This bill would require the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and the PUC, on or before December 15, 2022, and quarterly thereafter, to provide to the Legislature a joint Reliability Planning Assessment identifying estimates for the electrical supply and demand balance for the forward 5- and 10-year period under high-, medium-, and low-risk scenarios, as provided.
The bill would require the Energy Commission, by September 30, 2023, to present a cost comparison of the Diablo Canyon powerplant, as specified, and on or before July 1, 2023, and July 1 of each year thereafter, to publish on its internet website a new report, or as part of another report, an assessment of the operation of the Diablo Canyon powerplant, as specified.
(3) Existing law requires the Energy Commission, in consultation with the specified entities, to adopt a biennial integrated energy policy report containing certain information in a specified format.
This bill would require the Energy Commission, in consultation with the PUC and the Independent System Operator, to adopt a goal for load shifting to reduce net peak electrical demand and adjust this target in each biennial integrated energy policy report thereafter.
(4) Under its existing authority, the PUC, by order, has established the Independent Safety Committee for Diablo Canyon to make recommendations appropriate to enhance the safety of the operation at the Diablo Canyon powerplant.
This bill would establish and continue the Independent Safety Committee for Diablo Canyon, consisting of 3 members appointed, as provided. The bill would require the PUC to ensure funding for the committee to attract qualified experts to serve on the committee. In addition to the duties and responsibility set forth in the commission decisions, the bill would require the committee to undertake additional duties, as provided, including annually transmitting its findings and recommendations for improved safety to certain public entities and the operator of Diablo Canyon powerplant. The bill would require the company licensed to operate Diablo Canyon powerplant to respond to the findings and recommendations and distribute the response to those public entities.
(5) Under the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, the State Water Resources Control board is required to adopt specified state policies with respect to water quality as it relates to the coastal marine environment, including a policy requiring new or expanded coastal powerplants and other industrial installations using seawater for cooling, heating, or industrial processing to use the best available site, design, technology, and mitigation measures feasible to minimize the intake and mortality of all forms of marine life. Pursuant to that policy, the state board has adopted a policy to phase out once-through cooling for powerplants and issued an order implementing this policy and establishing an interim mitigation fee to address the impacts caused by once-through cooling during the phase-out period.
This bill would specify that the final compliance date of the once-through cooling policy for the Diablo Canyon powerplant is October 31, 2030.
(6) The California Emergency Services Act, until August 26, 2025, prescribes a method for funding state and local costs for carrying out emergency service activities associated with a nuclear powerplant that are not reimbursed by federal funds, with the costs borne by utilities operating nuclear powerplants with a generating capacity of 50 megawatts or more, as specified.
This bill would extend the operation of those and related provisions until 18 months after the permanent cessation of operations of the Diablo Canyon powerplant.
(7) This bill would specify that, upon appropriation by the Legislature, certain amounts of money would be available for specified fiscal years to support a Clean Energy Reliability Investment Plan developed by the Energy Commission, as specified, and to support a Land Conservation and Economic Development Plan developed by the Natural Resources Agency, as specified. The bill would require the Energy Commission, by March 1, 2023, to submit the Clean Energy Investment Plan to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee and the chairs of the relevant policy committees of the Legislature. The bill would require the Natural Resources Agency, by March 23, 2023, to submit the Land Conservation and Development Plan to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee and the chairs of the relevant policy committees of the Legislature.
(8) This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Diablo Canyon powerplant.
(9) Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime.
Because certain of the above provisions would be part of the act and a violation of PUC action implementing this bill's requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
(10) Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.
This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
(11) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
01/13/22 - Introduced
January 13, 2022
03/16/22 - Amended Senate
March 16, 2022
05/19/22 - Amended Senate
May 19, 2022
06/13/22 - Amended Assembly
June 13, 2022
06/28/22 - Amended Assembly
June 28, 2022
08/28/22 - Amended Assembly
August 28, 2022
09/01/22 - Enrolled
September 1, 2022
09/02/22 - Chaptered
September 2, 2022
03/11/22- Senate Governmental Organization
March 11, 2022
03/31/22- Senate Appropriations
March 31, 2022
05/19/22- Senate Appropriations
May 19, 2022
05/26/22- Sen. Floor Analyses
May 26, 2022
06/21/22- Assembly Governmental Organization
June 21, 2022
08/01/22- Assembly Appropriations
August 1, 2022
08/31/22- ASSEMBLY FLOOR ANALYSIS
August 31, 2022
09/01/22- Sen. Floor Analyses
September 1, 2022
Sort by most recent
09/02/2022
California State Legislature
Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 239, Statutes of 2022.
09/02/2022
California State Legislature
Approved by the Governor.
09/02/2022
California State Legislature
Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 1 p.m.
09/01/2022
Senate
Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 31. Noes 1. Page 5427.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling.
09/01/2022
Senate
Urgency clause adopted.
09/01/2022
Senate
In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
09/01/2022
Assembly
Read third time. Urgency clause adopted. Passed. Ordered to the Senate.
09/01/2022
Assembly
Ordered to third reading.
09/01/2022
Assembly
Withdrawn from committee.
09/01/2022
Assembly
Assembly Rule 96 and 63 suspended.
08/28/2022
Assembly
From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
08/11/2022
Assembly
August 11 hearing: Held in committee and under submission.
08/03/2022
Assembly
August 3 set for first hearing. Placed on suspense file.
06/28/2022
Assembly
Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
06/27/2022
Assembly
From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 20. Noes 0.) (June 22).
06/13/2022
Assembly
From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on G.O.
06/02/2022
Assembly
Referred to Com. on G.O.
05/27/2022
Assembly
In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk.
05/26/2022
Senate
Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 32. Noes 0. Page 3979.) Ordered to the Assembly.
05/25/2022
Senate
Ordered to third reading.
05/25/2022
Senate
From special consent calendar on motion of Senator Durazo.
05/24/2022
Senate
Ordered to special consent calendar.
05/23/2022
Senate
Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
05/19/2022
Senate
Read second time and amended. Ordered to second reading.
05/19/2022
Senate
From committee: Do pass as amended. (Ayes 7. Noes 0. Page 3771.) (May 19).
05/13/2022
Senate
Set for hearing May 19.
04/04/2022
Senate
April 4 hearing: Placed on APPR suspense file.
03/25/2022
Senate
Set for hearing April 4.
03/16/2022
Senate
Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
03/15/2022
Senate
From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 13. Noes 0. Page 3108.) (March 15).
03/08/2022
Senate
Set for hearing March 15.
02/07/2022
Senate
Joint Rule 55 suspended. (Ayes 31. Noes 6. Page 2880.)
02/07/2022
Senate
(Ayes 31. Noes 6.)
02/07/2022
Senate
Art. IV. Sec. 8(a) of the Constitution dispensed with.
01/26/2022
Senate
Referred to Com. on G.O.
01/14/2022
Senate
From printer. May be acted upon on or after February 13.
01/13/2022
Senate
Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print.
Sources
Record Created
Jan 14, 2022 12:13:45 PM
Record Updated
Nov 4, 2022 12:26:05 AM