SB 846

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(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.