Biden gives PG&E $1 billion to keep the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant open for two more decades
Environmental groups want California to pass a law forcing PG&E to stop buying electricity at rates dictated by California’s utility regulators.
The Sacramento Bee, California’s most-read and influential newspaper, reported Biden’s pledge Monday.
Biden, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, announced he’d commit funding that’s worth about $1 billion to keep the Diablo Canyon plant open through 2045. That’s if the state and federal regulators OK a rate-hike plan that the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has proposed for the utility’s roughly 1.6 million customer and industrial customers.
Biden said the money is for clean energy and environmental projects, and that PG&E is “making a real commitment to California and to the people of California.”
“There are a number of major issues facing California, and the last thing we need is for them to go out of business,” Biden said.
The Associated Press reported the pledge was made during a swing through the San Francisco Bay Area. He’s also attended a town hall meeting on Tuesday morning in Concord.
An emergency room physician who is an environmental activist said the pledge would help him in his quest to win the Democratic presidential nomination.
On Wednesday, PG&E spokesman Daniel Masterson declined to comment and said the company has not yet received a formal proposal from the state.
A senior official with the governor’s office said the utility is waiting for the proposal from the California Public Utilities Commission.
Biden’s pledge came the same day a federal appeals court in San Francisco ordered PG&E to restore power for eight California communities damaged by the utility’s power shutoffs over the last decade.
Biden said, “This is a moment for all of us — for every American in California who was scared, who was worried, who was angry.”
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the appeals court order came the same day as the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. filed its latest filing with the California Public Utilities Commission that would require it to restore power to customers cut off