USA – CALIFORNIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Nora Sheriff, Gwenneth O’Hara, Samir Hafez, Antonio Carrejo and Elisa Rivas, Buchalter
The CEC will provide a decision, ranking the amendment as significant or insignificant. A significant outcome will require a vote by the full CEC, while an insignificant outcome only requires staff approval of the amendment. Local governments or agencies will have their own processes, but these typically include fil- ing an application for permit modification that undergoes staff review. 3.4 Eminent Domain, Condemnation and Expropriation Rights to Construct and Operate Generation Facilities Under California Public Utilities Code Sections 610–626, an IOU may condemn any property necessary for construction and maintenance of its plant, system or facilities. Section 625 provides that an IOU may not con- demn any property for the purpose of competing with another entity, unless the CPUC finds that such an action would serve the public interest, pursuant to a petition or complaint filed by the IOU (personal notice of which has been served on the owners of the property to be condemned) and an adjudication hearing (including an oppor- tunity for the public to participate). If the CPUC finds that the proposed condemna- tion would serve the public interest, the IOU may then file an eminent domain action in the Califor- nia Superior Court. If the IOU prevails, the court will generally require the IOU to pay the property owner the fair market value of the condemned property. 3.5 Decommissioning a Generation Facility There are approximately 25 decommissioned generation facilities in California. These former facilities produced energy using natural gas,
biomass, nuclear, solar thermal, coal and diesel fuel. Nuclear Power Plant Decommissioning In general, nuclear facility decommissioning costs are collected through customer rates over the facility’s operating life. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regula- tions require that, once a nuclear power plant ceases operations, it must be decommissioned. Decommissioning removes a facility or site from service and reduces residual radioactivity to safe levels for use. To prepare for decommissioning, all nuclear power plant owners are required to establish a trust that is funded by rates collected for the energy produced over the plant’s operational life. This is intended to ensure that financing is avail- able for eventual decommissioning. The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, a PG&E-owned two-unit 2,240 MW nuclear facil- ity (located in San Luis Obispo, California) is a unique example. It was set to be decommis- sioned when its NRC licence expired in 2024 for Unit 1 and 2025 for Unit 2. However, pursuant to SB 846 (2022), the Commission invalidated its previous retirement order for Diablo Canyon and conditionally approved extended operations at the plant until 31 October 2029 for Unit 1 and 31 October 2030 for Unit 2. SB 846 orders the CPUC to continue authorising PG&E to recover in rates all of the reasonable costs incurred to prepare for the retirement of these units. PG&E’s application requesting NRC extension of Diablo Canyon’s operating licence is currently pending. Non-Nuclear Decommissioning For non-nuclear generation facilities, costs for decommissioning may vary. Before a CPUC-
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