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Should California’s last nuclear power plant stay open?

27 points by bryan0 5y ago

newbamboo 5y ago
“ The single most remunerative client for Axiom in the last two years has been Marathon Petroleum, giving Kinney’s firm $525,000 worth of business. Marathon is a member of a powerful oil industry organization that battled proposals to ban hydraulic fracturing” “The thing that is so powerful about this luxury dinner story is that Newsom also risked the lives of Californians by violating his own Covid recommendations to party with the same oil lobbyist,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Center, which is planning a lawsuit over the state's issuance of oil and gas well permits. “There's just so many ways that ordinary people are suffering such incredible pain,” she added, “and it just shows his hypocrisy to be partying with an oil lobbyist in the middle of this. It's just inexcusable.” California voters don’t seem to care about the environment as much as they care about supporting their guy Gavin. Having a single party control the government often leads to corruption. It’s Party over Planet.
- decktech 5y ago
  I think the vast majority of Californians couldn't care less about Gavin, it's just that we didn't want the crazy right-wing talk-radio host to take over.
  - mwfunk 5y ago
    Yeah there was no one even remotely credible up against him. If some insane radio host is the best anyone can come up with, I'll take the possibly shady professional politician any day. Whatever his other issues, Newsom isn't a nutjob and increasing the dysfunction of local government even more by electing a nutjob isn't going to help anyone. Literally the worst thing I've ever heard about Newsom is that he used to date Kimberly Gilfoyle, an actual complete and total nutjob. Newsom's competition in the election were the kind of people who think Gilfoyle is a totally normal and sane human being and enjoyed her speech at the GOP convention last year.
  - redis_mlc 5y ago
    Larry Elder is not crazy, and would be best called a centrist Liberal. What makes you say otherwise?
- newbie789 5y ago
  > It’s Party over Planet. This is a cartoonish take, bordering on Dada-esque invented reality. Sure, Californians voted for Newsom because of his name… not because John Cox thinks gay people are equivalent to people that engage in bestiality, doesn’t believe in the separation of church and state, and has equally horrendous views on climate change as his opponent. What are your thoughts on the Illuminati? Adrenochrome? Seth Rich?
- mixmastamyk 5y ago
  I’ve noticed Democrats here don’t seem to care about the environment like they used to, despite the occasional rumble about climate change. But ask to enforce an existing law against gas-powered leaf blowers near homes (as dirty as ~100 trucks) and they get angry. Doesn’t matter if the environment is ruined as long as an immigrant has a low paying job destroying their own health. That there are new solutions like electric tools or old ones like push brooms are not taken seriously. Maybe it was always a very low priority, but didn’t realize it until recently.
  - systemvoltage 5y ago
    Living in Bay Area - can confirm totalitarian motifs generally amongst people living here. It’s also exporting it via the machinery of Big Tech. I like societies where respectful and constructive dissent is allowed. The whole thing moves upwards towards a better world when there are checks and balances.
baremetal 5y ago
sure, california is basically uninhabitable as it is, might as well leave the door open to make it official.
- ergot_vacation 5y ago
  May as well accelerate the demolition.
  - baremetal 5y ago
    i think we offended some sensibilities, friend. why is this site so hostile? it seems to be populated by people who object to any form of truth being spoken cause it might offend some folks. sad.
- landemva 5y ago
  Shutting down base load power is an experiment California wants to do, so power facilities in neighboring States should cut their grid ties.
mjevans 5y ago
It would be nice if new plants could be built in places lacking the issues causing the closure. Then this wouldn't be such a question.
peter303 5y ago
Both Japan and Germany chose to accelerate their nuclear decommissions, thereby extending their use of fossil fuels.
mrweasel 5y ago
Realisticly California needs to lower it’s power consumption. Diablo Canyon is old, and potentially unsafe in the near future, but you can’t build anything to replace it, that will take 10 years.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
silexia 5y ago
Nuclear power is the only viable solution to climate change. Oil companies promote wind and solar because neither can generate enough consistent power to offer a real threat. Oil companies fight nuclear power with dirty tactics like backing anti-nuclear environmental groups because nuclear is the only real replacement for oil.
- mcbishop 5y ago
  > The U.S. installed 5.7 gigawatts of solar PV capacity in Q2 2021 to reach 108.7 gigawatts of total installed capacity, enough to power 18.9 million American homes.[1] > EIA expects that most large-scale battery energy storage systems to come online over the next three years will be built at power plants that also produce electricity from solar photovoltaics, a change in trend from recent years.[2] 1. https://www.seia.org/us-solar-market-insight https://www.seia.org/us-solar-market-insight 2. https://www.publicpower.org/periodical/article/us-large-scale-battery-storage-power-capacity-increased-35-2020 https://www.publicpower.org/periodical/article/us-large-scal...
  - silexia 5y ago
    Solar only works during the day. We have no battery technology, even remotely close to being able to store the power needed when the sun isn't shining. Houses are not all that big of energy, only using 1/3 of what the US has. The US as a whole needs 3.8 trillion kilowatt hours a year. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/use-of-electricity.php https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/use-of-elect...
ohiovr 5y ago
Just ban all forms of prime movers because all of them are bad for the environment. Let Tesla owners charge their cars with diesel generators.

27 points by bryan0 5y ago

“ The single most remunerative client for Axiom in the last two years has been Marathon Petroleum, giving Kinney’s firm $525,000 worth of business. Marathon is a member of a powerful oil industry organization that battled proposals to ban hydraulic fracturing” “The thing that is so powerful about this luxury dinner story is that Newsom also risked the lives of Californians by violating his own Covid recommendations to party with the same oil lobbyist,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Center, which is planning a lawsuit over the state's issuance of oil and gas well permits. “There's just so many ways that ordinary people are suffering such incredible pain,” she added, “and it just shows his hypocrisy to be partying with an oil lobbyist in the middle of this. It's just inexcusable.” California voters don’t seem to care about the environment as much as they care about supporting their guy Gavin. Having a single party control the government often leads to corruption. It’s Party over Planet.

decktech 5y ago
I think the vast majority of Californians couldn't care less about Gavin, it's just that we didn't want the crazy right-wing talk-radio host to take over.
- mwfunk 5y ago
  Yeah there was no one even remotely credible up against him. If some insane radio host is the best anyone can come up with, I'll take the possibly shady professional politician any day. Whatever his other issues, Newsom isn't a nutjob and increasing the dysfunction of local government even more by electing a nutjob isn't going to help anyone. Literally the worst thing I've ever heard about Newsom is that he used to date Kimberly Gilfoyle, an actual complete and total nutjob. Newsom's competition in the election were the kind of people who think Gilfoyle is a totally normal and sane human being and enjoyed her speech at the GOP convention last year.
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  Larry Elder is not crazy, and would be best called a centrist Liberal. What makes you say otherwise?
newbie789 5y ago
> It’s Party over Planet. This is a cartoonish take, bordering on Dada-esque invented reality. Sure, Californians voted for Newsom because of his name… not because John Cox thinks gay people are equivalent to people that engage in bestiality, doesn’t believe in the separation of church and state, and has equally horrendous views on climate change as his opponent. What are your thoughts on the Illuminati? Adrenochrome? Seth Rich?
mixmastamyk 5y ago
I’ve noticed Democrats here don’t seem to care about the environment like they used to, despite the occasional rumble about climate change. But ask to enforce an existing law against gas-powered leaf blowers near homes (as dirty as ~100 trucks) and they get angry. Doesn’t matter if the environment is ruined as long as an immigrant has a low paying job destroying their own health. That there are new solutions like electric tools or old ones like push brooms are not taken seriously. Maybe it was always a very low priority, but didn’t realize it until recently.
- systemvoltage 5y ago
  Living in Bay Area - can confirm totalitarian motifs generally amongst people living here. It’s also exporting it via the machinery of Big Tech. I like societies where respectful and constructive dissent is allowed. The whole thing moves upwards towards a better world when there are checks and balances.

baremetal 5y ago

sure, california is basically uninhabitable as it is, might as well leave the door open to make it official.

ergot_vacation 5y ago
May as well accelerate the demolition.
- baremetal 5y ago
  i think we offended some sensibilities, friend. why is this site so hostile? it seems to be populated by people who object to any form of truth being spoken cause it might offend some folks. sad.
landemva 5y ago
Shutting down base load power is an experiment California wants to do, so power facilities in neighboring States should cut their grid ties.

mjevans 5y ago

It would be nice if new plants could be built in places lacking the issues causing the closure. Then this wouldn't be such a question.

peter303 5y ago

Both Japan and Germany chose to accelerate their nuclear decommissions, thereby extending their use of fossil fuels.

mrweasel 5y ago

Realisticly California needs to lower it’s power consumption. Diablo Canyon is old, and potentially unsafe in the near future, but you can’t build anything to replace it, that will take 10 years.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

silexia 5y ago

Nuclear power is the only viable solution to climate change. Oil companies promote wind and solar because neither can generate enough consistent power to offer a real threat. Oil companies fight nuclear power with dirty tactics like backing anti-nuclear environmental groups because nuclear is the only real replacement for oil.

mcbishop 5y ago
> The U.S. installed 5.7 gigawatts of solar PV capacity in Q2 2021 to reach 108.7 gigawatts of total installed capacity, enough to power 18.9 million American homes.[1] > EIA expects that most large-scale battery energy storage systems to come online over the next three years will be built at power plants that also produce electricity from solar photovoltaics, a change in trend from recent years.[2] 1. https://www.seia.org/us-solar-market-insight https://www.seia.org/us-solar-market-insight 2. https://www.publicpower.org/periodical/article/us-large-scale-battery-storage-power-capacity-increased-35-2020 https://www.publicpower.org/periodical/article/us-large-scal...
- silexia 5y ago
  Solar only works during the day. We have no battery technology, even remotely close to being able to store the power needed when the sun isn't shining. Houses are not all that big of energy, only using 1/3 of what the US has. The US as a whole needs 3.8 trillion kilowatt hours a year. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/use-of-electricity.php https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/use-of-elect...

ohiovr 5y ago

Just ban all forms of prime movers because all of them are bad for the environment. Let Tesla owners charge their cars with diesel generators.