March 31, 2021

Sarah Durdaller (Energy)
Stephen Bradford (Energy)

Dear Sarah and Stephen:

Thank you for this message. Independent nonprofit Californians for Green Nuclear Power, Inc. (CGNP) is working to save a safe, reliable, cost-effective and zero-emission nuclear power plant in California from voluntary retirement in 2025. Our advocacy has taken us from the local to the state to the federal level.

CGNP filed a Complaint before FERC on October 25, 2020 which led to the opening of Docket EL21-13-000. CGNP made numerous fact-filled filings. However, on March 18, 2021 our Complaint was rejected. The FERC issuance provides some hints as to how to move our advocacy forward.

Our concerns were echoed by both the Republican and Democratic party U.S. Senators in the recent Senate hearing regarding the importance of nuclear power to safely and cost-effectively decarbonize the nation’s power grid. They are echoed in the brief attached March 20, 2021 Bloomberg article regarding Duke Energy and nuclear power. Nuclear power is the only generation means that runs 24/7 without emitting air pollution.

While the Democratic Party trumpets that they are the party of science, their proposed “Green New Deal” merely maintains our nation’s dependence on natural gas for power generation. An increased reliance on non-dispatchable solar and wind merely increases the demand for natural gas fired generation to firm those inherently-intermittent sources. Note in the attached Wall Street Journal article that the Biden administration is basing plans on an unprecedented expansion of offshore wind, (the most expensive form of generation) on operating experience of less than 10 offshore wind turbines. The recent experience in Texas during the mid-February polar vortex shows that natural gas cannot be depended on for dispatchable generation. The misplaced trust in Texas natural gas cost about 100 Texans their lives – and Texas produces about half the nation’s natural gas!

CGNP stands ready to assist Senator Barasso in his advocacy for U.S. energy sanity.

Gene Nelson, Ph.D.  CGNP Legal Assistant
Californians for Green Nuclear Power, Inc. (CGNP)