Reuters has a story which, for both personal and perverse reasons, I enjoy. If we aren't going to burn carbon-based fuels to generate electric power, the only non-intermittent alternatives are nuclear and hydroelectric.
California has long relied in part on a large nuclear plant on the coast south of San Luis Obispo at Diablo Canyon, built and run by Pacific Gas and Electric. In addition, PG&E also has substantial hydroelectric generation, the effectiveness of which the current CA drought tends to reduce.
California's Democrats, long in thrall to Sierra Club tree huggers, have wanted to shut down all the nukes, which produce no atmospheric pollutants but are still anathema to greens. Diablo Canyon has been scheduled to close in 2025. One of our junior faculty left academia to be a training officer for the Diablo Canyon plant, he'd be retired by now.
Running out of electricity for air conditioning in sunny CA is very unpopular with voters. So Gov. "Gruesome" Newsom has proposed a special state grant to keep the Diablo Canyon nuke running for another 10 years. The Sierra Club and WWF lobbies must be livid.
