On Thursday November 6th, the California Coastal Commission considered the mitigation package for coastal permits for the extension of operations of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County from 2025 to 2030. 

SB 846 (2022) authorized PG&E to continue to operate the plant five years beyond its scheduled closure in 2025, and included provisions to address concerns about seismic safety, worker retention, federal funding, and more – including the disposition of the 12,000 acres of land around the plant.  These lands are known as the “Diablo Canyon Lands” – one of the most scenic, resource rich, and undeveloped stretches of California’s coastline.

The issue in front of the Coastal Commission was whether mitigation measures proposed by PG&E and Commission staff were adequate to issue the permits needed by PG&E to keep Diablo Canyon running under SB 846.  In short, the mitigation measures proposed were not adequate, and even the staff report stated that its plan was “not sufficient to achieve consistency of the proposed project” due to the large scale of environmental impacts.

I wrote to the Coastal Commission on October 23, 2025, calling into question the proposed mitigation package, and instead recommended a new plan, calling for conservation easements and other measures to protect the full 12,000 acre Diablo Canyon Lands, as well as to support public and tribal access and an adequate trail endowment (see PG&E’s Application for Extended Operation of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant - Coastal Development Permit and CZMA Consistency Certification | Senator John Laird). Dozens of speakers at the Commission’s meeting agreed, including Assemblymember Dawn Addis and San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Bruce Gibson.

At the Coastal Commission meeting itself, individual members of the Commission also agreed that full conservation of the Diablo Canyon Lands was needed to offset environmental impacts associated with Diablo Canyon’s extension until 2030.  The Commission then paused deliberations, asking its staff and PG&E to work out a new proposal aligning with the Commissioners’ comments and direction.  PG&E did not agree with the new proposal, and so the matter was continued one month until the Commission’s next meeting.

Let’s be clear, we are not attempting to reject this permit application to extend Diablo Canyon’s operation until 2030.  The issue before the Commission is rather how much of the Diablo Canyon Lands to protect.  The Commissioners, myself, and the many stakeholders – who testified for many hours at the hearing – support full conservation of all the Diablo Canyon Lands, now.  At the present time, PG&E does not. 

I am hopeful that PG&E can rise to the challenge and use the extra month to figure out how to be supportive of greater protection now for all the Diablo Canyon Lands. This result is consistent with and supported by the extensive environmental analysis contained in the staff report, as well as by SB 846, an overwhelming vote of SLO County residents, the Strategic Vision of the Diablo Canyon Decommissioning Engagement Panel, and a 2023 report of the California Natural Resources Agency, among others.

By so doing, PG&E can also honor the community that has built and safely operated the Diablo Canyon Power Plant for over four decades.