August 26, 2025 – San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace (MFP) and Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, are challenging the CPUC for allowing PG&E to charge ratepayers $723 million to cover the costs for extending Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s operation through 2025.
The organizations assert their arguments in separate Appeals filed in the California State Court of Appeal.
Despite repeated requests from MFP and other environmental and consumer protection groups, the CPUC has declined to determine whether keeping the nuclear power plant operational is prudent and cost-effective for both the state and ratepayers, as required under California law, the appeal claims.
Diablo Canyon’s Unit 2 was scheduled to retire today, permanently closing California’s last remaining nuclear power plant. Instead, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) continues to profit from the extended operation of its plant while the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) fails to rein in the company’s excesses—leaving ratepayers to shoulder the burden of this aging, dangerous and expensive facility, despite the fact that renewable energy alternatives now satisfy California’s energy needs, making Diablo’s power unnecessary.
“The California Public Utilities Commission has both the authority and the legal responsibility to act as the gatekeeper protecting ratepayers from unjust and unreasonable charges,” said MFP’s attorney, Sabrina Venskus, of Venskus & Associates, A.P.C. – a leading environmental and public interest law firm in California. “The Commission’s unwillingness to act to evaluate the prudence and cost-effectiveness of charging ratepayers $723 million just to operate the nuclear power plant through the end of 2025 violates state law and puts ratepayers on the hook for funding an energy resource which the evidence indicates is no longer needed to accomplish the state’s renewable energy goals and actually impedes the progress of cheaper, cost-effective alternatives , such as offshore wind,” she added.
Under a 2016 agreement approved by the CPUC in 2018, Diablo Canyon’s Unit 1 was scheduled to retire in November 2024 and Unit 2 in August 2025. The passage of Senate Bill 846 (2022) reversed the CPUC’s 2018 approval, directing the CPUC to reconsider that approval and to analyze whether the nuclear reactors should continue to operate until2030. PG&E has applied to operate the reactors through 2045.
As of today, PG&E and the CPUC have not adhered to the requirements imposed by the legislature in Senate Bill 846, which include:
- Tracking costs associated with extended Diablo operations to ensure accountability.
- Prohibiting ratepayer funding for actions that merely preserve the option to extend Diablo’s operations, while ensuring any charges to ratepayers are just and reasonable.
- Evaluating cost-effectiveness if the costs of extended Diablo operations exceed the limits set by the state’s loan agreement.
“PG&E is betraying its contract with the state of California and the public by seeking to extend Diablo Canyon’s life to 2045,” said Jane Swanson of Mothers for Peace. “We are standing up for safe, sustainable energy and calling attention to the CPUC’s inaction to ensure ratepayers are protected.”
The filing in the California State Court of Appeal can be found here.