Oh No! Not Nuclear in EBCE Again?!

(09/2020) East Bay clean energy activists were alarmed to discover that the question of including nuclear energy in East Bay Community Energy’s (EBCE) power mix has come up again at the September 16 Board meeting. This time the issue is being framed as an attempt to rescue the EBCE’s Brilliant 100 product (100% carbon-free) that some cities in EBCE lean on to reduce their City’s GHG emissions on paper.

On April 22, 2020  we defeated a proposal to accept an allotment of nuclear energy from PG&E at the EBCE Board meeting by a vote of 10-5. That defeat came as a result of a 6-month outreach and advocacy effort by East Bay Clean Power Alliance’s founding organizations Local Clean Energy Alliance and the SF Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club. That effort resulted in 64 community speakers against taking nuclear on an online zoom meeting of the EBCE Board in the midst of a shelter-in-place order.
 
At the July Board meeting, EBCE staff brought up an issue with their Brilliant 100, which is that it costs more than the revenues recouped when the rate for the product is at parity with PG&E’s base price. At that meeting the Board voted to continue Brilliant 100 for already enrolled customers until January 2021, and then start transitioning Brilliant 100 customers to the other two products, Bright Choice (at 1% discount vs. PG&E ) and Renewable 100 (at a premium cost). 
 
However, Hayward, which made the choice to opt all residential and municipal customers up to to Brilliant 100 when EBCE began electrical service in 2018, is perturbed at the increase in emissions on paper that would result from the loss of Brilliant 100 in EBCE. Hayward city council requested options to keep Brilliant 100 in order to maintain the price parity with PG&E of that product. EBCE staff and Hayward representative, Al Mendall proposes nuclear as the solution to this issue.
 
If any city in EBCE accepts nuclear it will mean that EBCE’s power mix includes nuclear, undoing the victory achieved April 22. It means that EBCE’s power content label will no longer show 0% nuclear on the power content label. 
 
This is a huge betrayal of community trust. East Bay Clean Power Alliance is calling for all allies to speak out against this proposal at the Wednesday October 21, 2020 Board meeting, and the upcoming Executive Board meeting this Friday, September 25. (You need to sign up to speak 30 minutes before the meeting begins).
 
The arguments against EBCE taking nuclear are many. Nuclear energy is unsafe, not clean and due to be completely phased out of California by 2025. If EBCE takes nuclear it helps PG&E, which needs to unload nuclear in order to meet state Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requirements. A large proportion of the Power Charge Indifference Adjustment (PCIA) we pay to PG&E goes to subsidize the $1 billion overhead costs to keep Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant functioning. Taking Diablo Canyon nuclear energy from PG&E does nothing to decrease actual GHG emissions—neither local emissions, nor California State emissions, because that nuclear power is already on the grid.