On Monday, Sen. John Laird announced that an agreement had been made on community funding from PG&E for the ongoing operation of Diablo Canyon Power Plant.
Laird told KSBY News that he was working on similar legislation when PG&E reached out to him last week.
“The significance about making an agreement rather than doing the bill is that PG&E set the precedent that they can voluntarily do this,” Laird said.
The agreement will bring in $8.3 million a year for the next two years from shareholder funds. However, the power plant is currently extended until 2030.
“There is more work to be done," said Bruce Gibson, San Luis Obsipo County District 2 Supervisor. "We have to figure out what’s going to happen in the other three years of the extension.”
Gibson added that these funds are a good start and that historically the plant has generated more than $20 million in unitary taxes yearly. He says the county, school district, state, and governors office all need to work together.
“Figure out what our actual revenue amount should be," Gibson said. "$8 million a year seems low to me given that PG&E is operating this plant as they always have.”
One recipient of those funds is the San Luis Coastal Unified School District which had to cut more than $10 million in expenditures over the last two years.
“Staffing in a lot of different areas, right," said Ryan Pinkerton, SLCUSD assistant superintendent. "Class sizes we’ve lost some grounds people, custodians, we had to cut back on our library hours you know those will all be things now that the board can consider about bringing back.”
Pinkerton said they’re still awaiting details on how much will go to the school district but if it’s following the same language as SB 1090 then it would be around $4 million a year.
In a statement to KSBY News PG&E said:
"We appreciate the partnership of Senator Laird, San Luis Obispo County and local leaders in reaching this agreement. It helps address near-term community needs while recognizing the vital role Diablo Canyon plays in delivering reliable, clean and affordable energy. We look forward to continuing conversations with state and local leaders, including Diablo Canyon’s role beyond 2030, to ensure local communities and the state both benefit from this critical energy resource." - Tom Jones, Senior Director, Regulatory, Environmental and Repurposing
“There will be certain agreements that the county and PG&E has and then the county can turn around to do the fund distribution when the payment is made,” Laird said.
The first payment will be made on Dec. 31.
