California NetZero leaders want to shutter their only zero emissions electricity generating plant

Over the years the so-called forward-thinking policymakers in California have achieved questionable results:

• California's high cost of electricity is already more than 80 percent higher than the national average for residents and commercial, more than 140 percent for commercial, and are projected to go even higher.
• California imports more electricity than any other US state, more than twice the amount of Virginia, the second largest importer of electricity. California typically receives between one-fifth and one-third of its electricity supply from outside of the state, mostly from out-of-state coal fired power plants.
• California now has the second – highest rate of unemployment.
• California has lagging job growth.
• California has roughly half of the nation's homeless population.

The same policymakers that have achieved the above "low" points for the residents of California are the same ones seeking zero-emission targets for the State, while concurrently attempting to shutter its only zero-emissions electricity generating plant!

California prides itself on being a good environmental steward. However, since 2014, Warren Buffett's PacifiCorp has sold almost a billion dollars of electricity at wholesale to California of mostly pollution-laden coal-fired electricity generation sites outside of California. PacifiCorp's lobbying has successfully introduced corruption into California Energy Policies.

Independent nonprofit intervenor Californians for Green Nuclear Power's (CGNP's) filings connect this large volume of PacifiCorp power with post-2012 sales to Southern California Edison (SCE) of "unspecified power." (Unspecified power is a California-specific legal euphemism created in 2010 that mostly applies to out-of-state coal-fired power.)

Unspecified power from out-of-state coal-fired power plants has largely replaced the pollution-free power that SCE previously obtained from San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station (SONGS) which was closed at the end of January 2012 instead of being cost-effectively repaired after a mismanaged routine service operation.

Californians for Green Nuclear Power (CGNP) believe that PacifiCorp supplies most of the unspecified power imported from out of state coal-fired power plants that SCE sells now.

• PacifiCorp is a power company that has customers in California, Oregon and Washington. They have spent $2 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, and more than $5 million in total for 2023, making PacifiCorp's gargantuan lobbying expenditures for 2023 and 2024 the fifth largest spender for the year. This spending pace continues in 2025 at the state and federal level.

• It appears that PacifiCorp is likely able to achieve its huge California wholesale business objective by massive lobbying that influences policymakers.

• Even though PacifiCorp has a negligible retail footprint in California, in recent years the firm typically spends more on lobbying than the much larger Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E.)

• PacifiCorp's expenditures directly lobbying the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is concerning. The California Constitution assigns all legal disputes involving California public utilities to the CPUC. Thus, these direct lobbying expenditures can influence CPUC decisions that PacifiCorp is interested in.

Despite intense recent lobbying from Warren Buffett's PacifiCorp - likely focused on shutting down Diablo Canyon Power Plant (DCPP) so Warren's coal-fired power plants in and around Wyoming can supply even more electricity to California that already imports more electricity than any other US state.