nuclear-news

Natural gas replacing nuclear power for San Diego, San Diego.com By Morgan Lee   FEB. 19, 2015 Accusations that the state of California failed to consider clean energy options in replacing power once supplied by the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station are falling on deaf ears, as utility regulators and the state’s top court rejects appeals from local and national environmental groups.The complaints are centered around power supplies to the San Diego area, which once relied on San Onofre for 20 percent of its electricity, and two gas-fired power plants that have been embraced as early substitutes.

San Onofre was retired in 2013 because of a botched replacement generator project. Environmentalists warn that new investments in natural gas plants will undermine California’s aggressive goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming.

One of the successor plants, the Pio Pico Energy Center southeast of San Diego in Otay Mesa, is slated for construction starting March 9 after the California Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge by environmental groups. Opponents contend the plant, capable of powering nearly 200,000 homes at a time, is not needed to meet San Diego’s energy needs.

………SDG&E is seeking authorization for the Carlsbad Energy Center at the same time it evaluates the new bids. The overlapping quests for a new energy source in the San Diego area are the peculiar outcome of a race by grid operators to find an appropriate replacement for nuclear power. State law requires consideration of clean energy solutions, like solar power and conservation schemes that reduce peak electricity demands, before new fossil fuel burning power plants are commissioned…….http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/feb/19/natural-gas-replaces-nuclear/