Southern California Edison has decided to permanently shutter its Units 2 and 3 San Onofre Nuclear Generating Stations (SONGS) reactors in Southern Cal! Congratulations to all who fought so hard for this great victory! Read the Edison press release.
"This is very good news for the people of Southern California," said [a] statement from Friends of the Earth president Erich Pica. "We have long said that these reactors are too dangerous to operate and now Edison has agreed. The people of California now have the opportunity to move away from the failed promise of dirty and dangerous nuclear power and replace it with the safe and clean energy provided by the sun and wind."
And, as S. David Freeman, FOE senior advisor, pointed out on a telephone press conference, San Onofre's closure paves the way for CA Governor Jerry Brown's call for not only 33% of the state's electricity to come from renewables, but even a whopping 40%. Freeman added that electricity load management, efficiency upgrades, energy storage (as from lithium batteries, compressed air energy storage, etc.) will be critical to CA's nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future.
FOE's Damon Moglen pointed out that CA is becoming one of the single largest economies in the entire world leading the way toward a nuclear-free energy future.