[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Assemblymember Chuck DeVore's initiative to allow the rapid construction of nuclear power plants in California bit the big one yesterday.

With no support and no funding, the initiative -- largely considered a publicity stunt by the right-wing Assemblymember -- was yanked. DeVore told the press he would reintroduce it if his legislation didn't get signed into law next year. And given the distaste for nuclear power among California citizens, it looks like the most DeVore will get out of it will be another few headlines.

DeVore cites nuclear power as clean energy that will help ease the global warming crisis. However, DeVore's concern about global warming seems to end when it comes to actually doing something about it: he joined all but one Republican legislator in opposing AB 32, California's landmark greenhouse gas emissions control law.

Image courtesy CorrosionCost.com.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Gary A. Patton
Executive Director
Planning and Conservation League

At its meeting last week, the PCL Executive Committee took official action to oppose a proposed ballot initiative designed to allow more nuclear power plants in California. The measure would essentially repeal the Nuclear Safeguards Initiative, passed by California voters in 1976. Here’s what it would do:

• Repeal California's nuclear power plant safety protections and permit construction of nuclear power plants in seismically active areas.

• Allow nuclear generation plants in the Coastal Zone.

• Allow construction of nuclear power plants before facilities for permanent, long-term storage of radioactive materials are developed and licensed.

• Redefine permanent storage of high-level radioactive waste to "100 plus years of onsite storage at California's reactors" as the benchmark to be met for the state to lift its moratorium on the siting of new nuclear reactors.

The full text of the proposed measure is available on the Attorney General's website.