California lawmakers in standoff with Gavin Newsom over $400M loan to keep Diablo Canyon open (Sacramento Bee)

“California lawmakers rejected Gov. Gavin Newsom’s bid to include another $400 million for Pacific Gas & Electric Co. in the state budget, in a political standoff that began in 2022 with a bargain to keep the Diablo Canyon Power Plant open.

Newsom cut a $1.4 billion deal to keep the nuclear plant operational until 2030 amid record summer temperatures and a budget surplus in 2022. Now that the state is facing a deficit, legislative leaders cut the money in their budget proposal last week.

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‘It feels like we’re being taken advantage of here,’ said Sen. Benjamin Allen, D-El Segundo, in a budget committee hearing last month. ‘A lot of the terms that we were sold have not been fulfilled by the administration. We were all asked to support it although many of us didn’t want to … and now we’re being asked for this loan with conditions I’m not clear on.’”

Read the full article from The Sacramento Bee by clicking here.