Fresno, CA

California Assembly member Chuck Devore, R-Irvine filed an initiative to lift the state’s 1976 ban on building nuclear power plants. California banned building new nuclear plants until the federal government finds a way to permanently dispose of nuclear waste.

Devore is trying to get the initiative on the June 2008 ballot. The initiative is backed by the Fresno Nuclear Energy Group LLC. The Fresno Nuclear Energy Group, which launched December 2006, is headed by John Hutson. The other members of the group include the Chief Executive of the Fresno Chamber of Commerce, Al Smith, businessmen Dick Caglia and Richard Egan, owner of Lyons Magus, Bob Smittcamp, bay area contractor Tom McClean, and M. Aslam Lone, Ph.D.

The Fresno Nuclear Energy Group signed a letter of intent with UniStar Nuclear Development Group LLC. According to UniStar’s website the company’s mission is “to explore the viability of building a community-owned nuclear power plant to support our area’s economic, environmental, and growing energy needs and to help curb our Nation’s dependence on foreign oil.”

Although green house gas emissions are not generated from the use of nuclear energy, methane is released during uranium mining. Methane has a warming effect 23 times greater than carbon. The process of enriching uranium is energy intensive. Both the construction and operation of nuclear plants results in carbon emissions.

Nuclear energy supplies only 12.9% of energy in California, according to a 2006 report by California Energy Commission. Renewables, including solar power, only provide 10.9%. Only two nuclear power plants exist in CA: San Onofre in southern California and Diablo Canyon near San Luis Obispo.

The Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility (ARC) is an anti-nuclear group. The ARC posted a link on their website to a petition which requests the U.S. congress to “investigate the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.” According to the Alliance the NRC wants to build “as many as 50 new nuclear plants with adequate consideration of important safety issues.”

The Kings River Conservation District (KRCD) and San Francisco-based Cleantech America LLC announced plans to build an 80-megawatt solar plant in west Fresno County. The solar plant will be 640 acres. Cleantech is looking at five different sites in west Fresno County. According to the company the agreement is with the “recently formed San Joaquin Valley Power Authority (SJVPA).” Once built the plant will be the nation’s largest solar plant.

Cleantech also announced plans to build a 5-megawatt solar plant in the Fresno County town of Mendota. The plant will be 40 acres, and will be completed in 2009. Cleantech says the plant will provide “clean, reliable peak solar energy to PG&E customers throughout northern and central California.”

The Fresno Yosemite International Airport will install what the Fresno Bee reports as “the largest solar power system of any airport in the country.” WorldWater & Power Corp., located in will own and operate the two-megawatt system.

California State University, Fresno announced construction began on a “solar panel-topped parking structure system.” Chevron Energy Solutions is building the parking structure which “will be the largest of its kind at any university in the United States.” The parking structure will convert solar energy into 1 megawatt of electricity, and supply 20 percent of the university’s electricity.

“Solar power is an important resource in the global energy portfolio… Fresno State is demonstrating that clean, renewable power is commercially viable and growing in demand,” said Jim Davis, president of Chevron Energy Solutions.

“Fresno can become the nation’s premier solar city…Fresno was built upon its abundant sunshine and long sunny days. Let’s start putting that sun to use not just on the farm but in growing our city, as well. Let’s make Fresno the state’s solar power leader,” Fresno County Board of Supervisors member Henry Perea proclaimed in a June 2006 article for the website, FresnoFamous.com.