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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 25524', '§ 25524', '§ 25524', '§ 25524', '§ 25524', '§ 25524', '§ 25524', '§ 25524', '§ 271', '§ 2018', '§ 25524', '§ 271', '§ 25524', '§ 25524', '§ 25524', '§ 25524', '§ 8', '§ 274', '§ 25524', '§ 25524', '§ 25524', '§ 25524', '§ 25524', '§ 25524', '§ 25524', '§ 25524', '§ 7133', '§ 25524', '§ 5801', '§ 25500', '§ 25528', '§ 25524', '§ 25503', '§ 25524', '§ 25524', '§ 271', '§ 2018', '§ 108', '§ 7416']

PG & E V. STATE ENERGY COMM'N, 461 U. S. 190 (1983) - US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
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(a) The question of ripeness turns "on the fitness of the issues for judicial decision" and "the hardship to the parties of withholding court chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
(b) Section 25524.2 does not conflict with federal regulation of nuclear waste disposal, with the decision of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that it is permissible to continue to license reactors, notwithstanding uncertainty surrounding the waste disposal problem, or with Congress' recent passage of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 directed at that problem. Because the NRC's decision does not and could not compel a utility to develop a nuclear plant, compliance with both that decision and § 25524.2 is possible. Moreover, because the NRC's regulations are aimed at insuring that plants are safe, not necessarily that they are economical, § 25524.2 does not interfere with the objective of those regulations. And as there is no attempt on California's part to enter the field of developing and licensing nuclear waste disposal technology, a field occupied by the Federal Government, § 25524.2 is not preempted any more by the NRC's obligations in the waste disposal chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
WHITE, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which BURGER, C.J.,and BRENNAN, MARSHALL, POWELL, REHNQUIST and O'CONNOR, JJ., joined. BLACKMUN, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, in which STEVENS, J., joined, post, p. 461 U. S. 223. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The turning of swords into plowshares has symbolized the transformation of atomic power into a source of energy in chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
This case emerges from the intersection of the Federal Government's efforts to ensure that nuclear power is safe with the exercise of the historic state authority over the generation and sale of electricity. At issue is whether provisions in the 1976 amendments to California's Warren-Alquist Act, Cal.Pub.Res.Code Ann. §§ 25524.1(b) and 25524.2 (West 1977), which condition the construction of nuclear plants on findings by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission that adequate storage facilities and means of disposal are available for nuclear waste, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
A nuclear reactor must be periodically refueled and the "spent fuel" removed. This spent fuel is intensely radioactive, and must be carefully stored. The general practice is to store the fuel in a water-filled pool at the reactor site. For many years, it was assumed that this fuel would be reprocessed; accordingly, the storage pools were designed as short-term holding facilities with limited storage capacities. As expectations for reprocessing remained unfulfilled, the spent fuel accumulated in the storage pools, creating the risk that nuclear reactors would have to be shut down. This could occur if there were insufficient room in the pool to store spent fuel and also if there were not enough space to hold the entire fuel core when certain inspections or emergencies required unloading of the reactor. In recent years, the problem has taken on special urgency. Some 8,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel have already accumulated, and it is projected that, by the year 2000, there will be some 72,000 metric tons of spent fuel. [Footnote 1] Government studies indicate that a number of reactors could be forced to shut down in the near future due to the inability to store spent fuel. [Footnote 2] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
There is a second dimension to the problem. Even with water pools adequate to store safely all the spent fuel produced during the working lifetime of the reactor, permanent disposal is needed because the wastes will remain radioactive for thousands of years. [Footnote 3] A number of long-term nuclear waste management strategies have been extensively examined. These range from sinking the wastes in stable deep seabeds, to placing the wastes beneath ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, to ejecting the wastes into space by rocket. The greatest attention has been focused on disposing of the wastes in subsurface geologic repositories such as salt deposits. [Footnote 4] Problems of how and where to store nuclear wastes has engendered considerable scientific, political, and public debate. There are both safety and economic aspects to the nuclear waste issue: first, if not properly stored, nuclear wastes might leak and endanger both the environment and human health; [Footnote 5] second, the lack of a long-term disposal option increases the risk that the insufficiency of interim storage space for spent fuel will lead to reactor shutdowns, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Two sections of these amendments are before us. Section 25524.1(b) provides that, before additional nuclear plants may be built, the Energy Commission must determine on a case-by-case basis that there will be "adequate capacity" for storage of a plant's spent fuel rods "at the time such nuclear facility requires such . . . storage." The law also requires that each utility provide continuous, on-site, "full core reserve storage capacity" in order to permit storage of the entire reactor chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In 1978, petitioners Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co. filed this action in the United States District Court, requesting a declaration that numerous provisions of the Warren-Alquist Act, including the two sections challenged here, are invalid under the Supremacy Clause because they are preempted by the Atomic Energy Act. The District Court held that petitioners had standing to challenge §§ 25524.1(b) and 25524.2, [Footnote 9] that the issues presented by these two statutes are ripe for adjudication, and that the two provisions are void because they are preempted by and in conflict with the Atomic Energy Act. 489 F.Supp. 699 (ED Cal.1980). chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the District Court's ruling that the petitioners have standing to challenge the California statutes, and also agreed that the challenge to § 25524.2 is ripe for review. It concluded, however, that the challenge to § 25524.1(b) was not ripe "[b]ecause we cannot know whether the Energy Commission will ever find a nuclear plant's storage capacity to be inadequate. . . ." 659 F.2d 903, 918 (1981). [Footnote 10] On the merits, the court held that the nuclear moratorium provisions of § 25524.2 were not preempted because §§ 271 and 274(k) of the Atomic Energy Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2018 and 2021(k), constitute a congressional authorization for States to regulate nuclear powerplants "for purposes other than protection against radiation hazards." [Footnote 11] The court held that § 25524.2 was not designed to provide protection against radiation hazards, but chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
was adopted because "uncertainties in the nuclear fuel cycle make nuclear power an uneconomical and uncertain source of energy." 659 F.2d 925. Nor was the provision invalid as a barrier to fulfillment of the federal goal of encouraging the development of atomic energy. The granting of state authority in §§ 271 and 274(k), combined with recent federal enactments, demonstrated that Congress did not intend that nuclear power be developed "at all costs," but only that it proceed consistent with other priorities and subject to controls traditionally exercised by the States and expressly preserved by the federal statute. [Footnote 12]
387 U. S. 148-149 (1967). In Abbott Laboratories, which remains our leading discussion of the doctrine, we indicated that the question of ripeness turns on "the fitness of the issues for judicial decision" and "the hardship to the parties of withholding court consideration." [email protected] at 387 U. S. 149.
Both of these factors counsel in favor of finding the challenge to the waste disposal regulations in § 25524.2 ripe for adjudication. The question of preemption is predominantly legal, and although it would be useful to have the benefit of California's interpretation of what constitutes a demonstrated technology or means for the disposal of high-level nuclear waste, resolution of the preemption issue need not await that development. Moreover, postponement of decision would likely work substantial hardship on the utilities. As the Court of Appeals cogently reasoned, for the utilities to proceed in hopes that, when the time for certification came, either the required findings would be made or the law would be struck down requires the expenditures of millions of dollars over a number of years, without any certainty of recovery if certification were denied. [Footnote 13] The construction of new nuclear facilities requires considerable advance planning -- on the order of 12 to 14 years. [Footnote 14] Thus, as in the Rail Reorganization Act Cases, 419 U. S. 102, 419 U. S. 144 (1974), "decisions to be made now or in the short future may be affected" by whether we act. "One does not have to await the consummation of threatened injury to obtain preventive relief. If the injury is certainly impending, that is enough.'" Id. at 419 U. S. 143, quoting Pennsylvania v. West Virginia, 262 U. S. 553, 262 U. S. 593 (1923). To require the industry to proceed without knowing whether the moratorium is valid would impose a palpable chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
and considerable hardship on the utilities, and may ultimately work harm on the citizens of California. Moreover, if petitioners are correct that § 25524.2 is void because it hinders the commercial development of atomic energy, "delayed resolution would frustrate one of the key purposes of the [Atomic Energy] Act." Duke Power Co. v. Carolina Environmental Study Group, Inc., 438 U. S. 59, 438 U. S. 82 (1978). For these reasons, the issue of whether § 25524.2 is preempted by federal law should be decided now. [Footnote 15] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
It is well established that, within constitutional limits, Congress may preempt state authority by so stating in express terms. Jones v. Rath Packing Co., 430 U. S. 519, 430 U. S. 525 (1977). Absent explicit preemptive language, Congress' intent chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Petitioners, the United States, and supporting amici, present three major lines of argument as to why § 25524.2 is preempted. First, they submit that the statute -- because it regulates construction of nuclear plants and because it is allegedly predicated on safety concerns -- ignores the division between federal and state authority created by the Atomic Energy Act, and falls within the field that the Federal Government has preserved for its own exclusive control. Second, the statute, and the judgments that underlie it, conflict with decisions concerning the nuclear waste disposal issue made by Congress and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Third, the California statute frustrates the federal goal of developing nuclear technology as a source of energy. We consider each of these contentions in turn. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison Co., 419 U. S. 345, 419 U. S. 357 (1974). See Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Comm'n of New York, 447 U. S. 557, 447 U. S. 569 (1980) ("The State's concern that rates be fair and efficient represents a clear and substantial governmental interest"). With the exception of the broad authority of the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Atomic Energy Act must be read, however, against another background. Enrico Fermi demonstrated the first nuclear reactor in 1942, and Congress authorized civilian application of atomic power in 1946, Atomic Energy Act of 1946, see Act of Aug. 1, 1946, 60 Stat. 755, at which time the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was created. Until 1954, however, the use, control, and ownership of nuclear technology remained a federal monopoly. The Atomic Energy Act of 1954, Act of Aug. 30, 1954, 68 Stat. 919, as chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Commission, however, was not given authority over the generation of electricity itself, or over the economic question whether a particular plant should be built. We observed in Vermont Yankee, supra, at 435 U. S. 550, that "[t]he Commission's prime area of concern in the licensing context, . . . is national security, public health, and safety." See also Power Reactor Development Co. v. Electrical Workers, 367 U. S. 396, 367 U. S. 415 (1961) (utility's investment not to be considered by Commission in its licensing decisions). The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which now exercises the AEC's regulatory authority, does not purport to exercise its authority based on economic considerations, 10 CFR § 8.4 (1982), and has recently repealed its regulations concerning the financial qualifications and capabilities of a utility proposing to construct and operate a nuclear powerplant. 47 Fed.Reg. 13751 (1982). In its notice of rule repeal, the NRC stated that utility financial qualifications are only of concern to the NRC if related to the public health and safety. [Footnote 18] It is chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Although the authority reserved by § 274(c) was exclusively for the Commission to exercise, see S.Rep. No. 870, supra, at 8, 9; H.R.Rep. No. 1125, 86th Cong., 1st Sess., 8, 9 (1959), Congress made clear that the section was not intended to cut back on preexisting state authority outside the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The accompanying Report by the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy makes clear that the amendment was not intended to detract from state authority over energy facilities. [Footnote 22] Instead, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
This account indicates that, from the passage of the Atomic Energy Act in 1954, through several revisions, and to the present day, Congress has preserved the dual regulation of chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The above is not particularly controversial. But deciding how § 25524.2 is to be construed and classified is a more difficult proposition. At the outset, we emphasize that the statute does not seek to regulate the construction or operation of a nuclear powerplant. It would clearly be impermissible for California to attempt to do so, for such regulation, even if enacted out of nonsafety concerns, would nevertheless directly conflict with the NRC's exclusive authority over plant construction and operation. Respondents appear to concede as much. Respondents do broadly argue, however, that although safety regulation of nuclear plants by States is forbidden, a State may completely prohibit new construction until its safety concerns are satisfied by the Federal Government. We reject this line of reasoning. State safety regulation is not preempted only when it conflicts with federal law. Rather, the Federal Government has occupied the entire field of nuclear safety concerns, except the limited powers expressly ceded to the States. [Footnote 25] When the Federal Government chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
That being the case, it is necessary to determine whether there is a nonsafety rationale for § 25524.2. California has maintained, and the Court of Appeals agreed, that § 25524.2 was aimed at economic problems, not radiation hazards. The California Assembly Committee on Resources, Land Use, and Energy, which proposed a package of bills including § 25524.2, reported that the waste disposal problem was "largely economic or the result of poor planning, not safety related." Reassessment of Nuclear Energy in California: A Policy Analysis of Proposition 15 and its Alternatives, p. 18 (1976) (Reassessment Report) (emphasis in original). The Committee explained that the lack of a federally approved method of waste disposal created a "clog" in the nuclear fuel cycle. Storage space was limited, while more nuclear wastes were continuously produced. Without a permanent means of disposal, the nuclear waste problem could become critical, chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
659 F.2d 925.
Our general practice is to place considerable confidence in the interpretations of state law reached by the federal courts of appeals. Cf. Mills v. Rogers, 457 U. S. 291, 457 U. S. 306 (1982); Bishop v. Wood, 426 U. S. 341, 426 U. S. 346 (1976). Petitioners and amici nevertheless attempt to upset this interpretation in a number of ways. First, they maintain that § 25524.2 evinces no concern with the economics of nuclear power. The statute states that the "development" and "existence" of a permanent disposal technology approved by federal authorities will lift the moratorium; the statute does not provide for considering the economic costs of the technology selected. This view of the statute is overly myopic. Once a technology is selected and demonstrated, the utilities and the California Public Utilities Commission would be able to estimate costs; such cost estimates cannot be made until the Federal Government has settled upon the method of long-term waste disposal. Moreover, once a satisfactory disposal technology is found and demonstrated, fears of having to close down operating reactors should largely evaporate. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Fourth, petitioners note that Proposition 15, the initiative out of which § 25524.2 arose, and companion provisions in California's so-called nuclear laws, are more clearly written with safety purposes in mind. [Footnote 27] It is suggested that § 25524.2 shares a common heritage with these laws, and should be presumed to have been enacted for the same purposes. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Therefore, we accept California's avowed economic purpose as the rationale for enacting § 25524.2. Accordingly, the statute lies outside the occupied field of nuclear safety regulation. [Footnote 28] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Congress gave the Department of Energy the responsibility for "the establishment of temporary and permanent facilities for storage, management, and ultimate disposal of nuclear wastes." 42 U.S.C. § 7133(a)(8)(C) (1976 ed., chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The NRC's imprimatur, however, indicates only that it is safe to proceed with such plants, not that it is economically wise to do so. [Footnote 29] Because the NRC order does not and could chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
After this case was decided by the Court of Appeals, a new piece was added to the regulatory puzzle. In its closing week, the 97th Con gress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, Pub.L. 97-425, 96 Stat. 2201, a complex bill providing for a multifaceted attack on the problem. Inter alia, the bill authorizes repositories for disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, provides for licensing and expansion of interim storage, authorizes research and development, and provides a scheme for financing. While the passage of this new legislation may convince state authorities that there is now a sufficient federal commitment to fuel storage and waste disposal that licensing of nuclear reactors may resume, and, indeed, this seems to be one of the purposes of the Act, [Footnote 30] it does not appear that Congress intended chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Finally, it is strongly contended that § 25524.2 frustrates the Atomic Energy Act's purpose to develop the commercial use of nuclear power. It is well established that state law is preempted if it "stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress." chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Court of Appeals' suggestion that legislation since 1974 has indicated a "change in congressional outlook" is unconvincing. The court observed that Congress reorganized the Atomic Energy Commission in 1974 by dividing the promotional and safety responsibilities of the AEC, giving the former to the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) [Footnote 31] and the latter to the NRC. Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, 88 Stat. 1233, 42 U.S.C. § 5801 et seq. The evident desire of Congress to prevent safety from being chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Court of Appeals is right, however, that the promotion of nuclear power is not to be accomplished "at all costs." The elaborate licensing and safety provisions and the continued preservation of state regulation in traditional areas belie that. Moreover, Congress has allowed the States to determine -- as a matter of economics -- whether a nuclear plant vis-a-vis a fossil fuel plant should be built. The decision of California to exercise that authority does not, in itself, constitute a basis for preemption. [Footnote 33] Therefore, while the argument chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The court also held unripe challenges to various certification provisions, Cal.Pub.Res.Code Ann. §§ 25500, 25502, 25504, 25511, 25512, 25514, 25516, 25517, 25519, 25520, 25523, 25532 (West 1977 and Supp.1983), requirements that utilities acquire surrounding development rights, § 25528 (West Supp.1983), and the reprocessing provisions of § 25524.1(a). The requirement that a utility propose at least three alternative sites, § 25503, was held ripe for review and not preempted by the Atomic Energy Act for reasons similar to those applied to § 25524.2. 659 F.2d 915-918.
In the same appeal, the Ninth Circuit consolidated and decided a related challenge to § 25524.2 brought by a nuclear engineer hired to work on a proposed nuclear plant who subsequently lost his job when the project was abandoned. The District Court had held that the engineer had standing to challenge the waste disposal law and that the law was preempted by the Atomic Energy Act. Pacific Legal Foundation v. State Energy Resources Comm'n, 472 F.Supp. 191 (SD Cal.1979). The Court of Appeals disagreed with the District Court's standing analysis, and reversed. 659 F.2d 911-914. We denied certiorari. 457 U.S. 1133 (1982).
659 F.2d 916 (footnote omitted). Respondents' "fears" that petitioners will not seek to pursue the nuclear option, notwithstanding a favorable decision in this litigation, appear greatly exaggerated.
I join the Court's opinion, except to the extent it suggests that a State may not prohibit the construction of nuclear powerplants if the State is motivated by concerns about the safety of such plants. Since the Court finds that California was not so motivated, this suggestion is unnecessary to the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
First, Congress has occupied not the broad field of "nuclear safety concerns," but only the narrower area of how a nuclear plant should be constructed and operated to protect against radiation hazards. [Footnote 2/1] States traditionally have possessed the authority to choose which technologies to rely on in meeting their energy needs. Nothing in the Atomic Energy Act limits this authority, or intimates that a State, in exercising this authority, may not consider the features that distinguish nuclear plants from other power sources. On the contrary, § 271 of the Act, 68 Stat. 960, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2018, indicates that States may continue, with respect to nuclear chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In short, there is an important distinction between the threshold determination whether to permit the construction of new nuclear plants and, if the decision is to permit construction, the subsequent determinations of how to construct chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
A state regulation also conflicts with federal law if it "stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress." Hines v. Davidowitz, 312 U. S. 52, 312 U. S. 67 (1941). The Court suggests that a safety-motivated state ban on nuclear plants would be preempted under this standard as well. See ante at 461 U. S. 213, 461 U. S. 221-222. [Footnote 2/3] But Congress has merely encouraged the development chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
More recent legislation makes it very clear that there is no federal policy preventing a State from choosing to rely on technologies it considers safer than nuclear power. The Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, 88 Stat. 1233, 42 U.S.C. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
This legislative purpose is consistent with the fact that States retain many means of prohibiting the construction of nuclear plants within their borders. States may refuse to issue certificate of public convenience and necessity for individual nuclear powerplants. They may establish siting and land use requirements for nuclear plants that are more stringent than those of the NRC. Cf. NRC Authorization Act for Fiscal 1980, Pub.L. 96-295, § 108(f), 94 Stat. 783. Under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977, States may regulate radioactive air emissions from nuclear plants, and may impose more stringent emission standards than those promulgated by the NRC. 42 U.S.C. §§ 7416, 7422 (1976 ed., Supp. V). This authority may be used to prevent the construction of nuclear plants altogether. Consolidated Edison Co. of New York, Inc. (Indian Point Station, Unit No. 2), ALAB-453, 7 N.R.C. 31, 34, and n. 13 (1978). chanroblesvirtualawlibrary