Opinion ID: 394177
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The acquisition of development rights

Text: 41 A similar analysis convinces us that the challenge to section 25528 is not ripe for review. In one sense, it presents a purely legal question: can California require a utility to acquire development rights so as to limit the population density surrounding its nuclear plants, when the NRC has not done so? Several factors persuade us, however, that the question would be better decided after the statute has been applied. 42 First, the Energy Commission may not need to exercise its power to require acquisition of development rights. The Energy Commission is directed to waive the requirement to the extent that existing land use laws maintain a safe population level. Cal.Pub.Res. Code § 25528(c). We have no way of knowing at present whether the Energy Commission will find such laws to be insufficient in any particular case. We are reluctant to rule on the constitutionality of a statute that may never be used. See Babbitt v. United Farm Workers National Union, 442 U.S. 289, 305, 99 S.Ct. 2301, 2312, 60 L.Ed.2d 895 (1979). Moreover, the statute contemplates that the Energy Commission will ordinarily follow NRC standards on population density. Cal.Pub.Res. Code § 25528(b). 21 It is not clear whether the statute authorizes the Energy Commission to set standards different from those of the NRC. To date, the Energy Commission has neither interpreted the statute nor set different standards. If it did so, our preemption analysis might be affected. 43 For these reasons, and because we see no harm to the parties in delay, we hold that the utilities' challenge is not ripe. The issue must await the Energy Commission's enforcement of section 25528 in the face of an actual application for certification.