California’s nuclear power plants would be shut down under a proposed ballot measure that Secretary of State Debra Bowen cleared today for collection of petition signatures.

Here’s the Attorney General’s official title and summary for the measure:

NUCLEAR POWER. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Extends statutory preconditions, currently applicable to new operation of any nuclear power plant, to existing Diablo Canyon and San Onofre operations. Before further electricity production at these plants, requires California Energy Commission to find federal government has approved technology for permanent disposal of high-level nuclear waste. For nuclear power plants requiring reprocessing of fuel rods, requires Commission to find federal government has approved technology for nuclear fuel rod reprocessing plants. Both findings are subject to Legislature’s rejection. Further requires Commission to find on case-by-case basis facilities will be available with adequate capacity to reprocess or store power plant’s fuel rods. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Likely major impacts on state and local finances in the form of decreased revenues and increased costs, at least in the billions of dollars annually, due to disruptions in the state’s electricity system and electricity price increases. Potential major state costs to compensate utilities for investment losses resulting from the mandated shutdown of their nuclear power plants. Potential avoidance of future state and local government costs and lost revenues resulting from the unlikely event of a major nuclear plant incident. (11-0008.)

Proponent Ben Davis Jr. of Santa Cruz County has until Oct. 20 to collect valid signatures from at least 504,760 registered voters in order to qualify the measure for the ballot.

Davis has taken on this industry before: He apparently drafted what became a successful 1989 ballot referendum that shut down the Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station near Sacramento.

Davis’ request for a title and summary for his “Nuclear Waste Act of 2011” was filed March 30, a few weeks after the 9.0 earthquake and resultant tsunami that devastated Japan and triggered a crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

As I’d previewed Tuesday, the House voted 243-179 today to pass HR 1231, the “Reversing President Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act,” which would re-open oil drilling off California’s coast and anywhere else significant deposits are found three miles offshore. As expected, no Bay Area members supported it.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters at a Capitol Hill briefing that “the American people are demanding that Congress take concrete steps to increase the supply of American energy to lower costs, to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and to create jobs. Republicans are listening, and taking action to provide much-needed relief to families and small businesses who are struggling with high prices at the pump.”

It stands little chance in the Senate, where the dominant Democrats are moving to end tax subsidies for oil companies. U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., quickly condemned the House’s vote.

“This Republican bill is a direct assault on California’s $23 billion coastal economy and nearly 390,000 jobs in tourism, fishing and recreation that would do nothing to lower gas prices for consumers,” she said. “A year after the devastating BP oil spill sparked an economic and environmental disaster on the Gulf Coast, big oil companies and their allies are now seeking to put our coast at risk – even though they already have 50 million acres of oil and gas leases that they have yet to drill and even though this is not the way to lower gas prices.”

She said the right steps to address high gas prices include releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve; cracking down on fraud and speculation; forcing oil companies to either use active leases they already have or put them back on the market; ending oil’s tax subsidies and reinvesting that money in clean energy; continuing to raise fuel economy standards; and pursuing policies to limit exports of U.S. oil.

HR 1231 is part of a three-bill package authored by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., aimed at ending the Obama Administration’s moratorium on new leases for domestic offshore oil and gas drilling.

MAPLight.org, the Berkeley-based nonprofit that studies the influence of money in politics, took a close look at Wednesday’s 263-163 vote to pass Hastings’s HR 1229, the Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act, which would give the Interior Department a 30-day window in which to decide on Gulf of Mexico drilling applications. More than two dozen Democrats crossed the aisle to vote for the bill, while no Republicans opposed it.

MapLight.org found that interest groups supporting HR 1229 – including Republican/conservative groups, major oil and gas producers, agricultural chemical firms and pro-business associations – had given almost five times more on average to House Democrats who voted for on this bill than to Democrats who voted against it. Among all House members, interest groups supporting HR 1229 had given 6.5 times more on average to those voting for than to those voting against.

The House is expected to vote tomorrow on a bill that could re-open oil drilling off California’s coast.

H.R. 1231, the “Reversing President Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act,” would do just that, requiring the Interior Department to offer leases in every area with significant oil deposits three miles off the coast.

The California State Lands Commission – consisting of Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, state Controller John Chiang and state Finance Director Ana Matosantos – passed a resolution April 28 opposing this bill, and Newsom wrote to Congressional leaders today urging that it be voted down.

Newsom wrote that House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., “intends to mandate oil and gas drilling off all U.S. coasts and weaken the system for reviewing offshore drilling – even after last year’s disaster in the Gulf.”

“Healthy coasts and oceans are a critical priority for California, yet these bills counter California’s short and long term environmental goals, Newsom wrote. “California’s state and local governments, businesses, and civil society are all devoted to managing, protecting, and restoring our marine environment for the benefit of current and future generations. These bills would undermine the state’s efforts to keep our ocean clean and protect fisheries, marine life and key habitats.

Newsom said Hastings’ “drill-at-all-costs” mentality would actually weaken existing oversight, and contradicts the renewable energy policies the nation should be pursuing.

“It is imperative that the United States does not fall further behind in the development of efficient renewable power,” he said, citing his tenure as San Francisco’s mayor. “In my two terms elected, we voted to reach a goal of 100% renewable energy by 2020 and are well on our way towards it. These goals can and should be implemented at a wider scale without having to resort to mandated oil drilling. I challenge our government to mandate stricter renewable standards, and challenge our engineers to develop carbon zero technology.”

The House last week passed Hastings’ H.R. 1230, the “Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act,” on a 266-149 vote; that bill dealt with four specific oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and off Virginia’s coast.

Today, the House grappled with amendments to Hastings’ H.R. 1229, which would give the Interior Department a 30-day window in which to decide on Gulf of Mexico drilling applications. Among those amendments was one by Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, which would’ve required the Interior Secretary, when reviewing drilling permits, to consult with an independent drilling safety organization not affiliated with the oil industry trade association; his amendment was defeated on a 169-240 vote.

None of these bills are likely to fare well in the Democrat-dominated U.S. Senate, which was abuzz today with talk of ending tax subsidies for oil companies.

Rep. Jerry McNerney today helped introduce a bipartisan bill to help encourage more widespread use of electric cars.

The Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Act – which McNerney, D-Pleasanton, co-authored with Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto; Judy Biggert, R-Illinois; and Edward Markey, D-Mass. – would establish 10 “deployment communities” around the country to serve as hubs for increasing the use of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

“Our area has the right ingredients to be selected and successful as a regional hub for electric vehicle development and manufacturing,” McNerney said in a news release. “We have the resources to create new technology, the people with training and skills to manufacture these types of cars, and companies that are established and poised to expand in the electric vehicle field. This legislation would give our area and other places around the country the opportunity to compete for grants and other key incentives to jumpstart the electric vehicle industry.”

The bill would authorize the Secretary of Energy to establish regional electric vehicle hubs after evaluating applications from communities throughout the country, taking into account criteria such as the quality of their plans, benefits to consumers, and the ability of the community to increase the use of electric vehicles. Based on these applications, the Secretary of Energy will then competitively award up to $300 million in grants to each of the regional hubs.

Consumers in these communities would be offered incentives to buy electric cars, including $2,000 to the first 50,000 people within each hub who buy electric drive vehicles. The bill also extends federal tax credits for the purchase and installation of electric vehicle charging equipment for individuals (up to $2,000) or businesses (up to $50,000 for multiple equipment purchases). And the bill provides incentives for the use and manufacturing of electric vehicle technologies, including bond authority and a limited number of smaller grants for municipalities not selected as a hub.

“At a time of high unemployment and soaring gas prices this legislation is a win-win proposal,” McNerney said. “By spurring growth in the electric vehicle field we will create jobs and also provide people with more choices when it comes to the type of car they want to drive. With gas prices continuing to rise, more and more people are looking for a vehicle that will save them money.”

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu this morning announced his department is offering a conditional commitment for a $2.1 billion loan guarantee to support the first two phases of a gigantic solar energy project in Southern California.

This first half of the Blythe Solar Power Project, sponsored by Solar Trust of America LLC, is a two-unit concentrating solar thermal power plant that will produce 484 megawatts of power; Solar Trust Chairman and CEO Uwe Schmidt told reporters today that site preparation in Riverside County started last fall, and full-scale construction is likely to start late this spring or in early summer. A second phase – two more units capable of producing just as much energy as the first two – will be built a few years from now. All told, this will be the world’s largest solar facility, producing enough electricity to power more than 300,000 single-family homes each year.

This project is part of the company’s mission to “revolutionize the way we generate energy here in the United States,” Schmidt said, noting this will be the first solar facility on a scale and output capacity equal to the largest coal-fired and nuclear plants operating today.

Chu said the Obama Administration recognizes “we’re in a global race to develop and deploy clean energy technology,” and this project not only will create about 1,000 local construction jobs but also will avoid dumping more than 700,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.

Schmidt said the job creation actually will be much more considering the supply chain necessary for such a project, stretching from the job site to Midwestern steel mills.

Gov. Jerry Brown told reporters California appreciates the confidence and investment put into this project, and while the state has been at the forefront of alternative energy for more than 30 years, “you’ve got to have a long-term perspective and you’ve got to keep at it.”

Chu had joined Brown last week as he signed into law the state’s new renewable portfolio standard, increasing California’s current 20 percent target in 2010 to a 33 percent standard by December 31, 2020. Brown said today he’d like to see 20,000 megawatts of solar output by then.

This first half of the Blythe project include HelioTrough collectors, which the company says is a larger-yet-simpler design that’s less expensive to build and install but more efficient than earlier parabolic trough technology.

According to the project’s website, the technology uses hundreds of trough-shaped mirrors to focus the sun’s light and heat onto a pipe that runs along the collector’s focal line. This causes a heat-transfer fluid in the pipe to get hot, which generates steam in the power block through heat exchangers. Then, as with conventional power plants, that steam will be directed into a turbine to generate power.

This will be the first concentrating solar power parabolic trough plant to use an air-cooled condenser unit, which will decrease water use by nearly 90 percent compared with a water-cooled CSP facility. It will sell all of its electricity output to Southern California Edison and will deliver power into the California Independent System Operator power grid.

The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office has issued loan guarantees or offered conditional commitments for loan guarantees totaling over $21 billion to support 22 clean energy projects across 14 states. The program’s 11 generation projects will produce nearly 25 million megawatt-hours annually, enough to power over two million homes.

What began as an effort to protect the state’s landmark climate-change law against a ballot-driven rollback has become a permanent, bipartisan coalition dedicated to creating jobs in renewable energy and fighting climate change, organizers said Friday.

Former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and Farallon Capital Management senior partner Tom Steyer of San Francisco announced they’ll continue co-chairing “Californians for Clean Energy and Jobs.” The group – the outgrowth of the campaign against last November’s Proposition 23 – will support state, regional, and local clean energy policies, support implementation of the state’s climate-change law (AB 32), and promote renewable energy jobs, projects, and businesses.

“We are trying to continue to push on the very points that we made in the ‘No on Prop. 23’ campaign – I think we felt then that we managed to put together a bipartisan coalition that was statewide … and which managed to make clean energy not just something that the overwhelming majority of Californians favored, but something that was important to them,” Steyer told reporters on a conference call this morning. “What George and I are trying to continue to do is to make sure that impulse in the state of California continues to be followed.”

“I hate to say we’re getting the band back together, but: We’re getting the band back together.”

Shultz pursuing clean energy makes fiscal and national-security sense.

“Right now oil prices are soaring again. It’s like a gigantic tax increase. Do we need a huge tax increase at this stage of our economic life? No,” Shultz said. “How many times do you have to get hit on the head with a 2-by-4 before you realize somebody’s hitting you?”

Shultz said implementing AB 32 without hurting the economy means “putting a price on carbon … in a way that’s gradual” while encouraging innovation in other energy sources and conservation.

He also said that although other already-existing groups have similar agendas, this coalition “brings something else to the party” – a proven track record. Only 38.4 percent of Californians voted for Prop. 23, an oil-industry-funded measure which would’ve suspended AB 32’s implementation until the state’s unemployment rate drops to 5.5. percent or lower for four consecutive quarters. The 5,974,564 votes against the measure was the largest vote total in any candidate race or ballot measure in the nation last November.

“We’re not philosophers, we’re doers,” Shultz said.

Californians for Clean Energy and Jobs will produce a daily newsletter and website highlighting clean tech projects, defend and promote clean energy policies and legislation that protect clean air and promote job growth, and conduct other activities to continue momentum in the fastest-growing segment of the state’s economy.

The group says its immediate goals will be:

Coalition partners include the Silicon Valley Leadership Group; Ella Baker Center for Human Rights; Natural Resources Defense Council; the Environmental Defense Fund; Los Angeles Business Council; California League of Conservation Voters; California Business Alliance for a Green Economy; the American Lung Association in California; the BlueGreen Alliance; and Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2).

The group’s news release quoted Brown as saying “clean energy creates jobs and investment, and that’s exactly what we need to help turn our economy around. Californians for Clean Energy and Jobs will be a strong voice to ensure that California leads the nation in sustainable energy technology.”

And State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said the group “will play a critical role in helping promote policies that will create jobs, attract businesses and venture capital to our state, and expand the clean energy economy in California.”

More than half a million Californians hold “green jobs,” according to the state Employment Development Department. And the National Venture Capital Association says California in 2010 attracted nearly $10 billion in venture capital for the clean tech industry, more than six times that of any other state.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer called her news conference today in San Francisco to blast Republicans’ budget cuts, but she touched on Libya and nuclear safety, too.

Boxer, D-Calif., praised the Obama Administration for working through the United Nations Security Council – and at the behest of the Arab League – to act to halt Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s promised attacks on his own populace. The international community had an obligation to react to such a crisis, she said, though that reaction “should be limited in scope,” remain an international effort, and retain the Arab League’s support.

Asked whether the President overstepped his constitutional authority by committing U.S. military forces without Congress’ approval, Boxer replied that the Senate unanimously resolved to urge the U.N. Security Council to act in protection of Libya’s civilians, including establishment and enforcement of a no-fly zone. “So I did vote for this, and this is what the President did.”

Bringing it to Congress might’ve meant people such as Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio – who said Obama’s action was unconstitutional and has pledged to try to block any funding for military activities in Libya – could’ve debated it for weeks, she said. Kucinich is eloquent and some might agree with him, she said, but “anyone who said he (Obama) should’ve waited don’t feel the sense of urgency that many of us felt” about imminent harm to innocent Libyans.

Boxer also spoke about the “very worrisome” aftermath of Japan’s catastrophic earthquake and tsunami, particularly new reports that Tokyo’s drinking water might contain enough radioactive iodine to put infants at risk. It’s “a powerful wakeup call for our nation” to review our own nuclear safety, she said: The U.S. has 23 reactors of the same design as the damaged ones at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, as well as 54 plants built before 1980. And she noted the U.S. also has two nuclear power plants sited in areas with the highest degree of seismic risk – both located in California.

About 7.4 million people live within 50 miles of the San Onofre nuclear plant in northern San Diego County, she noted, while about 500,000 live within 50 miles of the Diablo Canyon plant in San Luis Obispo County. Significant new earthquake risks have been discovered since both plants were built.

She said she doesn’t believe PG&E, which operates Diablo Canyon, should be granted the permit extension it’s seeking until it has completed new seismic safety studies.

Boxer chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which oversees the nation’s nuclear industry through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The committee already has received a briefing from the NRC and other experts, and will hold a full hearing on nuclear safety next month, she said. She said her priorities are immediate reviews of U.S. reactors with the same design as the embattled Japanese reactors; U.S. reactors in seismically active areas; and storage of spent fuel rods. “This is serious business – I’m going to be all over this issue, and Senator (Dianne) Feinstein and I are working together.”

UPDATE @ 3:25 P.M.: Boxer’s stance on Libya is at odds with at that of least several Bay Area House members. Representatives Barbara Lee, D-Oakland; Mike Honda, D-San Jose; and Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, joined by Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., issued this statement yesterday:

“The decision for the United States to engage militarily in Libya is one that should have been debated and approved by Congress.

“We have serious concerns about whether or not an effective and thorough case for military intervention in Libya was made. Too many questions remain. What is our responsibility now? Do we own the situation in Libya and for how long? Where does this dramatic acceleration of military intervention end?

“There is a serious humanitarian crisis in Libya, and Gaddafi’s reckless, indiscriminate use of force on his own people in response to grassroots calls for change is unacceptable. But there are serious consequences for rushing to war with a limited understanding of the situation on the ground and no exit strategy or plan – we learned this lesson through two ill-advised wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“With the potential for protracted civil war in Libya, and similar circumstances of unrest and violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Yemen, and elsewhere, we cannot afford to sidestep critical diplomatic and humanitarian efforts to rely solely upon the deployment of more guns, bombs, and troops. This represents a dangerous path toward perpetual U.S. military engagement around the world.

“The United States must immediately shift to end the bombing in Libya. Rest assured we will fight in Congress to ensure the United States does not become embroiled in yet another destabilizing military quagmire in Libya with no clear exit plan or diplomatic strategy for peace.”

Hot on the heels of California’s U.S. Senators calling for inspections of the state’s two nuclear power plants in light of the still-unfolding nuclear crisis in Japan, the California State Senate is gearing up for an investigation of its own.

State Senate Majority Leader Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, announced today that the Senate Select Committee on Earthquake and Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Recovery will hold a hearing at 2:30 p.m. noon (time changed due to Senate floor session) this Monday, March 21, at the State Capitol to examine the damage caused in California by the tsunami after the earthquake in Japan and to explore the state’s preparedness; the hearing also will focus on the safety of the state’s nuclear power plants and natural gas infrastructure.

Representatives from San Onofre and the Diablo Canyon nuclear plants will testify, along with nuclear safety experts and the California Energy Commission. California’s two major natural gas operators and the California Public Utilities Commission will testify on the ability of our natural gas infrastructure to withstand a major seismic event.

California Emergency Management Agency Acting Secretary Mike Dayton and Secretary of Natural Resources John Laird will detail the response to the tsunami along California’s coast. And in response to concerns about radioactive fallout, the Department of Public Health will update lawmakers and the public on any necessary precautions.

Corbett was among 10 state lawmakers who wrote last month to the U.S. Energy Department’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, urging that it hold hearings in California on seismic safety.

As the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s chairman briefed the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee today on the ongoing crisis at nuclear power facilities in Japan, California’s Senators urged him to ensure the Golden State’s two nuclear power plants are safe from similar natural disasters.

Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein wrote today to NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko, calling on the NRC to perform a thorough inspection at the San Onofre plant – on the northern San Diego County coast – and the Diablo Canyon plant – on the coast near San Luis Obispo – both of which are near earthquake faults, to evaluate their safety and emergency preparedness. They also asked the NRC to respond to questions about plant design and operations, type of reactor, and preparedness to withstand an earthquake or tsunami.

Read the full text of the letter, after the jump…
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U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer announced today that she’s convening a briefing at 3:30 EST tomorrow on Capitol Hill with Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko to discuss the ongoing crisis at nuclear power facilities in Japan, as well as the potential ramifications for the United States.

The panel will also hear from Anthony Pietrangelo, senior vice president and chief nuclear officer at the Nuclear Energy Institute, and Edwin Lyman, senior scientist for global security at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Boxer, D-Calif., whose committee has oversight responsibilities on nuclear safety, also announced today that there will be a joint Full Committee and Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety oversight hearing to examine these issues in the near future.