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The Abalone Alliance (1977–1985) was a nonviolent civil disobedience group formed to shut down the Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant near San Luis Obispo (on the central California coast). They modeled their affinity group-based organizational structure after the Clamshell Alliance which was then protesting the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in coastal New Hampshire. The group of activists took the name Abalone Alliance referring to the tens of thousands of wild California Red Abalone that were killed in 1974 in Diablo Cove when the unit's plumbing had its first hot flush.

On August 7, 1977, 1,500 people demonstrated at the gate of Diablo, resulting in 47 arrests. The next year, 5,000 people rallied and 487 were arrested. On September 10, 1981, the Abalone Alliance occupied the site, leading to 1,960 arrests. Nearly 20,000 people showed up in support. At the end of the 10 day action, a 25-year-old engineer discovered a mirror image reversal in the seismic blueprints. PG&E was forced spend $3 billion and 3 additional years of repairs before reopening.^{[citation needed]} In 1984, the Alliance organized the Peoples Emergency Response Plan, where affinity groups blockaded at the Diablo Gates over a 4-month period. Many AA activists went on to form the Livermore Action Group, the Vandenberg Action Coalition, and the Lenten Desert Experience at the Nevada Test Site. Performers such as Jackson Browne and Wavy Gravy joined the protest and described the mass jailings as a "tornado of talent."

At its peak, there were over 60 groups who were affiliated with the alliance, including Greenpeace and Alliance for Survival. The group was hit with one of the first known SLAPP suits in U.S. History, where the Pacific Legal Foundation and San Luis Obispo County attempted to legally obtain the names of all members and supporters, demanding that they pay for the costs of the 1981 blockade. The suit lasted nearly 5 years, before being withdrawn just before going before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Mothers for Peace filed a legal challenge in an attempt to stop operation of Diablo Canyon in November 1984. The appeal was denied on April 25th 1986. The PG&E coastal nuclear site controversy started further north in 1963 at Bodega Head causing a split up of the Sierra Club, that led to the formation of Friends of the Earth by David Brower. The controversy did not come to a close until December 1988 when the California PUC gave PG&E a $54 billion 30-year, cost plus rate contract to operate Diablo Canyon. It has been considered the most controversial nuclear power plant in U.S. history because of its location 2.2 miles from the Hosgri Fault. This section of coastal earthquake faults destroyed the city of Santa Barbara in 1927.

• Epstein, Barbara (1991). Political Protest and Cultural Revolution. 
• Button, John (1995). The Radicalism Handbook. 
• Gravy, Wavy (1993). Something Good for a Change.  ISBN 0-312-09391-8

• Abalone Alliance archivist site
• Bodega Head controversy