In light of Governor Douglas’ veto of S.373, which the legislature passed in order to ensure that Entergy Nuclear- or any other subsidy which comes into owning Vermont’s nuclear power plant- remains clearly, legally responsible for all clean-up costs of the plant, a group of citizens took the opportunity on Friday to launch a fundraising initiative to collect the estimated $300,000,000- $600,000,000 necessary for the plant’s decommissioning. The group kicked-off their efforts with that most time-honored tradition of raising money for under-funded programs: they stood in the street and held a coin-drop collection from passing motorists.
While collecting the money, pennies and quarters at a time during their coin-drop fundraiser in the middle of State Street in front of the Statehouse in Montpelier, the group also handed out fliers which read, in part:
On our behalf the VT legislature passed S.373 ensuring we wouldn’t be stuck with the costs of Entergy’s clean up. Douglas however decided to pity the billionaires and vetoed the bill, leaving us to pay the costs.
Fundraising hundreds of millions to subsidize a corporation is more than a laughable goal; it is tragically unjust. Sadly, it is all too common an occurrence with our state and federal tax dollars, thanks to corrupt politicians like Gov. Douglas.
Also on Friday, “unknown parties” traversed the rooftops of downtown Montpelier, hanging banners across State Street which read “Decommission Douglas” and other anti-nuclear sentiments (the Times-Argus photo of the banners doesn’t seem to have made it online yet, but I’ll try to get it up here once they do).
