Hot Entergy VY News

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Compiling latest press releases, rumors, information and reactions:

  • RUMOR: Democratic Senator and gubernatorial candidate Susan Bartlett may have as many as 14 votes for delaying any Senate vote on relicensing VY,although one insider puts the count at 10-12.

    • If she forces a tie, Republican Lt. Governor and anointed Douglas successor Brian Dubie will get tie breaker vote. No points for guessing correctly which way he’d vote.

    • Dubie would then get a huge headline for his vote, and likely Bartlett will lose the Democratic base and the primary (unless many R’s jump party lines to vote in the D primary).

  • PRESS RELEASE: Senate Majority Leader John Campbell, considered one of the more conservative Democrats in the legislature, accused “Entergy officials and lobbyists” of “distorting the truth” regarding a forthcoming report characterized as “commissioned by the Joint Fiscal Office.” It is one of the reports that proponents of delaying the vote suggest is “imperative” to review before voting. Campbell says the report was “commissioned and paid for by Vermont’s two largest utilities.”

    • The JFC agreed to let its economist and its economic consultant work with the utilities’ report writers.

    • “This is not a legislative initiative and the legislature did not pay for this report.”

    • The legislature’s report was on “electricity price forecasts” and “was delivered to the legislature on January 7, 2010.”

    more on the flip

  • INFORMATION:

    • Of the VY workers, fewer than half (40%) are Vermont residents.

    • The rate being offered by Entergy for VY power from 2012- 2032 is a 50% increase over the current rate.

    • The amount of electricity Vermont will see from the plant (assuming it continues to operate) amounts to half of the amount Vermont currently receives from the plant. The majority of the plant’s output is sold out of state, while Vermonters face the majority if not the entirety of the risk of a catastrophic event or slow degradation.

  • PRESS REPORT: An AP report in the Brattleboro Reformer says that Entergy is sweetening the pot by offering 25 mgw of electricity at current rates ($.04 per kwh) for three years to new job projects.

  • PRESS RELEASE: NH Congressman Paul Hodes is calling for the shutdown of the plant immediately to find and fix the tritium leak.

    • “Reckless behavior, deliberate cover-ups, and unfruitful internal investigations from officials at Vermont Yankee have rocked the trust of New Hampshire families living just a stone’s throw away from this plant,” said Hodes. “If we are going to get serious about public safety, the reactors at  Vermont Yankee should be shuttered until this leak is resolved.”

    • “While the plant is closed, Entergy must continue to pay the full salaries of workers who were not involved in the leak.  … I will fight to make sure middle class plant workers are not punished for wrong decisions made by others.”

    • NH owns to the high water mark on the VT side of the Connecticut river. Hinsdale, Chesterfield, and Winchester, NH are also in the evacuation zone.

    Wednesday’s vote will be one hell of a piece of political theater — although theater usually doesn’t have such a serious impact on the future. In any case, it won’t be the last scene in this play, either.