More GREAT news for Entergy!!

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As you all will recall, we noted a few days back that John McLaughry (patron saint of the oblivious-to-reality wing of the Vermont GOP) had a piece posted by Geoffrey Norman on Vermont (What, us Republican?) Tiger denouncing Senator Sanders (no – really?). McLaughrey & Norman objected to Bernie taking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to task for it’s lack of transparency, and its apparent effort to bring the Department of Justice into the court battle over the state Senate’s rejection of Vermont Yankee’s license renewal (on Entergy’s behalf, naturally – yay, Obama administration!). McLaughrey’s sneering message was that Bernie’s engagement was actually great for Entergy, and their agenda of keeping VY open (presumably until it completely disintegrates). A quote from the piece:

Sanders’ inept statement does Entergy a big favor.

So, if a sitting US Senator (and member of the President’s party caucus – if not precisely his party…) weighing in against a corporate interest with business before the feds is good news for that corporate interest, what does that say for today’s report from the Governor’s office: that the Department of Justice will not be intervening in support of VY in the pending Entergy v. Shumlin case?

Hey! Bernie’s inept statement kept the DOJ out of Vermont’s business after all! Must be awesomely good news for Entergy!

Here’s Shummy’s statement:

“Bernie Sanders is an extraordinary champion of Vermonters and our state’s best interests, and I am very grateful for his efforts here. I am gratified to hear that Attorney General Holder and the Department of Justice have declined to intervene in this case. That position is consistent with the many, many statements from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission confirming that states have their own jurisdiction over matters that don’t relate to radiological safety. I believe strongly that our state has proper authority over Vermont Yankee’s continued operation, and that Entergy Louisiana is not above the law and should have kept the promises it made to Vermonters to comply with our laws.”

7 thoughts on “More GREAT news for Entergy!!”

  2. The markets may not have heard the “great” news.

    Or,maybe the markets a little more clear eyed than the Tiger.

    Entergy Corp. took a hit Tuesday when the rating firm Standard & Poor’s downgraded the company’s credit rating, based largely on its inability to win approval to continue operating the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

    http://blogs.burlingtonfreepre…

  4. “aging and trouble-ridden”, beset with tritium leaks and cooling tower collapse – all safety issues. And if the state’s argument is economic, how can it be that Yankee produces the lowest cost baseload power enjoyed by Vermonters?

    http://www.vermonttiger.com/co…

    None of the items listed are considered ‘safety related’ by NRC I don’t think. Cooling tower collapse was repeatedly claimed to be a ‘nonsafety component/issue’ despite the fact that if it had landed on someone it sure can’t be ‘safe’ by any stretch. One picture, 1000 words about competance, reliability & commitment to maintaining the plant.

    VY’s power cost was raised from $42/MW, roughly 50% to $61/MW, whereas Seabrook’s cost is nearly the same as we have been paying $46/MW & includes a long term contract. HQ lowered their price from $61 to $58 also a longterm contract, but the pronuclear claque continue to maintain this lie that power will now be higher. [???]        

  5. One news story said the judge would be left to weigh whether the legislature had ‘forbidden thoughts’ in their minds while crafting legislation.

    This op-ed makes clear that we as citizens can make decisions based on whatever we believe is is important:

    “The Vermont legislature, when considering whether or not to allow Vermont Yankee to operate for another 20 years past its original license, was not permitted to consider safety issues. The people of Vermont, however, are under no such restriction. In fact, we must scrutinize the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is in charge of reactor safety, to know if we should trust their actions and judgments.”

    http://www.reformer.com/locale…

    It is not illegal to discuss safety, but legislation cannot include actions or directives which would clearly regulate.

    Reliability is also a huge issue since the original offer of @$61/MW also placed other obligations on VT re PPA according to Synapse report to JFO (can’t open pdf’s right now).

    http://www.leg.state.vt.us/jfo…  

    If VY sh** the bed VT could have missed out on the lower rates the new contracts elec utilities have signed provided & ended up paying much more in the long run.

  6. It seems, from the news story in Friday’s paper, that both Sanders and Shumlin went off half-cocked, jumped the gun, made a premature announcement.

    Or, Sanders had a conversation with someone at DoJ who told him they wouldn’t intervene but  wasn’t authorized to give him that assurance on behalf of the agency.

    Oops.

    NanuqFC

    So we’ve got a [nuclear reactor] containment that doesn’t contain. A regulator who doesn’t have the capability to regulate. And an industry with a series of cracks or holes in containments that continues to believe that there is zero probability of a containment leak. ~ Arnie Gundersen

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