Entergy’s $6 million shell game

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Now you see it, now you don’t. Here’s your $6 million; I’ll put it under one of these three cups. Now I shuffle them around. Okay, where’s the money? If you can guess, it’s yours.  

Last week, Entergy filed a statement with the Vermont Public Service Board agreeing to comply with the requirements for its recently-expired license while the board considers whether to okay continued operation of Vermont Yankee. VTDigger, April 3:

The filing states: “Entergy VY agrees with the Department that 3 V.S.A. § 814(b) applies and that, pursuant to that provision-which keeps intact Entergy’s existing certificates of public good pending the Board’s determination of Entergy VY’s petition for a certificate of public good authorizing post-March 21, 2012 operations-Entergy VY must comply with the conditions in the existing certificates of public good that the Department lists at pages 7-9 of its cross-motion.”

Those conditions include paying into the [Clean Energy Development] Fund, which has received around $6 million each year from Entergy through a generating tax.

Seems simple, no? Entergy agrees to meet the terms of its license, including the $6 million annual payment.

Oops, sorry! That cup is empty! VT Digger, April 9:

Last week, a spokesman for Entergy told VTDigger.org that a story stating the company’s filing meant Entergy would continue to make payments to the fund “got it wrong.”

And Entergy has failed to make a scheduled April 1 payment of $625, 000, thus winning the prize for Worst April Fools’ Joke, 2012. The Vermont Department of Public Service is not amused; it made a filing on Monday stating that “it is clear that Entergy is attempting to limit the concessions it made in its April 3 response.”

A polite way of saying, “Well, apparently Entergy was lying.” Especially since it had already failed to make its scheduled payment when it issued that smiley-faced April 3 filing. DPS now expects Entergy to argue that it does not need to fulfill its $6 million obligation because its memorandum of understanding — like its license — expired on March 21. And DPS cries foul:

That argument, the department claims, doesn’t fly. In essence, if the plant is operating on an expired license, the expiration dates on the obligations in the license don’t expire either.

“Entergy cannot have it both ways,” its filing states.

In a response to the DPS filing, Entergy says it will post its payments into an escrow fund, and won’t turn the money over to the state until the Public Service Board rules that VY can continue to operate.

The shell game starts to smell like blackmail.  

3 thoughts on “Entergy’s $6 million shell game”

  1. Although comments from officionados obviously must be made for the record, they are virtually meaningless, ring hollow & nothing but a huge laugh & another joke to Entergy Louisiana, owners & employees of VT’s lone dilapidated dirty bomb. and, laughing all the way to the bank while this stretches for @ least a year & a half, that is if they are not allowed to operate while it winds its way through legal channels at glacial speed & longer if an injunction is granted by another one of their judicial buddies.

    Brattleboro Reformer:

    http://www.reformer.com/localn…

  2. This is how it works.  No matter what the atrocity, malfeasance, or threat to public safety, a big corporation gets the law bent to suit its agenda.  Or, it stalls and sandbags and gets a settlement.  Now, none of us could do this.  We’re not big enough.  The Scalia/Roberts Supreme Court gives them the added assurance that they will win in the end, no matter the evidence.

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