Discover Jazz Fest Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars Photo by Maggie Gundersen
The weather was beautiful and the music was superb. And as you can tell from the photo, we had a bird’s eye view of Sierra Leones Refugee All Stars, and their music was incredible.
Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars are a group of musicians who escaped the horrific violence of Sierra Leone’s civil war, landed in a West African refugee camp and formed a band to keep their spirits up and their hopes alive. From these humble beginnings the band has now grown to be an international musical sensation.
People were dancing in the street. It was fabulous, and they are a group of have wanted to hear and see for many years.
I was lucky that my friend, Kennon Young of Vermont Gem Lab at 22 Church Street invited us to his office for a birds eye view of the concert and the type of jazz music I love. While sipping wine and listening to great music, I also got to peruse the latest jewelry he is designing and fabricating. I am definitely longing for some of his own creations.
The Discover Jazz Fest 2010 began last night and runs until June 13. Every day is chock full of fabulous events. Unfortunately with my work schedule, I can’t see them all!
My afternoon started out in an amazing manner. I had a meeting in an office above Leunig’s Restaurant at 5 pm, so we were lucky enough to get serenaded by a terrific band while we were doing media work with Kevin Hurley at Polaris Media Works.
For me it was also especially great to see the cow statute back at Leunig’s. I wish I had taken a photo last night to post here. It is my favorite cow statute in this incredible series of community art that may be seen throughout Burlington.
The Leunig statute had been cow tipped in a wanton, drunken action by vandals who outraged the Burlington community and entire art community as well. WPTZ Cow Art Becomes Target For Church St. Vandals. You’ll just have to stroll through Burlington yourself and have your own stroll with the heifers, but a little different than Brattleboro’s live event and parade today.
The Discover Jazz Fest, is not just an evening event. Today’s Burlington Farmers’ Market was a plethora of tastes, smells, sights, and sound as jazz from the festival was also a feature. This is Burlington Summer at its best. Make sure you enjoy this event next Saturday and every other Saturday through October.
Burlington is filled with so much talent. Tonight I am ignoring jazz to attend Switch On – Grand Opening Theater Festival – Day 4 at Off Center for the Dramatic Arts is Burlington.
Vermont’s newest black box theater: Located in the heart of Burlington’s Old North End. Off Center provides an affordable, accessible performance and rehearsal space for productions by local community theater artists, as well as a venue for educational opportunities for area students. The concept of a dedicated, professional, yet affordable theater space is a unique one in the city of Burlington, Vermont.
Tonight State Rep Jason Lorber, also known as one of Burlington’s finest comedians is MC for the evening, hosting Firefly Productions – Fringe Festival Excerpt, dug Nap – A Monologue Excerpt,
Actors Anonymous – Monologues, and Lee Anderson – Rebound. Who’s Afraid of Edward Albee
A few weeks ago, my daughter Elida Gundersen, who is a paramedic and photographer living in Charleston, South Carolina, and I met in Boston for some time off together. We decided that we wanted to visit Old North Church and steep ourselves in true patriotic American history, which we had not done since she was a young child.
The Old North Church is still an active parish and had this amazing memorial tribute made of dog tags representing each American who has died in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.
This Memorial Garden is to honor the men and women in the Armed Forces and the civilians who have lost their lives in the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. We pray for all victims of war. May their souls and the souls of the departed rest in peace.
It was a startling and sobering memorial.
For those of us in Vermont many of us have friends, relatives, or sons and daughters serving overseas in our military. Memorial Day 2010 has extra meaning for members of the Vermont National Guard and their families because 1,500 members of the guard are in Afghanistan.
According to WCAX TV Many of these Vermont National Guard soldiers are based in a very hostile are of Afghanistan at the Bagram Air Field.
Guard officials are reporting that five Vermont troops were injured in an attack on the base last week. In total, a dozen Guard members have been injured since arriving in Afghanistan earlier this year.
“It’s special here in Vermont because of the deployment we have underway in Afghanistan and Iraq,” said Vt. Air National Guard Brig. Gen. Steve Cray. “It is significant to take a day and recognize their sacrifice and pay a whole day to say, ‘Let’s think about what they are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan today and think about their lives and what they are sacrificing for us.'”
It should: Vermont has suffered a terrible toll in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, losing 36 men who were either native sons, transplanted ones or former cadets at Norwich University military college.
The monument isn’t in place yet but will be soon.
The soldiers’ relatives helped
to break ground Sunday on the Vermont Fallen Heroes Global War on Terror Memorial, to be built at the state veterans’ cemetery in Randolph Center. Paid for with private donations raised largely by the families, the $350,000 monument marks the sacrifice of those who served and the heartbreak of the loved ones left behind.
War is not pretty. People die and when they return home also suffer challenging memories and as we know now many also suffer PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Norwich University students and cadets have done an incredible job making a very difficult film about the heartache of this particular war.
Making the documentary “The War at Home” was no easy task.
The film, which a group of Norwich University students recently completed and screened at the college on Sunday, features interviews with soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and explores the challenges they have faced returning to civilian life.
But getting the veterans to talk on camera was tough.
Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan weren’t going to Veterans Affairs Medical Centers seeking counseling, he said. The few that were going were not in good enough shape to tell their story, Estill was told.
“These global war on terror veterans are not going for treatment,” said Estill. “What we expected to exist to tell the story didn’t exist.”
The 210 veterans who originally visited Norwich to talk about the war to Estill and his film students could not open up, so Estrill and the students created a special class called the Veterans Seminar specifically to help veterans talk about their war experiences.
In the seminar, surrounded by other people who had seen combat, the veterans began telling their stories. Within three weeks of the start of the seminar, many of the veterans agreed to continue talking – this time in front of Norwich film students with cameras.
The veterans were each presented with the same 34 questions, and their answers, captured on film and interspersed with still photos and video footage of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, forms “The War at Home.”
Vermonters continue to both work for peace, support our troops, and honor those lost in the war. According to the Seattle Times,
Unlike other wars, for which memorials are generally erected in the aftermath, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have prompted the construction of war memorials while fighting continues. Dozens have been built, from Jackson, Mich., to Fort Bragg, N.C.
The new Global War on Terror memorial began as an idea among family members and took off with commitments of cash and in-kind services. Some gave money, services or discounts for their services. Among them: Rock of Ages quarry, in Barre; Granite Industries of Vermont; and Granite Corp. of Barre.
Made from Barre gray granite, the memorial will encompass a 40-by-45-foot area, with several elements:
– A field memorial called “Falling Leaves,” consisting of a semicircular pedestal with an M-16 rifle, combat boots, helmet and dog tags, and relief carvings of maple leaves, the citizen soldier and the Statehouse.
– A sarcophagus with the names of the 36 – and space for more – etched on top.
– Three monoliths – one for those who served, one dedicated to the families of the fallen and another containing a bronze plaque.
The Old North Church Garden is entered via a courtyard represented by a statute honoring Guardian of Freedom Paul Revere.
Paul Revere, Guardian of FreedomPhoto by Elida Gundersen
The Sad Music of WarPhoto by Elida Gundersen
The last thing I want to say on Memorial Day 2010 is bring our soldiers home safely as soon as possible. Especially here in Vermont where so many of the National Guard men and women have families in need of their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and sons and daughters.
#7600 Public Hearing re Vermont Yankee — CANCELLED DUE TO POWER OUTAGE;
TO BE RESCHEDULED
Was scheduled for tonight Thursday May 27, 2010 – 7:00pm
In Re: Investigation into: (1) whether Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC, and Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (collectively, “Entergy VY”), should be required to cease operations at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station, or take other ameliorative actions, pending completion of repairs to stop releases of radionuclides, radioactive materials, and, potentially, other non-radioactive materials into the environment; (2) whether good cause exists to modify or revoke the 30 V.S.A. § 231 Certificate of Public Good issued to Entergy VY; and (3) whether any penalties should be imposed on Entergy VY for any identified violations of Vermont statutes or Board Orders related to the releases
The Scottish whiskey distillery Bruichladdich, located on the Isle of Islay plans to produce 80% of its electricity with the new anaerobic digester being installed. Doing so the company hopes to save nearly £120,000 ($175,000) every year, according to CNN.
Creating renewable energy from whisky might sound like a harebrained scheme conceived at the end of a long evening drinking the amber nectar.
But an independently-owned Scottish distillery is hoping that the installation of a new biogas generator will prove to be a lasting moment of environmental clarity and help solve their energy problems.
Mark Reynier, owner of Bruichladdich Distillery
told CNN:
“Our waste product is basically water left over after you’ve stripped all the alcohol out. It’s called, rather unromantically, pot ale.”
Beginning in 1999, the Vermont Public Service Department and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture started a joint venture to investigate the possible use of anaerobic digesters at Vermont’s dairy farms thanks to Senator James Jeffords who secured the funding. Vermont Digesters
In Scotland, the cost of disposal of the pot ale waste costs $30,000 per year. And the pot ale waste is taken by tanker and dumped into a pipeline that ends up pouring the pot ale waste into the bay, named Sound of Islay, right off the eastern coast of the island. CNN Whiskey into Watts
Anaerobic digestion occurs when natural food stuffs decompose in the absence of oxygen. The end product of this process creates methane which Reynier says will be fed into the generator and converted into green electricity. The only by-product is water.
So what is the problem? Why aren’t there more anaerobic digesters throughout Vermont for dairy farms, organic farms, and Vermont’s own budding wine and alcohol industries?
So what is stopping Vermonters in turning farm waste into watts?
Most of what I have read is not only the cost of creating and installing digesters, but having the right transmission lines and a smart grid to carry that power to where it is needed.
Lawrence Mott, Director of Bristol-based New Generation Partners and board chairman for Montpelier-based nonprofit Renewable Energy Vermont notes several key points critical to the ‘green-grid/smart-grid’ connection:
A former Vermont National Guard member who served in Kuwait – decorated twice by Gov. Jim Douglas – lost his post when a background check found an 18-year-old misdemeanor that prevents him from being a soldier.
Sam Hemingway has written a lenghty article in today’s Burlington Free Press about a 16-year member of the national guard who has lost his post from a case he thought was was closed back in 1992,
when he paid a $10 fine and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of assaulting his wife during a quarrel when they were newly married.
He was wrong.
Thanks to that long-ago offense, the man recently lost his job of 16 years at the Vermont National Guard, a large part of his military pension and the chance to serve his country in Afghanistan.
Hemingway says the soldier has been trying to get his job back ever since.
To that end, six Guard officers have written letters of commendation for him, and three legislators have lobbied on his behalf. Two judges have sympathized with his plight. Chittenden County State’s Attorney Thomas J. Donovan even tried to get the court to throw out the 18-year-old conviction.
What the man doesn’t have is what he needs most: a pardon from Gov. Jim Douglas.
As I read the lengthy story, I wondered:
– What does it take to get a Governor’s pardon? – How many pardons occur during a Governor’s tenure?
– Has Governor Douglas given similar pardons?
Some of those questions are answered in the comparative chart below prepared by John James of the Burlington Free Press.
What about this soldier passing all previous background checks?
What about his exemplary record?
What about the support of his wife, who was the person who originally filed the complaint the they both thought had been expunged?
What is the contradiction in the fact that this soldier was twice decorated by Governor Douglas, and now cannot even garner a private meeting to plead for his case?
In a 24-page brief to the Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) April 30, 2010, Entergy and Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee (ENVY) claim that their information belongs to them and to the NRC. Vermont and its intervenors do not have the right to look at information requested by intervenors, the PSB and the Department of Public Service, according to ENVY & Entergy attorneys.
“Entergy VY takes the position that the investigation itself is preempted by the NRC’s federal jurisdiction,”
wrote Downs Rachlin Martin Attorney John Marshall in his MOTION TO MODIFY THE PREHEARING CONFERENCE MEMORANDUM AND TO ENLARGE THE TIME FOR ENTERGY VY TO RESPOND TO PENDING DISCOVERY REQUESTS. See the entire document below the fold.
“Discovery is needed to address the issue of preemption,” wrote Sandy Levine, CLF’s senior counsel, who also rejected Marshall’s claim that Yankee’s employees were too busy with the outage to respond to the requests.
“A company as large and well-funded as Entergy should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time,” she wrote. “To the extent it is not able to do both, it should not be allowed to operate a nuclear facility in the state of Vermont.”
Nowhere does federal preemption exclude Entergy and ENVY’s obligation to meet NRC General Design Criteria 60 that states:
Criterion 60–Control of releases of radioactive materials to the environment. The nuclear power unit design shall include means to control suitably the release of radioactive materials in gaseous and liquid effluents and to handle radioactive solid wastes produced during normal reactor operation, including anticipated operational occurrences. Sufficient holdup capacity shall be provided for retention of gaseous and liquid effluents containing radioactive materials, particularly where unfavorable site environmental conditions can be expected to impose unusual operational limitations upon the release of such effluents to the environment.
Non-existent buried underground pipes that have leaked tritium into the Connecticut River, are none of our business according to Entergy’s attorneys.
Writing for CLF, Levine stated that Entergy’s request “perpetuates the continuing efforts … to hide important information … They are refusing to provide factual information that is necessary for the board to determine the scope of its authority.”
Personally, I find it curious that Entergy and ENVY, which have taken such efforts to separate themselves as entities in order to obfuscate Entergy’s responsibility to fully fund ENVY’s decommissioning fund, have the same attorney pushing their authority over any state intervention. You will note that Attorney John Marshall of the Burlington law firm DOWNS RACHLIN MARTIN PLLC is the attorney representing both Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee,LLC, and Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. of Louisiana. How convenient.
See Attorney John Marshall’s argument against Vermont’s right to intervene on Page 18. Certainly it is the preliminary volley in a long anticipated wider attack on Vermont’s authority over anything Entergy wishes or chooses to do.
Succumbing to the Palin & McCain Republican chant Drill Baby Drill on March 31, 2010 the Obama administration approved new oil drilling along the U.S. East Coast and off the coast of Alaska. Environmentalists were horrified, claiming all types of dire consequences to the fishing industry, aquatic life, wildlife, shoreline homes, beaches, and industries.
Less than one-month later, the U.S. is now confronted with an environmental nightmare that will most likely dwarf the environmental tragedy of the Exxon Valdez 20-years ago.
Government officials now say that the blown-out BP oil well, approximately 40 miles offshore, is spewing five times as much oil into the water as originally estimated – about 5,000 barrels, or 200,000 gallons, a day. Not only did BP Oil initially claim the spill could be stopped quickly, they also said it was only 1,000 barrels each day. By the way, a barrel is 42-gallons of oil.
According to the Washington Post, the Coast Guard worked with BP…to deploy floating booms, skimmers and chemical dispersants, and set controlled fires to burn the oil off the water’s surface. Now, unable to stop the spill itself, the company is requesting assistance from the Defense Department,
especially underwater equipment that might be better than what is commercially available. A BP executive said the corporation would “take help from anyone.”
According to NPR’s Morning Edition,
The same day Obama announced his plan, Shell Oil President Marvin Odum told MSNBC that administration officials were persuaded that the industry can drill offshore with modern equipment without endangering the environment.
“They wouldn’t be saying that if they weren’t looking at the hundreds of millions of dollars of studies that the U.S. government did to answer the question, can it be done safely there,” Odum said.
The accident occurred because:
•a safety valve failed,
•BP significantly underestimated and some say outright lied about the amount of oil that spilled,
•BP claimed it could quickly stop and contain the spill.
It reminds me of Three Mile Island (TMI), where a valve failed to close, and the utility significantly underestimated the amount of radiation released and waited too long to notify government officials of the magnitude of the problem.
Hopefully no more storms will blow up for right now clean up and containment efforts are significantly hampered by 6 to 8 foot swells and winds blowing everything toward the Louisana coastline.
If the Obama administration botches this response, we can count on the fact that both the Republicans and the environmentalists will be gunning for Democrats come election time in November.
In response to the spill, the U.S. will “use every single available resource at our disposal” in response to the spill, President Barack Obama said yesterday according to Bloomberg News. BP Plc, which owns the leaking well, is “ultimately responsible” for paying for the cleanup, the president said.
More than 20-years after the Exxon Valdez spill off the Alaska, $92,000,000 in damages have still not been paid according to the Environment News Service.
Early in the morning on March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound spilling more than 11 million gallons of crude oil onto the Alaska coast, causing an estimated $15 billion in damages.
The Exxon Valdez sits hard aground, spilling oil into Prince William Sound.
The Exxon Valdez spill was one of the most worst environmental disasters in history. The spill covered over 10,000 square miles of Alaska’s coastline. Oil spread along 1,300 miles of shoreline, fouling a national forest, two national parks, two national wildlife refuges, five state parks, four state critical habitat areas, one state game sanctuary, and many ancestral lands for Alaska natives.
It killed hundreds of thousands of birds, marine mammals, fish, invertebrates; and disrupted the economy, culture, and livelihoods of coastal residents.
The cleanup took four summers and cost approximately $2 billion, according to a report by the state and federal governments.
The 1991 settlement following the guilty plea by Exxon Corporation provided for $900 million in payments, a $25 million criminal fine and $100 million in restitution.
The plea agreement also called for added payment of up to $100 million for unanticipated damages unknown at the time of the settlement.
The Alaska fishing industry was especially hard hit, with many fishermen (and women) being unable to make a living. No funds were forthcoming for years and there was no government safety net to help people have money for basic necessities like food and shelter when their livelihoods were destroyed by corporate hubris. Exxon, which has still not paid complete restitution has had more income during the past few years than any corporation in the world.
What does this mean for the Louisiana Gulf Coast? This is the beginning of shrimp season and now the oil slick, only 5-miles offshore has begun to touch shrimp beds and the barrier islands.
According to the Washington Post,
“It is of grave concern,” David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press. “I am frightened. This is a very, very big thing. And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling.”
The oil slick could become the nation’s worst environmental disaster in decades, threatening hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast, one of the world’s richest seafood grounds, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life. Thicker oil was in waters south and east of the Mississippi Delta about five miles offshore.
For President Obama and his democratic administration, this oil spill may be his Hurricane Katrina. People in the Mississippi Delta area who depend upon the ocean and shore for their livelihood feel that they have once again been deserted by their government as they were in the days, months, and years following the debacle of Hurricane Katrina.
According to NPR’s Morning Edition,
Offshore oil drilling wasn’t always popular, but that changed in recent years with high gas prices, growing concerns about oil dollars supporting unfriendly regimes and the toll in dollars and lives of fighting wars in the Middle East.
During the election, President Obama promised change and a new green economy. Honestly, when is change going to happen? Whether it is the financial debacle, the skewed climate bill, or the lack of a public option for health care, it seems to be business as usual in Washington DC.
“For years and years and years, I think the public associated offshore drilling with pollution and the risk to the environment and coastal economies,” said Athan Manuel of the Sierra Club environmental group. “But all those concerns flipped certainly when the cost of a gallon of gas hit $4 two years ago, and that was the primary driver for a lot of public opinion on offshore drilling.”
The politics of offshore oil drilling were looking so good that environmental activists had agreed to some additional drilling in a sweeping climate change bill. But Manuel thinks that may change.
“Our hope is that this spill kind of makes everybody come to their senses,” he said.
One big reason the public grew to accept offshore drilling was that for two decades there had not been any large-scale accidents.
Senator Bernie Sanders and thousands of other Vermonters will join together Saturday May 1st at the Healthcare Is A Human Right Rally in Montpelier.
11am: March from City Hall, 39 Main Street
12 Noon: Rally at Statehouse Lawn
It’s for your health!
Need details, see the links and contact information below for the Vermont Workers’ Center
From the email sent to me by Jonny Leavitt of the Vermont Workers Center:
The day will feature art, theater, music, and entertainment for all ages. Invite your neighbors and co-workers, bring your friends and family, and come celebrate with the Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign
Join with thousands of Vermonters and Senator Bernie Sanders for a rally which will help put Vermont on course to lead the country in establishing a healthcare system in our state that treats healthcare as a public good for all. The bill S.88 has now been voted through both chambers of the state legislature and is on its way to becoming a law that will design and implement a universal system of healthcare in Vermont.
Can you help us make the rally even bigger?
– Take the I’ll Be There pledge that you’ll be there at the rally and will try to bring family and friends to show our legislators that we need healthcare as a human right! http://www.workerscenter.org/may1
Shut out during the shut down, as once again Entergy tries to control media access to a select few.
When independent documentary filmmaker and public television videographer Robbie Lepzer registered to film a public tour of Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee (VY), he expected it to be a rather standard process. After all, Entergy regularly admits the press and TV cameras for site tours. This tour, scheduled for Thursday April 29 is for members of the Public Service Board (PSB) and the media.
Leppzer’s shut out during shut down by Entergy has resulted in a PSB demand for information from Entergy as to why a journalist is not being allowed to film when other TV media is filming and has been filming. [Emphasis added.]
MEMORANDUM
To: Parties in PSB Docket No. 7600
From: Susan M. Hudson, Clerk of the Board
Re: Turning Tide Productions’ Request to Film Site Visit
Date: April 27, 2010
On April 27, 2010, Robbie Leppzer sent the attached e-mail to the Public Service Board (“Board”) requesting that the Board take action to allow Mr. Leppzer to bring television cameras to the site visit in Docket 7600 scheduled for Thursday, April 29. The Board requests that Entergy submit a response to Mr. Leppzer’s request by noon on April 28. In particular, the Board requests Entergy to address whether Entergy is permitting news organizations to have television cameras, as Mr. Leppzer indicates. If so, Entergy should explain why Mr. Leppzer is being treated differently from those news organizations.
The Board also requests that Entergy explain what, if any, restrictions on cameras are
necessary to ensure that Entergy fulfills its security and safety obligations.
Other parties may also submit comments by the same deadline.
cc: Robbie Leppzer
Leppzer has more than 30-years of documentary film making [see Leppzer’s resume below the fold]. In preparation for a documentary film on the relicensing of VY, he has been filming testimony presented to the Legislature and its committees since January when discussion of both the leak and Entergy’s request to relicense the nuclear plant began in earnest. Given that Vermont is the only state in the country to have the legal right to decide if VY should receive its Certificate for Public Good (CPG), it makes sense to me that someone would want to create a documentary about this subject. I also expect that Entergy would try to thwart such an effort.
At the very time Entergy is claiming a new policy of openness to Vermont State officials, boards, commissions, the legislature and the media, it has denied Leppzer permission to film the tour even though he is filming for CCTV Channnel 17 out of Burlington, VT in addition to his own documentary work. Leppzer may, as Entergy’s Smith informed him, may take the tour, but without any film equipment, a predicament that is challenging for a filmmaker.
Entergy’s action has once again put them in the spotlight in a negative way. After being shut out of filming, Leppzer contacted State Representative Sarah Edwards from Brattleboro, who is a member of the House Committee on Natural Resources and the Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel. Edwards wrote to Entergy requesting that they reconsider their decision and give Leppzer equal access. Smith still denied Leppzer access, so at that time, Leppzer sent the entire packet of email correspondence, herein reproduced below the fold, to the PSB.
The PSB has given Entergy until noon today to explain why they are preventing Leppzer from filming.
More below the fold, including the entire email correspondence between Leppzer and Entergy’s Smith.
I first met Leppzer in January when he was filming testimony given to the Natural Resources Committee regarding leaks at Vermont Yankee, and have seen him, along with many other members of the media, at almost every nuclear testimony and event I have attended since January from hearings to the NRC meeting in Brattleboro on April 19.
I find the decision to exclude Leppzer as odd since this is a public meeting that includes the media. While NRC Region 1 Spokesperson Neil Sheehan has denied me permission to be on the NRC email list and claimed that Green Mountain Daily is not bona-fide media, even the NRC allowed Leppzer to film their workshop and meeting. [As NRC and Entergy should be learning, attempting to shut out the media only results in more press and more scrutiny.]
In prior public touring events, for example the Stakeholder’s Meeting and press conference, which Entergy hosted at Vermont Yankee on March 25, 2010, a member in attendance wrote that
multiple media outlets were granted access to photograph, film, and videotape the plant. The only restrictions on media coverage that day were that photographers could not shoot any of the security towers or security personnel. The media was walked from the Hunt House to the excavation area, then around the back of the plant to the area where dry casks are stored. Plant officials showed the media each of the well heads, including the drinking water well that had by then been removed from service. There were no restrictions on shooting any of these elements.
The PSB is having a formal public meeting tour because it is adjudicating a request by intervenors to shut down VY until the tritium leak, which was uncovered January 7, was stopped. Entergy maintains that the source of the leak has been found and stopped. The PSB, media, and intervenors were scheduled to have an opportunity to view the location of the leak on Thursday to see the repairs now that the leak has been stopped and the plant is shut down for refueling.
Leppzer appears to have followed every protocol required in order to film at VY, including registering with the Public Service Board, and filming for Burlington’s Channel 17 Public Access television in addition to using the footage for his own documentary. See the entire chain of emails in the PDF below.
Leppzer began writing to Entergy’s PR Staff members Rob Williams and Larry Smith April 8 regarding the Entergy’s science fair hosted April 12 at the Ramada Inn. On April 18, Leppzer wrote:
As I mentioned in a previous email, I’m directing and producing an independent documentary about nuclear power in the new millennium, highlighting the debate in Vermont over the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. This will be a feature documentary intended for national broadcast on public television or a national cable network. My previously produced documentaries and commissioned magazine segments have been broadcast nationally on PBS, CNN, CNN International, Cinemax, Sundance Channel and HDNet.
On Friday, I spoke with Judith Whitney, Deputy Clerk of the Vermont Public Service Board, and she informed me that the site visit by the Public Service Board to Vermont Yankee on April 29 is open to the press and media.
Below is information on our documentary television crew members, in accordance with Entergy regulations for people visiting the site.
Shut out during the shut down, as once again Entergy tries to control media access to a select few.
When independent documentary filmmaker and public television videographer Robbie Lepzer registered to film a public tour of Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee (VY), he expected it to be a rather standard process. After all, Entergy regularly admits the press and TV cameras for site tours. This tour, scheduled for Thursday April 29 is for members of the Public Service Board (PSB) and the media.
——-
Update #1
Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (together, “Entergy VY”),have determined to allow credentialed media, including Tuming Tide Productions, to take photographs of or film the areas to be visited during the site visit.
[See complete Downs, Rachlin, Martin response to the Public Service Board in last attached document.] Turning Tide Productions is Robbie Leppzer’s film company.
——-
Leppzer’s shut out during shut down by Entergy has resulted in a PSB demand for information from Entergy as to why a journalist is not being allowed to film when other TV media is filming and has been filming. [Emphasis added.]
MEMORANDUM
To: Parties in PSB Docket No. 7600
From: Susan M. Hudson, Clerk of the Board
Re: Turning Tide Productions’ Request to Film Site Visit
Date: April 27, 2010
On April 27, 2010, Robbie Leppzer sent the attached e-mail to the Public Service Board (“Board”) requesting that the Board take action to allow Mr. Leppzer to bring television cameras to the site visit in Docket 7600 scheduled for Thursday, April 29. The Board requests that Entergy submit a response to Mr. Leppzer’s request by noon on April 28. In particular, the Board requests Entergy to address whether Entergy is permitting news organizations to have television cameras, as Mr. Leppzer indicates. If so, Entergy should explain why Mr. Leppzer is being treated differently from those news organizations.
The Board also requests that Entergy explain what, if any, restrictions on cameras are
necessary to ensure that Entergy fulfills its security and safety obligations.
Other parties may also submit comments by the same deadline.
cc: Robbie Leppzer
Leppzer has more than 30-years of documentary film making [see Leppzer’s resume below the fold]. In preparation for a documentary film on the relicensing of VY, he has been filming testimony presented to the Legislature and its committees since January when discussion of both the leak and Entergy’s request to relicense the nuclear plant began in earnest. Given that Vermont is the only state in the country to have the legal right to decide if VY should receive its Certificate for Public Good (CPG), it makes sense to me that someone would want to create a documentary about this subject. I also expect that Entergy would try to thwart such an effort.
At the very time Entergy is claiming a new policy of openness to Vermont State officials, boards, commissions, the legislature and the media, it has denied Leppzer permission to film the tour even though he is filming for CCTV Channnel 17 out of Burlington, VT in addition to his own documentary work. Leppzer may, as Entergy’s Smith informed him, may take the tour, but without any film equipment, a predicament that is challenging for a filmmaker.
Entergy’s action has once again put them in the spotlight in a negative way. After being shut out of filming, Leppzer contacted State Representative Sarah Edwards from Brattleboro, who is a member of the House Committee on Natural Resources and the Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel. Edwards wrote to Entergy requesting that they reconsider their decision and give Leppzer equal access. Smith still denied Leppzer access, so at that time, Leppzer sent the entire packet of email correspondence, herein reproduced below the fold, to the PSB.
The PSB has given Entergy until noon today to explain why they are preventing Leppzer from filming.
More below the fold, including the entire email correspondence between Leppzer and Entergy’s Smith.
I first met Leppzer in January when he was filming testimony given to the Natural Resources Committee regarding leaks at Vermont Yankee, and have seen him, along with many other members of the media, at almost every nuclear testimony and event I have attended since January from hearings to the NRC meeting in Brattleboro on April 19.
I find the decision to exclude Leppzer as odd since this is a public meeting that includes the media. While NRC Region 1 Spokesperson Neil Sheehan has denied me permission to be on the NRC email list and claimed that Green Mountain Daily is not bona-fide media, even the NRC allowed Leppzer to film their workshop and meeting. [As NRC and Entergy should be learning, attempting to shut out the media only results in more press and more scrutiny.]
In prior public touring events, for example the Stakeholder’s Meeting and press conference, which Entergy hosted at Vermont Yankee on March 25, 2010, a member in attendance wrote that
multiple media outlets were granted access to photograph, film, and videotape the plant. The only restrictions on media coverage that day were that photographers could not shoot any of the security towers or security personnel. The media was walked from the Hunt House to the excavation area, then around the back of the plant to the area where dry casks are stored. Plant officials showed the media each of the well heads, including the drinking water well that had by then been removed from service. There were no restrictions on shooting any of these elements.
The PSB is having a formal public meeting tour because it is adjudicating a request by intervenors to shut down VY until the tritium leak, which was uncovered January 7, was stopped. Entergy maintains that the source of the leak has been found and stopped. The PSB, media, and intervenors were scheduled to have an opportunity to view the location of the leak on Thursday to see the repairs now that the leak has been stopped and the plant is shut down for refueling.
Leppzer appears to have followed every protocol required in order to film at VY, including registering with the Public Service Board, and filming for Burlington’s Channel 17 Public Access television in addition to using the footage for his own documentary. See the entire chain of emails in the PDF below.
Leppzer began writing to Entergy’s PR Staff members Rob Williams and Larry Smith April 8 regarding the Entergy’s science fair hosted April 12 at the Ramada Inn. On April 18, Leppzer wrote:
As I mentioned in a previous email, I’m directing and producing an independent documentary about nuclear power in the new millennium, highlighting the debate in Vermont over the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. This will be a feature documentary intended for national broadcast on public television or a national cable network. My previously produced documentaries and commissioned magazine segments have been broadcast nationally on PBS, CNN, CNN International, Cinemax, Sundance Channel and HDNet.
On Friday, I spoke with Judith Whitney, Deputy Clerk of the Vermont Public Service Board, and she informed me that the site visit by the Public Service Board to Vermont Yankee on April 29 is open to the press and media.
Below is information on our documentary television crew members, in accordance with Entergy regulations for people visiting the site.
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UPDATE #1 By the way if you look closely at Smith’s last email to Leppzer, you will
notice three items.
•First, it is clear that Smith is quite aware that Entergy is denying access to
Channel 17 CCTV Public Access TV.
•Second, note that many upper management personnel at Entergy are contacted, not
just site personnel as well as someone with Enexus. Isn’t Enexus defunct, or is
that another Entergy untruth?
•Third, Smith has copied their attorney Downs, Rachlin and Martin’s John Marshall. I
guess Smith was clearly anticipating litigation push back.
