WESTMINSTER — We are a free people. Our free speech rights under the First Amendment were not revoked by the Atomic Energy Act. Neither were the rights of the Vermont Legislature.
So what's “pre-empted?” We and our representatives are free to discuss nuclear safety, if any, and take it into account in our decision-making. We are free to note that the nuclear hazard is so extreme that (a) we are forbidden as a state to regulate it, and (b) no nuclear plant can buy accident insurance.
That means it's dangerous. Whether we appreciated that fully or not, our Legislature agreed (by a margin of one vote) to try a nuke for 40 years. We had the right and the power to make that decision, back when Vermont's electric utilities were the primary owners, back when the electricity was going to be “too cheap to meter,” and back when the feds were going to take the waste.
None of that holds true today, and nothing has happened in the last 40 years to take away Vermont's sovereignty. We still have the power and the right to make this decision.
The technology is dangerous. (Get a load of Fukushima!) Yet we are forbidden to regulate safety aspects.
Let's quit while we're ahead. That's not regulating; it's opting out. Are our rights pre-empted? Does the Constitution give Vermont Yankee or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) the right to make us keep this plant forever?
Consideration of hazard can't be pre-empted, as long as we don't seek to regulate it - and we aren't. We're seeking to cut loose.
There are many other non-pre-empted reasons for getting rid of this plant.
Nuclear power is so 40-years-ago. It doesn't match Vermont's image - and image is everything here. We depend on tourism and selling high-quality food to the outside world. An old nuke plant, especially one that keeps getting its name in the papers for leaking, damages our brand. Such economic considerations are clearly not pre-empted.
Nuclear power is divisive. We've had enough of fighting with our neighbors, writing letters to the editor, reading letters to the editor. It damages our community. Pre-empt that!
Nuclear power is boring. Ever sat through an NRC hearing? Imagine never having to do that, ever again. Imagine not needing the Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel (VSNAP), or a state nuclear engineer, or evacuation maps in local schools. Quality of life - it's not a pre-empted consideration.
Nuclear power - we're just done with it. We've voted that way again and again, including in the Vermont Senate in 2010 and in the 2010 governor's race. Do we even need to have a reason?
We voted it in; now we've voted it out. Though I think this country is in trouble, I don't think it's in so much trouble that democracy is pre-empted by the NRC.