Peter Alexander

Grateful for VY book’s shout-out to Shadis

It is gratifying to see the powerful results of our media outreach and its impact on public opinion about Louisiana-based Entergy and its insidious campaign to wrest profits from Vermont Yankee [“A great story,” Arts, May 2].

Entergy's secret three-part strategy was first uncovered and revealed to the media by NEC's Raymond Shadis. The strategy: 1) Purchase the plant for pennies on the dollar; 2) Boost the power output by 20 percent; and 3) Procure a 20-year license extension.

Ray was also the first to bring media attention to Entergy's evident policy of deferring maintenance to maximize profit. And it was Ray's revelations, amplified by the expert testimony of Arnie Gunderson, Paul Blanch, and others who correctly depicted Entergy's management, lobbyists, and spokespeople as unreliable and self-serving.

Throughout the campaign, we walked a fine line: praising the workers at VY for their dedication and hard work while demonizing management for their arrogance and manipulative public relations, lobbying, and secret profit-making strategies.

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Not challenging Murtha decision: Bad precedent

Re: “Legal costs better spent elsewhere” [Letters, Feb. 29]: This is a very misguided idea. At issue is a constitutional question that has far-reaching implications for the rights of states and the powers of the legislatures that represent the citizens at the state level. Further, the Vermont Yankee case...

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Nuclear consequences can erase any economic, environmental benefit

Japan could end up worse than Chernobyl

The nuclear industry is fond of suggesting that the choice humanity is faced with is polluting coal, on the one hand, or “clean” nuclear power, on the other. This “zero sum game” argument has gotten a lot of traction with the press, but it is a fool's choice. There...

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