When NorthStar's plan to decommission Vermont Yankee receives inaccurate attacks, I feel the need to address the inaccuracies because I care about the local economy.
NorthStar's plan has come under fire twice within the past few weeks: for supposedly not displaying enough financial strength to finish the job [“Environmental Group seeks added financial protections,” Vermont Public Radio, Aug. 31], and for withholding from the general public certain documents that could result in losing hard-won competitive advantages over industry competitors [“Vermont Yankee companies expand request,” VtDigger, Aug. 31].
I have confidence a thorough study and understanding of these issues by the Vermont Public Utilities Commission should promptly lead to a Certificate of Public Good decision in favor of NorthStar. Such a decision will open the Vermont Yankee site to job-producing redevelopment many years sooner than the Entergy safstor plan, at half the cost.
In the meantime, the court of public opinion might benefit from true facts.
I attended the April 6 Vermont Public Service Board hearing on the sale of Vermont Yankee to NorthStar. Everyone agreed on the desire to clean up and decommission the site of Vermont Yankee as quickly as possible. Although the NorthStar plan was addressed in detail by CEO Scott State,
Vermont Yankee's decommissioning plan has received much constructive, timely, thoughtful criticism from interested parties. It has also been on the receiving end of ill-informed, poorly timed ideas that would seem to offer nothing but millions of dollars of added cost and many years of delay. The suggestion to relocate...
I am concerned about Vermont Public Service Department (PSD) Commissioner Chris Recchia's statement that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) plant decommissioning process is “broken” and that Vermont must lead the way to fix it. This position, if pursued, would once more have the state of Vermont challenging and encroaching on the federal preserve in all matters touching nuclear safety. The Public Service Department opposes the NRC's granting Vermont Yankee permission to access the decommissioning trust fund (DCT) to pay...
Now that the battle over Vermont Yankee has moved into the courts, only the terms and the tactics have changed. Vermont Yankee still wants to produce 620 megawatts of low-cost, low-carbon, reliable, jobs-rich electricity. Having successfully stonewalled Vermont Yankee's legitimate effort to gain a state Certificate of Public Good (CPG), the state of Vermont will have to defend its anti-power, anti-jobs action in federal court. Not surprisingly, the state is seeking “more time” in a transparent attempt to force a...