Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station
Montpelier — On Jan. 20 Federal District Judge J. Garvan Murtha ruled that federal law preempts the state from regulating the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant over safety concerns.
Well down in the media reports, it was mentioned that the judge also found that the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution precludes the state from conditioning Vermont Yankee’s continued operation on Entergy offering below market power prices to Vermont’s utilities. What the news accounts did not do was explain how Judge Murtha reached that second conclusion. It’s not a pretty story.
Beginning on page 91 of the court’s 102 page decision, the Judge quoted verbatim a Feb. 9, 2009 letter to Entergy from then-Senate leader Peter Shumlin and House Speaker Shap Smith. The two lawmakers stated that, “It was our expectation that a power purchase agreement would be reached between the negotiating parties no later than December 2008 and in advance of the legislature convening for the 2009 session.”
The Shumlin-Smith letter continued that the Vermont General Assembly intended to consider “the terms of such a contract,” including “its length, the price to be paid for electricity products under the contract, and an analysis of its costs and benefits to our constituents.”
The letter concluded: “Accordingly, if [Entergy is] unable by Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009, to provide the General Assembly with a power purchase agreement between the parties, it will be nearly impossible for the legislature to make a judgment on the continued operation of the plant before we adjourn in May, 2009.”
After that adjournment Shumlin and Smith again wrote to Entergy’s Jay Thayer, stating that “it will be exceedingly difficult for the Vermont General Assembly to act in 2010 on the question of continued operation of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station unless a power purchase agreement between Vermont utilities and Entergy is filed with the Vermont Public Service Board before November 1, 2009.”
Prev Next
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID