Lying to Government Officials Cannot be Rewarded,
VPIRG Urges Regulators Defend Judicial Process by Denying Vermont Yankee Continued Operation
Presidents have been impeached for lying. Lying to the police is a crime. Perjury in court is dealt with severely. And established case law makes clear that applicants in regulatory proceeding who lie can (and should) have their requests denied. The people’s government depends on truthfulness, and cannot operate otherwise.
Our United States Supreme Court stated in a 1994 decision:
“False Testimony in a formal proceedings is intolerable. We must neither reward nor condone such a flagrant affront to the truth-seeking function of the adversary proceedings.”
That’s why VPIRG has filed a formal petition with the Vermont Public Service Board asking that the quasi-judicial body act on its findings that Entergy has repeatedly misled the regulators under oath — and deny the corporation’s application to extend Vermont Yankee’s license for twenty years past its 2012 scheduled retirement.
That petition is attached. Below is a statement by VPIRG’s Clean Energy Program Director James Moore in releasing this petition:
“Vermonters take great pride in our clean government and responsible businesses. Maybe in other states, Entergy’s lying would be accepted. But not here. That’s why our government regulators need to make clear that Entergy trying to get a licensing extension for its nuclear power plant by lying on the application is totally unacceptable, by rejecting the application. Any lesser sanction, like a token fine, would be to the multi-billion dollar Entergy Corporation just another cost of doing business. And the message to other future applicants would be to try lying, because getting caught doesn’t result in any meaningful penalty.”
“So today, VPIRG is filing this petition with the Vermont Public Service Board asking that it defend the sanctity of its regulatory process by calling out Entergy for its repeated lies and deny its application to keep the crumbling Vermont Yankee open for 20 years past its scheduled retirement date.”
“Entergy’s corporate lawyers, just last week, stated that they would refuse paying Vermonters back for their time wasted assessing the fraudulent application for re-licensing.”
“Entergy’s lies caused Vermont regulators to spend considerable time and money on an application that was misleading and concealed critical information, so too did VPIRG waste significant effort researching, analyzing and commenting on Entergy’s fraudulent filing. For that, VPIRG is asking the PSB to direct Entergy to reimburse Vermont taxpayers, Vermont ratepayers, VPIRG and all other parties in the legal proceeding for the time and money spent based on Entergy Vermont Yankee’s lies.”
Clean Energy Program Director
Vermont Public Interest Research Group
802.223.5221 x4077
