Instead of looking at the written law, Judge Murtha opted to buy into a conspiracy theory that a handful of legislators were able to manipulate not one, but two separately elected bodies in the legislature.
Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Deb Katz, executive director of Vermont Citizens Action Network, an anti-nuclear group. http://www.vtcitizen.org/
How can a judge get it so wrong and the will of the people be so right?
On January 19 Judge Murtha issued his controversial decision to support a rogue corporation in its evisceration of state’s rights. When Murtha ruled that Entergy was no longer bound by contracts it signed with the state of Vermont in 2002, and until 2010 repeatedly sought state approval for its actions, it undermined Vermont’s authority. When the judge further ruled that the Vermont legislature could not determine its own energy future, he eviscerated the democratic process.
Act 160 passed unanimously by both houses of the Vermont legislature; Republicans and Democrats alike, and signed into law by Republican Gov. Jim Douglas. This law empowered the legislature to decide whether Vermont Yankee’s continued operation was in the public good not based on safety but on economics, reliability and the environment. Yet Murtha, by accepting Entergy’s cherry-picked record chose to determine what was in the hearts and minds of legislators based on comments of a few. He opted to second-guess 180 legislators rather than accepting the law as written. What is in the hearts of legislators is better left to confessionals and fortune tellers than to a federal court judges.
Catch-ww
Murtha stated that although legislators never mentioned safety in Act 160 that’s what they really meant; they really wanted to wrestle federal control — pre-emption of nuclear power out of the government’s hands. Entergy, with its endless leaks and lies, its systemic mismanagement at VY and its other plants, and duplicity is the poster child for what was wrong in the nuclear industry. Entergy’s failing record demonstrates the abdication by the federal government to actually address safety.
The NRC approved Vermont Yankee’s license for continued operation days before the core meltdowns at the Fukushima reactors, (sister plants to VY) and then reaffirmed days later that VY was “safe” to operate. Although the state had good reason to pre-empt the federal government in its blatant disregard for health and safety, it did not. Act 160 specifically addressed state’s rights and responsibilities upheld in a previous Supreme Court ruling.
It’s curious that the state’s act of defiance would go unrecognized by the federal government; the DOJ chose not to intervene in the case, and in fact NRC’s Chairman Jaczko stated that nothing Vermont was doing violated NRC rules or regulations. Instead of looking at the written law, Judge Murtha opted to buy into a conspiracy theory that a handful of legislators were able to manipulate not one, but two separately elected bodies in the legislature.
So did Murtha do anything right?
Murtha sent the case back to the Vermont Public Service Board, a quasi-judicial entity, to determine whether Entergy is entitled to a Certificate of Public Good to operate in the state after March 2012. Although he put some constraints on the state, he upheld the state’s ability to decide whether it was in the best interests of the state to have a rogue corporation operate and erect a high-level waste dump along the banks of the Connecticut River. The judge also issued a permanent injunction which permits Entergy to continue to operate until the CPG is granted or rejected.
What can citizens do to ensure that democracy prevails?
It is essential that the governor and the attorney general understand how important this issue is to all of us. We are asking Vermonters to contact Shumlin and Attorney General Bill Sorrell, and thank them for the good work they have done on our behalf and urge them to continue to fight this bad decision and this equally bad corporation.
It is essential that the legislators act to hold this slippery corporation accountable for its waste, its thermal pollution of the Connecticut River and it corporate irresponsibility. With Murtha’s ruling ,Entergy has grown bolder in its disregard for the state. Entergy is now refusing the state’s request to continue the testing of contaminated wells to determine the level of contamination. Entergy now is also requesting that instead of inspecting the ancient steam dryers for cracks every 18 months that they be allowed to do so only every 10 years!
We call upon the Vermont legislature to do what Judge Murtha refused to do, which is to hold Entergy accountable to its remaining commitments to rehabilitate the site to greenfield status and cease denigrating our environment.
