The Vermont Senate will vote next week on whether to authorize the continued operation of Vermont Yankee, the 38-year-old nuclear power plant in Vernon, through 2032.
Senate President Peter Shumlin, Sen. John Campbell, Sen. Ginny Lyons and Sen. Ann Cummings announced the decision in a press conference Tuesday.
The bill, which would come out of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, could be put to a vote on the floor of the Senate as soon as Feb. 24.
Listen to a podcast of the press conference.
Under Act 160, the Legislature is required to provide “explicit permission” to continue operation of the nuclear power plant. That consent – or denial — would authorize the Public Service Board to decide whether to issue a certificate of public good for relicensing the plant. The law also allows Entergy, the Louisiana-based owner of Vermont Yankee, the ability to store radioactive waste in dry casks at the facility.
“What the Legislature is required to do is to determine whether it’s in Vermont’s best interest to operate the plant beyond its scheduled closing date of 2012,” Shumlin said. “Everyone understands the Public Service Board cannot make a decision to continue to operate until the Legislature weights in. I’ve just gotten off phone with (PSB) chairman (James) Volz, and it’s the board’s view that they cannot make a final decision about Vermont Yankee unless the Legislature acts.”
Under the circumstances, Shumlin said, it’s not in Vermont’s best interest to run the plant beyond the scheduled closing date of 2012.
He listed off five reasons for going ahead with the decision as soon as possible:
- Entergy Louisiana, he said, can’t be trusted;
- The corporation is offering Vermont utilities a third of the power it provides to the state now at a rate of 6.1 cents per kilowatt hour, 50 percent more than the current rate;
- The shortfall in the cleanup fund has not been addressed – it was $600 million before the tritium leak – Shumlin says;
- The spinoff company that will own the plant, Enexus, will be “a $4.7 billion Wall Street entity that is nothing but debt and six old nuclear power plant assets”;
- The tritium leak, which, he says, “just offers another stark example of why this plant was designed to be discontinued in 2012.”
“It was designed to run 40 years, and the 40 years is up,” Shumlin said.
Campbell called the situation at Vermont Yankee a “debacle.”
“It’s clear there’s a lack of trust with Entergy Louisiana,” Campbell said. “There’s a serious issue with the plant itself. Lawmakers have expressed concern about the workers and their personal safety and their health and the health of their families. While we’re one state, we have sister states that have a keen interest in what’s happening here.”
Gov. Jim Douglas has asked the Legislature to take a “time out,” to delay voting on the relicensure of the plant for as long as a year, until:
- Entergy resolves its investigation into the tritium leak into groundwater on the site at a rate of more than 2 million picocuries per liter (100 times the federally accepted level;
- Entergy makes significant, unspecified changes in its management practices;
- An investigation into misstatements about the underground piping carrying radioactive materials is complete. (Entergy denied the pipes existed until Jan. 7, when the leak was discovered.
The governor says the state and Entergy also need to come to an agreement on a new power purchase rate and decommissioning plans for the plant before the state takes up the Louisiana-based corporation’s relicensing case.
In an interview, Shumlin said, “If you look back on the first three years of my presidency of the Senate, he was urging legislators to vote and get on with it. Now, suddenly, he thinks we should take a time out and not vote.” He added that Act 160 was enacted with a bipartisan voice vote in the Legislature, with Entergy’s support and the governor’s signature.
In remarks to reporters, Shumlin said the Legislature has taken testimony for four years on the impact of Vermont Yankee on the state’s economy and utility rates. Cummings said the Senate Natural Resources Committee, (which she chairs), has been taking testimony on Vermont Yankee since 2003.
“We’ve worked intensively on this issue for the last four years,” Cummings said. “To the best of our knowledge, we’ve heard from everyone.”
Reporters questioned why the vote was put on a fast track, particularly when the governor’s jobs bill had not yet been taken to the floor yet and several crucial reports on Vermont Yankee have not yet been filed.
Lyons said the Legislature has developed an energy plan and put statutes in place that “move our energy planning forward.”
“Our utilities have responded, Green Mountain Power, Central Vermont Public Service and Washington Electric Cooperative, have each responded in identifying additional energy sources that are cost-effective to Vermonters,” Lyons said. “So we’re assured, as we take testimony, that if and when Vermont Yankee leaves our energy future, the lights won’t go out and Vermonters can be assured we have sources for maintaining the reliability that is so critically important to our businesses and our citizens.”
Reporters questioned why the vote was put on a fast track, particularly when the governor’s jobs bill had not yet been taken to the floor yet and several crucial reports on Vermont Yankee have not yet been filed.
Those pending reports include the Joint Fiscal Office consensus forecast on the economic impact of Vermont Yankee, and the new vertical audit, which is scheduled to be complete in April. The audit will provide detailed information about the reliability of the plant and the upgrades necessary for extending operation of the plant an additional 20 years.
Campbell said if lawmakers don’t make a decision now, it will be difficult for the state’s utilities to find replacement power.
“You have to remember we have a 16-week session,” Shumlin said. “We have to have something before the crossover day (March 5) after Town Meeting. We have to exercise our responsibility to vote on this bill.”
Shumlin said that he, Gov. Douglas and House Speaker Shap Smith have asked the auditors to reassess the reliability of the plant now that the state is aware of underground pipes carrying radioactive material, and “in light of the fact that the truth was not told to them the first time they went in.”
Ideally, he said, the Senate would like to have the report in hand, but he said it may not be available until well after the crossover date, or even after the Legislature adjourns.
The Senate has asked nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen to give a report to the Legislature next week on the 80 requirements “that the audit committee needed to meet in order to continue operation in a reliable fashion.”
“Let’s not forget recent history,” Shumlin said. “Green Mountain Power and Central Vermont Public Service, a year and a half ago, were supposed to enter into a purchase power agreement with Entergy Louisiana. It was everybody’s expectation that well over 8 months ago they would have been here promoting a relicensure beyond the scheduled shutdown date and promoting a great deal for Vermonters. We were told we were going to get cheap power and things were going to be beautiful. Instead, we have power companies that say Entergy can’t be trusted and the deal is no good.
The political math is stacked against Yankee at this point.
We have tritium leaking into the Connecticut River at a rate that should be of concern to all living people. We have a proposed spinoff that makes the recent shenanigans on Wall Street look like kindergarten action. And we have very clearly a decommission cleanup fund that is short. So, I would ask you to ask this question: Why wouldn’t we make a judgment in light of all the information that we have?”
Whether or not the 29 other Vermont senators share Shumlin’s views remains to be seen. The political math is stacked against Yankee at this point, however. Democrats have a 23-7 majority in the Senate and have been most critical of decommissioning. Shumlin, meanwhile, is a Democratic candidate for governor, while all seven members of the Senate Finance Committee—which is scheduled to take up the recommissioning bill this week—are also Democrats.
While the Republican governor has consistently favored recommissioning, if the Senate rejects another 20 years of life for Yankee, the bill dies, precluding a gubernatorial veto.
The president pro tem said Tuesday he couldn’t say whether he had the votes for passage of the bill. He said in an interview that he expects resistance from lawmakers.
“They (Entergy) have more lobbyists in Montpelier than I’ve seen hired on any other issue,” Shumlin said. “Let’s just put it this way: if you’re a lobbyist, and you’re not getting a piece of the Entergy action, you’re not a very good business person. I could list the registered lobbyists on one hand who aren’t somehow getting a piece of the action.”
He said if the vote were held today, “it would go down,” but he acknowledged a week in politics is a long time.
“It’s gonna be a heated and important debate,” Shumlin said, “and I think there’ll be plenty of influence from both sides, but I have confidence in the Vermont Senate to make the right judgment.”
