Closed-door settlement negotiations regarding the proposed sale of Vermont Yankee are expected to wrap up within a week.
A memorandum of understanding involving state officials, current plant owner Entergy and prospective owner NorthStar Group Services is scheduled to be filed with the Vermont Public Utility Commission by March 2, officials said Friday.
That document could represent a breakthrough in the protracted debate over whether NorthStar should be allowed to buy and decommission the idled Vernon nuclear plant.
But it’s not yet clear how much support the deal will have among those who have criticized NorthStar’s plans. Two of those organizations — Conservation Law Foundation and New England Coalition — told the commission Friday that they are not yet on board.
“We are in hopes that we can reach an agreement,” said James Dumont, the coalition’s attorney. “We’re not there yet.”
The deal, which the two companies want to close by the end of this year, requires approval from both the state utility commission and the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Entergy stopped power production at Vermont Yankee at the end of 2014 and had been planning a prolonged decommissioning project that could extend to 2075.
That schedule could be significantly shortened if the deal with NorthStar goes through. The New York-based demolition and cleanup company says it can have most of the Vernon site decommissioned and restored by 2030 and possibly as soon as 2026.
While there is support for NorthStar’s accelerated decommissioning plan, some have questioned whether the company, which has not undertaken this kind of project before, has the wherewithal and expertise to follow through on its plans.
State officials have been at the forefront of those criticisms. But for the past few months, the state has been in talks with Entergy and NorthStar over how to overcome their differences.
On Wednesday, Vermont’s Public Utility Commission, Agency of Natural Resources and the Office of the Attorney General submitted an update to the commission saying they expect to file a memorandum of understanding by March 2 “that addresses financial assurances and site restoration standards.”
During a Friday status conference before the commission, Public Service Department Special Counsel Steph Hoffman said that agreement has not yet been finalized.
Settlement talks have included other interested parties including the Conservation Law Foundation, New England Coalition, Vernon Planning and Economic Development Commission, Windham Regional Commission and the Elnu Abenaki tribe.
But Hoffman acknowledged that “we still do not know all the signatories or potential signatories to the agreement.”
The forthcoming memorandum of understanding theoretically greases the wheels for the Vermont Yankee sale. But dissension among other parties or from the general public could have a significant impact on how things proceed, since the utility commission still has the final say on whether the sale can go through.
New England Coalition has criticized many aspects of the NorthStar plan, including the company’s proposal to bury significant amounts of rubble at the Vermont Yankee site.
The coalition “has participated in multiple negotiation sessions regarding possible resolution of this proceeding,” Dumont wrote in a Feb. 21 filing with the utility commission. “NEC continues to hope that this proceeding will be resolved by an agreement that is entered into by all parties.”
Conservation Law Foundation has filed testimony detailing “very significant concerns with the structure of the proposed transfer and the availability of money to make sure the job gets done, and gets done well,” Sandra Levine, a senior attorney with the foundation, said Friday. “Those continue to be Conservation Law Foundation’s concerns.”
While there have been “very productive settlement conversations,” Levine said, the foundation has not committed to endorsing the deal.
“Certainly, transfer of contaminated industrial sites is not something new,” she said. “It’s something that the United States has had more than 20 years’ experience with. And CLF is looking to make sure that the same protections that are in place when conventionally contaminated sites are transferred are in place here.”
Sanford Weisburst, a New York attorney representing Entergy, said his client and NorthStar have requested that the PUC rule on the sale by June 30. That would provide six months of lead time for closing the deal, and “that’s what we believe we need,” Weisburst told the commission.
But the two commissioners hearing the Vermont Yankee case declined to endorse any schedule for further deliberations until after the settlement agreement is complete.
Proposed schedules submitted by the state, Entergy and NorthStar allow time for additional written testimony, a public hearing, evidentiary hearings and, possibly, depositions. PUC Commissioner Sarah Hofmann said the schedule also must account for commission inquiries.
Even if there is agreement among all other parties, “we’re still going to need some time in there to ask questions,” Hofmann said.
The NRC’s review is separate from the utility commission’s. While the NRC late last year extended the time frame for its deliberations, a spokesman has said a decision is expected by the end of March.
On Friday, Weisburst noted that the NRC has not yet determined whether state officials and New England Coalition representatives are entitled to a hearing in the federal review.
“I think it’s fair to characterize that process as as sort of in a holding pattern, waiting to hear from NRC in terms of whether there will be a hearing scheduled or not,” Weisburst said.
