[I]t’s not over yet.
Despite two recent settlement agreements meant to sweeten the proposed sale of Vermont Yankee, state and federal regulators intend to take several more months to decide whether the transaction is a good idea.
The Vermont Public Utility Commission has issued a revised schedule for its review. It includes an April 12 public hearing in Windham County and mid-May evidentiary hearings in Montpelier.
Also, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday said its review — which had been expected to end this month — has been extended because the commission will be seeking more information about the deal.
“A conservative estimate for our decision on the license transfer application would now be by the end of June,” NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said.
Entergy is trying to sell the idled Vernon nuclear plant to New York-based NorthStar Group Services by the end of this year. NorthStar executives say they can clean up most of the site as soon as 2026, which is several decades faster than Entergy has been planning.
State and federal regulators have to sign off on the deal before it can close.
In an effort to win those approvals as soon as possible, NorthStar and Entergy have been working with state officials and other groups that have questioned the feasibility of an accelerated decommissioning plan.
Those talks resulted in a March 2 memorandum of understanding in which the companies committed to new financial obligations, additional reporting requirements and stronger site-restoration standards. Three state agencies and several other parties, including the anti-nuclear New England Coalition, signed that deal.
Separately, NorthStar also struck an agreement with Vernon that covers long-term tax obligations, legal fee reimbursement, road repairs and other items.
But it’s clear the state utility commission is not yet ready to sign off on new ownership for Vermont Yankee. The commission’s latest schedule allows time for additional depositions and written testimony.
In late April, the commission will submit questions to the parties that signed the March 2 memorandum. Responses are due in early May, about a week before several days of evidentiary hearings.
Also, the commission has set April 12 as the tentative date for a public hearing in either Brattleboro or Vernon. Details have not been finalized.
The utility commission’s schedule sets no end date for the state’s review. In a recent joint statement, NorthStar and Entergy executives said they will ask the state to issue a decision by July 31.
The companies initially requested that the NRC’s review be completed by the end of 2017. The federal agency extended that schedule by three months late last year after issuing a series of questions about NorthStar’s request to take control of Vermont Yankee’s license.
Now, the NRC says it needs still more time.
“We are planning to send another set of requests for additional information to Entergy/NorthStar,” Sheehan said. “We are currently determining if the (requests) need to be revised in light of the memorandum of understanding agreed to by the state, NorthStar and Entergy.”
While the prolonged regulatory reviews may cause some headaches for Entergy and NorthStar, they also allow more time for public comment and debate.
Guy Page of Vermont Energy Partnership, which has lobbied hard for approval of the NorthStar deal, said the stakes remain high despite recent settlement agreements. He urged sale advocates to “still turn out and show their support” at the April 12 Public Utility Commission hearing.
“We still have to do our job, which in this case is to educate and continue to rally support for something that is so in the interest of Windham County and the state going forward,” Page said. “So we’re going to continue to do that.”
The same goes for those who oppose the sale. Conservation Law Foundation, which declined to sign the state’s memorandum of understanding, has pledged to “participate in the upcoming hearings at the Vermont Public Utility Commission.”
Deb Katz, executive director of the Massachusetts-based Citizens Awareness Network, said she believes the Public Utility Commission eventually will approve the NorthStar deal.
But the longtime nuclear critic still intends to argue that the commission ought to mandate stronger protections for radioactive spent nuclear fuel stored at the plant site.
“It’s worth people participating – it really is,” Katz said. “The PUC can set conditions (on the sale).”
Katz also said she is not endorsing the recent memorandum. Though Vermont officials “worked really hard on this and did the best they could,” Katz said she’s not convinced that NorthStar’s plan is the right one for Vermont.
“NorthStar is an unknown quantity,” Katz said. “For all of their talk, they haven’t decommissioned a commercial nuclear plant.”
Aside from governmental reviews of the Vermont Yankee sale, there is at least one other venue for public debate: The Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel has scheduled its next meeting for 6 p.m. on March 22 at Brattleboro Union High School.
Advisory Panel Chair Kate O’Connor said she expects Entergy and NorthStar executives to be on hand to discuss the companies’ settlement deal.
