Two Vermont Yankee bills advance
MONTPELIER, Vt. --Vermont Yankee's team of lobbyists lost two rounds in separate legislative committee rooms Friday.
By a party-line, 7-4 vote, the House Commerce Committee approved a bill that would require the Vernon reactor's owner, Entergy Nuclear, to guarantee full funding for the plant's eventual dismantling before it goes ahead with a corporate restructuring.
Meanwhile, the House Natural Resources Committee unanimously passed a bill to require a special, independent inspection of the 36-year-old nuclear plant before the Legislature decides whether to allow it to extend its operating license for 20 years past its 2012 expiration date.
The bills are widely seen as among a series of opening salvos this year as lawmakers prepare for next year's debate on the license extension. Vermont is unique among states in that under state law the Legislature has veto power over the license extension. Other states leave such decisions to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The decommissioning bill would require the state panel that regulates utilities, the Public Service Board, to certify that
Rep. Warren Kitzmiller, D-Montpelier and chairman of the Commerce Committee, said in an interview that "in the past, Vermont Yankee was owned by a company with hundreds of billions of dollars of assets. But they want to insulate themselves by passing ownership to a small and highly leveraged company."
Opponents criticized the bill as imposing a new cost on Entergy that could be as much as $400 million. The plant has about $425 million in the fund, down from $439 million last year due to turmoil in the financial markets. Costs of decommissioning are currently estimated to be closer to $800 million.
Critics also maintained that because Entergy's corporate reorganization is currently before the Public Service Board, passing legislation on the topic amounted to undue interference in a quasi-judicial process.
The committee's approval of the bill came after it defeated an amendment that would have merely recommended to the Public Service Board that it consider the adequacy of the decommissioning fund as it reviews the reorganization. That also was defeated on a 7-4 party-line vote, with majority Democrats in opposing the amendment and supporting the underlying bill.
"I very much like my job and I know that my leadership will be disappointed if we amend the bill," Kitzmiller told his committee colleagues.
Entergy lobbyist Gerard Morris later called that an "outrageous" admission of improper influence over a lawmaker.
Kitzmiller said he saw nothing unusual in it. "Gerry's paid to make a stink," he said of Morris.
Kenneth Theobalds, vice president of government affairs at Entergy Nuclear Northeast, said in an interview that the financing involved in the reorganization would make the Vermont Yankee decommissioning fund stronger.
Meanwhile, the House Natural Resources an Energy Committee's bill followed similar Senate action calling for an independent review of Vermont Yankee's plant systems, but appeared to steer that process toward more independence from the NRC.
It would set up a special five-member oversight panel, which would be reported to by a technical team that would do hands-on inspections of eight different plant systems at Vermont Yankee. 