or the better part of a year, Vermont’s only nuclear power plant, owned by the Entergy Corporation of Louisiana, has operated unlawfully, without the necessary “certificate of public good” it needs from the state’s Public Service Board (PSB).
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The basis for the shut down, as presented by NEC attorneys Jared Margolis and Brice Simon, is relatively simple and direct in summary:In June 2002, the PSB issued an order in connection with the sale of Vermont Yankee to the Entergy Corporation (PSB docket 6545). This order is referred to in the pleading as the “Sale Order.”
Condition 7 of the Sale Order gives Vermont Yankee a certificate of public good “to expire on March 21, 2012.”
Condition 8 of the sale order says that Vermont Yankee is “prohibited from operating” after March 21, 2012, without either a new or renewed certificate of public good.
To date, Vermont Yankee does not have either a new or renewed certificate of public good.
Based on these undisputed facts, the NEC argues, Vermont Yankee should be shut down.Seeing this problem coming, Entergy had asked the PSB to amend the Sale Order to provide a certificate of public good that would allow it to keep Vermont Yankee running lawfully after March 21, 2012. On November 29, 2012, the PSB handed down a 30-page decision that denied Entergy’s request to modify the 2002 Sale Order, pointing out that any hardship Entergy was suffering was of its own making.
Five days later, the NEC filed for an injunction to shut Yankee down.
In early 2008, Entergy had also filed for renewal of its certificate of public good (docket 7440), but that request is still pending.
Read more at Unlawful Nuclear Power in Vermont
