The state of Vermont this weekend decided to continue its effort to shut down Entergy’s Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, appealing a Jan. 19 decision that may allow the plant to continue operations for 20 more years. Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell filed the appeal, on all aspects of the decision, on Feb. 18 with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. “We have strong arguments to make on appeal,” Sorrell said in a statement this weekend. “I have taken seriously my responsibility to make this decision. We consulted with Governor [Peter] Shumlin, other executive branch officials, legislative leadership and others. We took the necessary time to thoroughly consider our options. We look forward to defending our laws in the Second Circuit.”
Though the Jan. 19 court decision favored Entergy in many ways, it did not eliminate the requirement for the company to receive a Certificate of Public Good (CPG) from Vermont’s Public Service Board. Entergy does not plan to appeal in hopes of eliminating that requirement, Entergy spokesman Mike Burns told RW Monitor this week: “We have not filed, nor do we intend to file a notice of appeal.” In his decision last month, District court Judge Garvan Murtha invalidated two Vermont statutes that gave the Legislature final say on the ability of Vermont Yankee to continue operations after its current state license expires on March 21, 2012. The legislature did not approve continued operations, despite the Nuclear Regulatory Commission granting Vermont Yankee a 20-year license extension last year. Murtha’s decision found that Vermont’s legislature decided not to approve continued operations based on safety concerns, in violation of the Atomic Energy Act which makes safety the sole federal jurisdiction of the NRC.
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